The CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy) will not accept a single step back. After this Thursday's events, the left-wing party wanted to give a warning, before the start of this evening's debate in the Catalan Parliament, that it will not support anything other than a proclamation of the Catalan Republic. "We will not support a negotiation in offices, a fake closure of the wound", said Núria Gibert, spokesperson for the National Secretariat. "It's not useful to go back to square one".
The party says it has been "disconcerted" by developments this Thursday, admitting that it has "more doubts than certainties". Nonetheless, Gibert insisted that "we have a mandate" from the 1st October referendum: the declaration of independence, which they believe should take place in the Parliament today. "It's the explicit mandate we have. We will not stop until the proclamation of the Republic," she said.
According to Gibert, the current model of autonomy is a phase that has been "passed". As such, she warned that, neither today, nor tomorrow, Friday, will they back "negotiations aiming to save the status quo". She closed with the rhetorical question: "CUP will be there. Will everyone follow us?"
CUP also called for demonstrations this Thursday in the main squares of all towns and cities around Catalonia.