Summary (via Bloomberg): It sounds like Catalan President Puigdemont is trying to catch Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at his own game. Rajoy has always said he won’t talk as long as the Catalan government is acting outside the Spanish Constitution’s framework. Puigdemont is basically saying -- fine let’s do that -- but if doesn’t go our way we’ll resume with our plans.
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Following a brief intro, thanking supporters, proclaiming this a 'Spain' issue, and outlining the referdmum's success, Puigdemont turned more angry, slamming the "humiliation, aggression, and Catalanophobia" of Madrid, suggesting that Spaniards are victims of propaganda, and proclaiming that "many Catalans believe that the only way to guarantee survival is for Catalonia to become a State."
"We're not crazy, delinquents or doing a coup," Puigdemont says.
Then he paused...saying Catalonia has won the right to independence.
"I assume my mandate to convert Catalonia in an independent State."
And then ads that he calls for weeks of dialog, suspending the independence referendum result.
As Bloomberg notes, Puigdemont has just laid a deal on the table for Madrid. He's proposing suspending the illegal process that the central government has complained so much about while they talk.
Is Madrid going to consider this blackmail or is Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy going to take into account that Catalan Puigdemont has backed off from declaring independence?
All eyes on Rajoy, but also on the streets of Catalonia. There may be some disappointment among supporters of independence. Remember crowds from both sides were gathering earlier.
Markets are reacting positively with Spain ETF higher...
EURCHF is on the rise...
Alberto Gallo summed it all up perfectly...
#Catalonia: Puigdemont asks for dialogue and suspends independence talks.
Back to business as usual pic.twitter.com/NsTsgFWpgI— Alberto Gallo (@macrocredit) October 10, 2017
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Live Feed (due to start at 1pm ET):
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Update (12:00pm ET): La Vanguardia reports that a last-minute meeting delayed the beginning of the plenary session in which Puidemont could declare independence by one hour.
- CUP Group Says Catalan Republic Must Be Proclaimed Today
As The Spain Report reports, there are three rumours being "reported" for sudden Puigdemont delay:
1. CUP isn't buying text - Perhaps of most concern is that the pro-independence group known as CUP rejects text of speech Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was set to give, news website Independiente reports.
2. International mediation - Govt Spokesman Says International Mediators Contacted Catalans, but remember what Deputy Prime Minister Saenz de Santamaria said earlier: no mediation between "the law and disobedience, democracy and tyranny."
3. PP petition - two opposition parties are asking for the whole session to be suspended, Europa Press says
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The moment of truth (perhaps) is here for Catalonia. The region’s president, Carles Puigdemont, faces immediate arrest if he goes too far down the path of independence, is due to address the Catalan parliament at 6 p.m. (12pmET) in Barcelona on the outcome of an Oct. 1 referendum ruled illegal by the Constitutional Court
The stage is set...
Catalan Parliament tweets photo: "Everything ready in the chamber for appearance by Catalan First Minister".pic.twitter.com/gtdbCu9eOZ
— The Spain Report (@thespainreport) October 10, 2017
European Council president Donald Tusk has urged Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont not to “announce a decision that would make dialogue impossible” in an impassioned speech at the European Committee of the Regions, calling for dialogue with the Spanish government. Tusk said he was speaking “as an ethnic minority” and “as a man who knows what it feels like what it is to be hit by a police baton.”
I appeal to @KRLS not to announce a decision that would make dialogue impossible. Let's always look for what unites us. United in diversity.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) October 10, 2017
As we noted earlier, the size and reach of the Spanish state's response to any declaration of independence is unknown: the options range from criminal charges of sedition or rebellion, through the suspension of home rule in Catalonia for an unspecified period of time and even to articles of the Spanish Constitution that allow for the declaration of a state of alarm or exception.
Given the policing shortcomings of the past 10 days, any move to arrest Mr. Puigdemont and members of his regional government would be fraught with potential difficulties.
The Catalan Police, the Mossos, have closed parliament park, the Parc de la Ciutadella, in central Barcelona, erected metal barriers around the parliament building and parked several dozen police vans outside.
The Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Omnium Cultural and local separatist groups are busy organising untold thousands of supporters to travel to the park and the area outside the High Court, in the adjacent road.
Pro-independence tractors have once again arrived in Barcelona...
As we noted yesterday, Catalonia has declared independence once before. On 6 October 1934, the president of the Generalitat, Lluís Companys, proclaimed a Catalan state, but it did not end well. The move was quickly crushed by the government. Companys was arrested, tried and sentenced to 30 years in prison for rebellion, the autonomous government was suspended and virtually all its members were jailed.
Released after the Popular Front’s victory in Spain’s 1936 elections, he went into exile in France during the Spanish Civil War but was eventually handed over by the Nazis to the Franco regime, tried before a war council and executed in 15 October 1940. A spokesman for Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP) this week invoked Companys’ memory Pablo Casada warned ominously (and not very diplomatically):
We hope they don’t declare anything tomorrow, because anyone doing so might end up like him 83 years ago, in prison.
Local risk markets are starting to worry with Spanish stocks slumping (closed now) ahead of tonight's announcement...
And, courtesy of Bloomberg, here is a flowchart laying out the various possible events in Spain over the next 24 hours.
As The Guardian's Jon Henly details, one of the options the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, could consider is the so-called “Slovenian option” – essentially, a symbolic declaration of independence with the effect delayed by several months, allowing time for international mediation aimed at convincing Madrid to negotiate a later, legally guaranteed referendum.
The term derives from the Brioni Agreement, signed on 7 July 1991 by the representatives of Slovenia, Croatia and Yugoslavia with the mediation of what was then the European Community. Aimed at creating an environment for further talks on Yugoslavia’s future, it put a stop to hostilities between Yugoslavia and Slovenia and ultimately ended Belgrade’s influence over Ljublana.
Under the agreement, Slovenia – which had declared independence two weeks previously – agreed to suspend all practical steps towards self-rule for three months, while Yugoslavia pulled its troops out. The deal also fixed rules for border and customs controls on Slovenia’s borders and resolved air traffic control problems.
International lawyers have said a similar approach by Catalonia could have political if not legal advantages, effectively buying the regional government time and allowing it not to disappoint two million voters while recognising that independence is not immediately feasible in the current circumstances.
“So you say, ’We’re not giving up, we’re continuing forward, but we’re appealing to the international community to act as a mediator and convince the Spanish state to agree to a referendum with legal guarantees,’” Joan Vintró, lawyer and lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Barcelona, told The Local.
“It’s a way of not renouncing your objective while creating waiting time, within the margin of which you can negotiate on different fronts to either make independence effective from a certain time, or to submit to a legally guaranteed referendum,” Vintro said.
“This is going to be a historical day regardless of the consequences,” Alejandro Quiroga, professor of Spanish history at the University of Newcastle, England, said by phone.
“The tension has reached such a point that something has to happen and if the Catalan government wants to declare independence, now is the best time, while it’s still got international attention.”
Natixis just dropped the following flowchart to explain their view of the possibility of political crisis in Europe...
I want a pro-indepence tractor. All the tractors in my neck of the woods are anti-indepence and owned by Monsanto.
You stole my thunder!
I WANT ONE OF THOSE
+1
I'm waiting for the real 'nuclear' option.
I wonder if he will pull a Tsipras move. For those that don't remember Tsipras (Pres, Prime Minister or whatever they have in Greece) caved and sold out Greece to the Banksters.
The Republic of Texas watches with envy.
He’s fucking going for it.
Yes, he is.
They all are.
Godspeed independence for Catalonia.
Will he make it out of there alive?
“Secession is a deeply American principle. This country was born through secession. Some felt it was treasonous to secede from England, but those ‘traitors’ became our country’s greatest patriots. There is nothing treasonous or unpatriotic about wanting a federal government that is more responsive to the people it represents.” - Ron Paul
Suspended independence?
Coitus interruptus.
It is unlikely they will be free until they take up arms.
Oppressive Central governments serve themselves and the elites.
Time for humanity to rid itself of them. https://goo.gl/tiZwod
The US today would act like Spain if any state tried to secede. There's NO freedom. Only fascist oppressive central governments.
please come here and help them. You can be their Lafayette.
And you can be their THOMAS HUTCHINSON.
yep
He’s just muddied the whole affair by suspending.
It won’t happen now. He choked.
He will be dead before Christmas
Catalonia is Free.
They are free? From what? Government? They still have a government. Wait a few months until they hate 'that' government , too.
Its human nature.
There is no solution...the popualtions are too large to break up into small tribes.
Nope, he pussied out. Calling for *talks* means you've lost already.
PS -- I knew he'd pussy out when the court said it was illegal and Rajoy said he'd be arrested.
Going to jail or being shot kind of takes the fun out of being a rebel.
Nope, you have been owned LMAO
Nobody suspends the Catalonian Independence!
Our two chief weapons are diplomacy, referendum, and procrastination.
Three! Three chief weapons...diplomacy, referendum, procrastination, and dialogue.
Four!
[Diabolical laughter]
You stole my thunder!
I WANT ONE OF THOSE ~ Sweet!
+1
Don't tread on me, Madrid bitchez!
Hey, nice (tire) treads you got there, amigo.
:-)
2. International mediation - Govt Spokesman Says International Mediators Contacted Catalans, but remember what Deputy Prime Minister Saenz de Santamaria said earlier: no mediation between "the law and disobedience, democracy and tyranny."
Bottom line is who has the biggest guns. Why doesn't the Catalonian military arrest de Santamaria. When governments grow, liberty is lost.
Fear is the foundation of most government. Edmund Burke
In 2010 the ICJ made an Advisory Opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence stating that it was 'not' contrary to international law. The ICJ also gave their opinion on territorial integrity.
Spain uses the same flawed territorial integrity doctrine on Catalonia that she uses to deny that the people of Gibraltar have the right to self-determination. To take a look at this legal doctrine and what the ICJ said in respect of Kosovo's declaration,
Gibraltar – Territorial Integrity (1 page)
https://www.academia.edu/29347730/Gibraltar_-Territorial_Integrity
What about if the Falklands declares independence, prior to an alliance with Argentina !!!
That isn't going to happen. But in the bizzoro world where it does, I suspect the UK says good bye and good luck.
Actually, according the ICJ ruling, anybody living on that rock can declare independence from Gibaltrar.
Just like the Civil War South in the USA. NO one will be allowed to secede in any country in the EU.
$20 he goes FULL TSIPTRAS.
(First! )
nope, I am first. Look below at the time line.
or you can refer to my posts from two weeks ago LMAO
Partido Popular made the independentism rose from 15% to 60% in Catalonia now we are headed to the disaster
Sure, it was PP.
Not Pujol gang and their decade of child indoctrination and bullying any opposittion out of public service...
You are lost. Now,watch your pathetic excuses to delay the final ridicule one hour more.
You are new here. Welcome. Meet your advosaries, Overflow and Don Diego. Please all, invite your friends in and enlightene and entertain us.
Greek PM Tsipras set the gold standard for cowardice in the face of the fury of TPTB ... take the higher road.
When driving a tractor -- You are independent!
I know there are a few people from Spain on this site. I think we all would like to hear your take.
I happen to know well about all this so...what's your question?
They are called Overflow and Don Diego, among others, and I think they'd rather today than tomorrow would like to send the army and guardia civil in to put an end to it all.
I am not..but I bet the average Juan on the street does not give a crap....but the politicians do..as it is their big money maker.....
we are staring at this suicidal game with a mix of panic and dismay.
people going crazy, pushing the ordinary people into a civil war and / or a complete bankruptcy of Spain and Catalonia.
irresponsible separatists are like a drunken driver. you may dialog and discuss all things later, but first you must stop this suicidal behaviour that can ruin all of us.
Check last two weeks of our records, Don Diengo and me tried hard to give you a on site view, but ZH and ZHers blidly bought the msm narrative.
And kept on it even when msm realized everything was staged and the morons they were defending.
ZH is the new YoungTurks. New I only come here to troll SJW's
Commies get self determination too, don't forget that.
Our take?
Declararemos nuestra independencia ... mañana. Si, mañana. Vamos a cenar.
DO IT ! DECLARE INDEPENDENCE! I DARE YOU.
Won't happen, the can will be kicked.
Euro Pump and Dump?
If all we got out of this was the the Catalans hanging Donald Tusk for being a big enough faggot to preach diversity is strength, then it would still be a victory.
Boycott the NFL and Hollywood.
YOU are part of world history right now.
Puigdemont could the first domino in a long line of dominoes, death to the EU.