Catalonia’s President Aragonés reiterates his intent to convene and implement a National Accord for Amnesty and Self-Determination

Esquerra Republicana defends that amnesty and self-determination is the consensus held by an immense majority of the Catalan people and that all democrats must forge an alliance to make both possible. Esquerra group leader Josep-Maria Jové said during the first parliamentary question time of the new government that “forging a general agreement on amnesty and self-determination is an inescapable democratic necessity.”

Mr Jové defended the breadth of the consensus with the idea that “three out of four Catalans are in favour of a referendum on self-determination to resolve the political conflict between Catalonia and the Spanish State. Three out of four. Since 2017” he emphasized. It is thus part of a broad national consensus, which also includes the public services and the repudiation of the monarchy, also with the support of three out of four citizens.

In fact, the consensus for the referendum is “so broad, so robust and so firm,” said Mr Jové, “that it is even widespread among those not in favour of independence: 53% of those who would vote ‘no’ to independence advocate holding a referendum; more than half of the voters of the unionist PSC socialist party agree to holding it” said the MP, with figures in hand.

Thus, “defending the right to self-determination is to convey a common understanding from the people to the institutions; and not doing so is to weaken those institutions, because broad consensus coalesces a democratic system, and to govern against it is to reject society itself,” he warned.

That is why it is so important, a duty in fact, to build a grand accord upon the democratic consensus on self-determination and amnesty. “An insurmountable alliance that must prevail since it pertains to everyone, to the vast majority of the country,” insisted Mr Jové.

The National Accord for Amnesty and Self-Determination

In this regard, the President of the Catalan Generalitat government Pere Aragonès reiterated one of the commitments he made at his investiture: “My intent is to convene and implement a National Accord for Amnesty and Self-Determination; I will meet the parties that have shown their will to press ahead with it, I want to involve the social organizations that defend the Catalan people’s sovereignty, and anyone who wishes to unite in reaching a political solution to the conflict based on two pillars: putting an end to the general cause against independence and making the referendum the crux of the solution.”

President Aragonès expressed his conviction that it is possible to unite “a great many people” in this agreement: “A referendum is a democratic mechanism commensurate with advanced societies, and allows each to defend their position, both those for ‘yes’ to independence and those for ‘no’, and to let Catalonia decide,” he concluded.