Following talks with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Catalonian separatist leader Quim Torra announced that he would be pushing for an agreed date for a Catalonian independence referendum.
During his press conference, he stated that the path to Catalonian independence was “irreversible” despite Prime Minister Sanchez’s rejections of any move towards independence.
The Catalonia independence movement gained strong support since the October 2017 referendum which was not recognised by Spanish courts. Following this election, 9 Catalonian leaders have been imprisoned in October for holding the referendum under charges of sedition. Sanchez has refused to grant asylum for any separatist leader jailed.
The Catalan government was able to secure discussions following their support for the confirmation of Sanchez as Prime Minister last month. This was a demand set out by the left-wing separatists from the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC).
Torra has promised a date for the referendum after Catalan’s budget has been approved by their regional parliament. Torra himself was sentenced to an 18-month ban from public office after he refused to take down symbols of support for the jailed Catalonian separatists which were in government offices. He is appealing this judgement.
Read Reuter’s reporting here.
