Catalan leader puts declaration of independence on hold to allow time for talks

Carles Puigdemont, the president of Catalonia, on Tuesday evening put his signature to a document that declared the region’s independence from Spain, but then said the move would not be implemented for several weeks.

The text, proclaiming the constitution of a “Catalan republic as an independent and sovereign state”, was signed by 72 members of Catalonia’s parliament but appeared to have little legal credibility.

The move, a significant but largely symbolic act to try to pressure the Spanish government to negotiate over Catalan independence, came shortly after a speech by Mr Puigdemont in which he had seemingly stopped short of the unilateral declaration of independence feared by Madrid and the European Union after a referendum vote marred by police violence.

In his address, which did not lead to a vote in the chamber, Mr Puigdemont said he would suspend the formal declaration to allow for talks with Madrid, disappointing the more hardline supporters of independence.

His closely scrutinised speech followed the illegal referendum held on October 1. Spain’s constitutional court had judged that the vote broke Spanish law. The plebiscite saw ballot boxes hidden from the authorities and rubber bullets fired at Catalans by police.

“We have won the right to be an independent country,” Mr Puigdemont, who faces possible arrest for going ahead with the referendum, said.

“As the president of Catalonia I want to follow the people’s will for Catalonia to become an independent state,” he said to applause in the regional parliament. “I ask for the mandate to make Catalonia an independent republic.”

Mr Puigdemont immediately asked the Catalan parliament for the implementation of independence to be “suspended for a few weeks to open a period of dialogue”.

"Neither Mr Puigdemont nor anybody else can [...] impose mediation. Any dialogue between democrats has to take place within the law," 

Spain’s deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria, replied on behalf of the government.

She said that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy would hold a special meeting of his cabinet this morning to decide on the response to Mr Puigdemont’s declarations.

The Catalan leader was under pressure to back down after the EU strongly supported Spain and Mr Rajoy.

Mr Puigdemont’s pleas for the EU to mediate between Barcelona and Madrid have so far fallen on deaf ears, with Brussels insisting the referendum was illegal and that it was an internal matter for Spain. The European Commission is likely to comment today.

EU leaders had urged Mr Puigdemont not to unilaterally declare ­independence. Earlier on Tuesday, Donald Tusk, the European Council President, addressed him directly in a speech in Brussels: “The force of arguments is always better than the argument of force.

“Today I ask you to respect – in your intentions – the constitutional order and not to announce a decision that would make such a dialogue ­impossible.”

Right up to the start of his speech, which was delayed by an hour as the various pro-independence parties negotiated behind closed doors, Mr Puigdemont received requests not to go ahead with the declaration.

Representatives of Spain’s main national parties pleaded with the Catalan president to avoid deepening Spain’s biggest political crisis since democracy was restored after the death of General Franco in 1975.

Threats by banks and local businesses to pull out of the region, as well as pro-unity demonstrations in Barcelona, may have helped convince Mr Puigdemont to step back from the brink.

“Catalonia is a European issue,” Mr Puigdemont said, adding that the EU should defend its democratic values after seeing how Spanish security forces had behaved.

“This was the first time in Europe that an election took place with the police beating people as they tried to cast their vote.”

In the days after the referendum, in which Catalan authorities claim that 90 per cent of a 43 per cent turnout voted in favour of independence, Mr Rajoy has rejected any suggestion of negotiation or mediation, while Mr Puigdemont refused to back down from the plan to declare independence.

Mr Puigdemont’s announcement sparked scenes of celebration outside the regional parliament in the streets of Barcelona, where thousands had gathered to watch on a giant screen.

Xavier Turo, a 45-year-old electrician, travelled to Barcelona from the village of Sentmenat with his wife to watch what he hoped would prove to be a historic day.

“We are nervous, but happy. We have been waiting a long time for this. Our government is risking their necks for us,” Mr Turo said.

But not all Catalans in favour of independence are convinced that the current impasse will lead to a better future.

Xavier, who works as a secondary school teacher in Oxfordshire and preferred not to give his full name, said he was worried that he would return home to Catalonia to find a “continued state of occupation of state forces”.

Although the 35-year-old is in favour of independence, he said he was critical of the fact that “there has been no debate about the future country. We cannot start building it like this”.