The president announces parliamentary elections for Catalonia to secure a government "with much greater strength and without having to depend on the inflexible"

The President of Catalonia’s Generalitat government, Pere Aragonès, has called the people to the ballot on 12 May to provide the citizens with a Government "with much greater strength and without having to depend on the inflexible," after centre-right Junts and leftist Comuns rejected the most expansive budgets in the Catalan parliament’s history. Faced with this blockade, Mr Aragonès assured the people that on 12-M "they will choose between those who defend an outdated model and those who defend a Catalonia that looks to the future".

Mr Aragonès contrasted the government's responsible position with that of the opposition, who decided to spurn €2.4 billion. "In the face of the irresponsible political groups that have rejected the budget, the country needs responsibility," said Mr Aragonès. That is why, he added, "I assume responsibility before the blockage."

In this regard, Pere Aragonès vindicated the government’s and Esquerra’s political project, as well as the transformations that his executive has been advancing in recent years.

"Today in Catalonia, there are two ways of understanding the country: on the one hand, a conformist point of view, anchored in the past and comfortable with dependence on the Spanish state; and on the other hand, a purely republican and ambitious outlook, with an unequivocal horizon of freely deciding the future of our people," said the president. Mr Aragonès insisted in this way on the dichotomy that the 12 May elections entail. "Today, in our country, there are two projects, one that expands citizens rights against another that means to consolidate old privileges," said Mr Aragonès.