KING Felipe VI's annual Christmas Eve speech once again included a covert appeal to secessionist politicians, as well as raising concerns about young adults' struggle to afford housing and violence against women.
Puigdemont slams 'worst attack on democracy since Franco'
22/10/2017
CATALUNYA president Carles Puigdemont called the triggering of Article 155 'the biggest attack on democracy and freedom since Franco'.
Speaking at 21.00 after heading up – along with Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau – the 500,000-strong protest across Barcelona today, Puigdemont has said his cabinet would continue to go to work until they were 'physically removed' from office.
Puigdemont announced that he would ask his Parliament to call a full meeting to discuss the State's 'attempt to liquidate' the region's self-ruling government.
If the national government Senate – in which the reigning PP holds a majority – agrees to the measures stated as a result of triggering Article 155 of the Constitution, Puigdemont and his deputy, Oriol Junqueras and 12 regional ministers will be dismissed, and key areas of functioning taken over by the State, until after a fresh regional election is held in Catalunya, probably at the end of January.
Puigdemont, addressing the public, did not make any references to a formal and unilateral declaration of independence – which he had told Rajoy in a letter on Monday he would put to vote in Catalunya's Parliament in the event of Article 155 being invoked – but instead called for his regional cabinet to decide what steps should be taken next.
Catalunya's leader said he was 'conscious' of the 'threat hanging over the people of Catalunya' if the State 'perpetrates its liquidation proposal'.
“We're going to have to join forces in order to defend our institutions again as we have always done, in a peaceful and civilised manner, but with a high degree of dignity and reason,” Puigdemont stated.
“I will ask Catalunya's Parliament to set up a full meeting where representatives of citizen sovereignty – those chosen by public vote – will debate and decide upon what actions to take in light of this attempt to liquidate our self-ruling government and our democracy, and we shall act upon these decisions.”
The meeting will be this coming Friday, October 27 – the same day the Senate is due to vote on the measures decided by the national government in stripping Catalunya of its devolved powers.
According to Puigdemont, “the humiliation the Spanish government is trying to cause us by making itself the guardian of all aspects of public life in Catalunya – from its government to its public communications media – is incompatible with democracy and has no place in a State of legality and human rights, because it means being ruled by a form of government not elected by the people and without a Parliamentary majority.”
In Catalunya, the PP only represents 8.2% of the votes and, according to Rajoy's opposition party Podemos' spokesman Pablo Echenique, therefore has no mandate to govern in the region.
Puigdemont effectively called Rajoy a Führer or warlord, accusing him of autocratic leadership and recalling that he spearheaded 'that infamous petition against Catalunya' when the regional Statute was under debate in 2006, five years before Rajoy got into power, and which led to the Constitutional Court blocking some of the text.
“Without standing for any election, with very little support and against the wishes of the majority, the government of Mariano Rajoy wants to name a board of directors to manage life in Catalunya remotely from Madrid...all invitations to dialogue we've issued to the State have been responded to with either silence, or oppression.
“Today, the central government – with the support of the socialists and Ciudadanos – have slammed the door loudly on dialogue and staged the worst attack on the people and institutions of Catalunya since the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco passed a decree which abolished its regional government.”
Concerning the dismissal of Catalunya's government being in response to the region's breaching the Spanish Constitution by holding a referendum on independence, Puigdemont recalled that the region and its government were not, in fact, institutions which were created by the Magna Carta signed in December 1978.
“This is not, therefore, the first time that the institutions of Catalunya have suffered a coup by the Spanish State in order to reduce their powers, change their direction or simply eliminate them altogether, but on each occasion, the people of Catalunya have come out on top much stronger and much more determined to reach even higher levels of self-governing.”
Although Puigdemont's speech was in catalán, he also repeated it in Spanish 'so that Spanish democrats would get the message', and warned them that 'what they are doing in Catalunya' is 'a direct attack on democracy' which 'opens the floodgates to other abuses of power anywhere, not just in Catalunya'.
“Criminalising the dissident, denying reality and building walls of 'legality' outside the windows of the wishes of the people – if all this triumphs, the damage to democracy and, thus, to the people, will be very severe and will bring about a monumental reversal. We must not allow this to happen,” Puigdemont continued.
He went on to repeat his speech in English for the benefit of the people of Europe watching him on their screens or in person in Barcelona, to 'warn' them that 'if the foundational values of Europe are at risk in Catalunya', they would also be in Europe itself.
“Deciding the future of a nation democratically is not a crime,” Catalunya's president concluded.
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CATALUNYA president Carles Puigdemont called the triggering of Article 155 'the biggest attack on democracy and freedom since Franco'.
Speaking at 21.00 after heading up – along with Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau – the 500,000-strong protest across Barcelona today, Puigdemont has said his cabinet would continue to go to work until they were 'physically removed' from office.
Puigdemont announced that he would ask his Parliament to call a full meeting to discuss the State's 'attempt to liquidate' the region's self-ruling government.
If the national government Senate – in which the reigning PP holds a majority – agrees to the measures stated as a result of triggering Article 155 of the Constitution, Puigdemont and his deputy, Oriol Junqueras and 12 regional ministers will be dismissed, and key areas of functioning taken over by the State, until after a fresh regional election is held in Catalunya, probably at the end of January.
Puigdemont, addressing the public, did not make any references to a formal and unilateral declaration of independence – which he had told Rajoy in a letter on Monday he would put to vote in Catalunya's Parliament in the event of Article 155 being invoked – but instead called for his regional cabinet to decide what steps should be taken next.
Catalunya's leader said he was 'conscious' of the 'threat hanging over the people of Catalunya' if the State 'perpetrates its liquidation proposal'.
“We're going to have to join forces in order to defend our institutions again as we have always done, in a peaceful and civilised manner, but with a high degree of dignity and reason,” Puigdemont stated.
“I will ask Catalunya's Parliament to set up a full meeting where representatives of citizen sovereignty – those chosen by public vote – will debate and decide upon what actions to take in light of this attempt to liquidate our self-ruling government and our democracy, and we shall act upon these decisions.”
The meeting will be this coming Friday, October 27 – the same day the Senate is due to vote on the measures decided by the national government in stripping Catalunya of its devolved powers.
According to Puigdemont, “the humiliation the Spanish government is trying to cause us by making itself the guardian of all aspects of public life in Catalunya – from its government to its public communications media – is incompatible with democracy and has no place in a State of legality and human rights, because it means being ruled by a form of government not elected by the people and without a Parliamentary majority.”
In Catalunya, the PP only represents 8.2% of the votes and, according to Rajoy's opposition party Podemos' spokesman Pablo Echenique, therefore has no mandate to govern in the region.
Puigdemont effectively called Rajoy a Führer or warlord, accusing him of autocratic leadership and recalling that he spearheaded 'that infamous petition against Catalunya' when the regional Statute was under debate in 2006, five years before Rajoy got into power, and which led to the Constitutional Court blocking some of the text.
“Without standing for any election, with very little support and against the wishes of the majority, the government of Mariano Rajoy wants to name a board of directors to manage life in Catalunya remotely from Madrid...all invitations to dialogue we've issued to the State have been responded to with either silence, or oppression.
“Today, the central government – with the support of the socialists and Ciudadanos – have slammed the door loudly on dialogue and staged the worst attack on the people and institutions of Catalunya since the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco passed a decree which abolished its regional government.”
Concerning the dismissal of Catalunya's government being in response to the region's breaching the Spanish Constitution by holding a referendum on independence, Puigdemont recalled that the region and its government were not, in fact, institutions which were created by the Magna Carta signed in December 1978.
“This is not, therefore, the first time that the institutions of Catalunya have suffered a coup by the Spanish State in order to reduce their powers, change their direction or simply eliminate them altogether, but on each occasion, the people of Catalunya have come out on top much stronger and much more determined to reach even higher levels of self-governing.”
Although Puigdemont's speech was in catalán, he also repeated it in Spanish 'so that Spanish democrats would get the message', and warned them that 'what they are doing in Catalunya' is 'a direct attack on democracy' which 'opens the floodgates to other abuses of power anywhere, not just in Catalunya'.
“Criminalising the dissident, denying reality and building walls of 'legality' outside the windows of the wishes of the people – if all this triumphs, the damage to democracy and, thus, to the people, will be very severe and will bring about a monumental reversal. We must not allow this to happen,” Puigdemont continued.
He went on to repeat his speech in English for the benefit of the people of Europe watching him on their screens or in person in Barcelona, to 'warn' them that 'if the foundational values of Europe are at risk in Catalunya', they would also be in Europe itself.
“Deciding the future of a nation democratically is not a crime,” Catalunya's president concluded.
Related Topics
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