The president of the Catalan Generalitat government warns that “the hour is dire” and that in the face of the rise of the right and the far right in Spain we need “unity, generosity and resolve”

“The hour is dire and Catalonia must be defended. The Spanish right-wing and far right government that will ensue from the snap elections represents a frontal attack upon the basic pillars and existing consensus in the country.” President Pere Aragonès appeared in the Gothic Gallery of the Generalitat building on Tuesday to make this warning and to call on those who defend Catalonia’s sovereignty for “unity, generosity and resolve” in supporting “a democratic front to defend Catalonia, our rights and freedoms.”

Mr Aragonès called for the defence of Catalonia’s education system, its language and culture, its civic and political rights, equality for all, the country’s economy, Catalan institutions and “the right to freely choose our future.” “We need to open a new political cycle ahead of a Spanish right-wing and far right government: a stronger government in Catalonia to defend Catalonia,” he said.

Mr Aragonès pointed out that the “message of abstention” conveyed in the municipal elections calls for a response: “We must reach an understanding.”

Firstly, the president defended, “sovereignty and independence” must be “understood” by town councils. Secondly, he called for the pro-independence parliamentary majority to agree on a new speaker and “to agree on the of stability and governance mechanisms for the country” which must be “new and solid.”

Before the call for Spanish snap elections on 23rd July, he pointed out that “it is up to the parties to find the formulas” to articulate a democratic front, and he called them to do so on the basis of three premises: “unity”, to “defend Catalonia and the basic elements we share as a nation”; generosity, “because in this defence there must be as many involved as possible and everyone must feel comfortable”; and resolve, “for the times to come, more difficult and complex, which will demand the best of us.”