Podemos: Catalan independence vote would be ¡°legitimate mobilization¡±
Leader Pablo Iglesias says unilateral plebiscite planned for September could not be binding
The leader of Spain¡¯s third political force, anti-austerity party Podemos, says he supports the Catalan regional government¡¯s intention to unilaterally hold an independence vote later this year, describing it as ¡°legitimate,¡± adding the proviso that the poll would not be binding.
Speaking on Friday at the end of a week during which EL PA?S published details from a secret document prepared by the Catalan regional government outlining its plans to trigger independence if its plans to hold a plebiscite on sovereignty in late September for the northeastern region are blocked by the government, Podemos¡¯s leader, Pablo Iglesias told reporters he supported a ¡°legal¡± referendum, one backed by Spain¡¯s political parties and that would be recognized internationally, but that he was not opposed to the Catalan regional government, the Generalitat, holding its announced referendum.
Iglesias also issued a warning to the Socialist (PSOE) leader Pedro S¨¢nchez that any deal to unseat the ruling Popular Party (PP) would have to include the right of Catalonia to hold an independence referendum.
Podemos supports a ¡°pluri-national¡± Spain with different solutions for regions with strong nationalist identities
Unlike the Socialists, who back Spain¡¯s Constitutional Court ruling that as things stand any referendum in Catalonia is illegal, Podemos is taking a halfway approach: the planned plebiscite would not be binding, and instead a way of ¡°mobilizing¡± the Catalan electorate.
¡°Political mobilization is always legitimate,¡± said Iglesias, adding that he supported calls for the Catalan regional premier, Carles Puigdemont, to appear before the Spanish Congress to debate Catalonia¡¯s place within Spain.
Podemos¡¯s rank and file is currently debating the party¡¯s position on a referendum in Catalonia and will vote on June 9 for one of three options: to reject any such vote outright, which would leave it on the margins; recognize a referendum as ¡°mobilization¡± of the Catalan electorate, the position favored by Podemos¡¯s leadership; or to see the vote as binding, in line with the Catalan regional government.
Iglesias warned that the PP was prepared to use force to prevent a unilateral referendum: ¡°They are capable of anything and this wouldn¡¯t be the first time.¡± Podemos¡¯s leader supports a legal referendum asking Catalans about their legal status with the rest of Spain, ¡°with every option on the table,¡± including whether Catalonia should be an independent state. That said, the party¡¯s leadership prefers the inclusion in any referendum on sovereignty to include the option of ¡°a different constitutional position that recognizes Catalonia as a nation.¡± Podemos says it supports a ¡°pluri-national¡± model for Spain with different solutions for Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia, regions with the strongest nationalist identity.
English version by Nick Lyne.
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