Thousands gather in support of President Mas as he testifies before the court for his role in referendum


A crowd of supporters and four-hundred mayors from cities and towns across Catalonia gathered today in front of the Superior Court of Catalonia in Barcelona in support of president Artur Mas, who appeared before the court to answer questions from the judge, the prosecution, and the private plaintiffs. Together with the acting minister of education, Irene Rigau, and the former vice president of the Catalan government, Joana Ortega, Mas faces charges stemming from a complaint filed by the attorney general and the Spanish-nationalist groups UPyD and Manos Limpias, for his role in organizing the independence referendum on 9 November last. Mas told the judge that he is solely responsible for the participatory process: ‘I am the main responsible party for having devised and promoted the independence referendum, and I’m not hiding that fact. I cannot understand why this means I must testify before a judge’.

Mas said that the popular consultation was a ‘milestone achievement’ of the legislative period and that it was the Constitutional Court’s prohibition to hold a referendum which precipitated the participatory process, as an alternative with fewer democratic guarantees, and, later, a parliamentary election that was viewed as a plebiscite on independence from Spain. ‘If I must answer for giving a voice to the people and bringing out the ballot boxes, I should appear and be held accountable before parliament, not before a court’, Mas added.

The Catalan president testified for an hour and a half, then left the courthouse. Thousands of people, government officials and hundreds of mayors were waiting for him outside the courthouse; they sang Els Segadors (the Catalan national anthem) and shouted slogans calling for independence, while the mayors raised their traditional sceptres.

Watch Artur Mas arriving and leaving the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia: