The Catalan president, Quim Torra, has warned the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, that if he wants to count on the support of the pro-independence parties in the Congress, he'll have to set out a "proposal for detailed dialogue over Catalonia" before this November. "President Sánchez's leeway is over," he said.
The demand for a response from the prime minister to the Catalan crisis was one of the central points of the first part of Torra's speech today starting the first day of the general policy debate in the Parliament. The head of the Catalan executive announced that he's sent a letter to Sánchez today asking for a meeting.
The president demanded "brave commitments" and said there's been "enough threats and vagueness". "We've been very patient with the three parties behind article 155 [intervention in Catalonia last year], but patience isn't infinite", he said, before laying out what he described as a new proposal for "settling matters and dialogue".
If no such proposal comes before November, according to Torra, "the independence movement will not be able to guarantee Pedro Sánchez any kind of stability in the Congress". More specifically, he said the solution is not a new Statute of Autonomy, as some had suggested, and that his government will "never" renounce the mandate of last year's referendum on independence, although they would be prepared to negotiate a binding referendum.
Self-criticism
The first general policy debate in the Catalan Parliament with Quim Torra as president has started the day after the first anniversary of the referendum. A day which saw images of tension within the independence movement, especially at the doors of the Parliament building itself.
Torra called for serious self-criticism over yesterday's events and warned that "this isn't the path to independence". "The 1st October [referendum] was carried out in the open because exercising self-determination we have nothing to hide," he said.
However, neither did he avoid his own share of the responsibility for the situation and called for more political intelligence, responsibility and self-criticism from everyone. "And us first, whenever necessary," he said.
On that point, he announced that the interior minister, Miquel Buch, will appear in the chamber at his own request to explain the actions by Catalan police on Saturday. Some of yesterday's protests saw calls for his resignation on the matter.