The National Catalan Assembly (ANC) calls on the Catalan government to prepare themselves for the unilateral implementation of the Catalan Republic on the day that the possible prison sentences against Catalan political prisoners are announced by the Spanish Supreme Court (it’s expected to be in June).
In order for independence to be successful, the ANC believes that the government, parliament, institutions and mobilized citizens must be aligned. At this moment, it will be when they commit to revalidate the unilateral declaration of independence in parliament and request international recognition.
El Periodico newspaper had access to a document approved by the ANC last Saturday with 45 votes in favor, 6 against and 9 blank ballots. The document set the measures that should be taken by the Catalan government together with pro-independence organizations as a response to the likely conviction of Catalan leaders for rebellion. This includes the revalidation of the declaration of independence, the publication of decrees on the development of the legal transitory law, the release of the jailed leaders, the take over of the Catalan territory, organizing the return of the exiled leaders, and the removal of the Spanish Flag from the Palau de la Generalitat, the headquarters of the Catalan government.
This document was disclosed following last weekend’s ANC ultimatum “calling on the Catalan Government to adopt, before 21 December 2018, a single, clearly defined government strategy to establish the Catalan Republic and to share the strategy and coordinate tactics with all political groups and stakeholders committed to the effective establishment of the Republic declared on 27 October 2017.
If, after 21 December, the Catalan Government persists with the current disconcerting lack of clarity on the strategic criteria for the future and continues to employ language steeped in formality and completely fails to respond to the central government action perpetuating the current system of autonomous government and legitimizing repression by the Spanish State, the ANC will no longer accompany the Catalan Government but will adopt a critical stance that demands compliance with the Government’s mandate, including mobilizations to this end.
We call on anyone in the Catalan Government who lacks the courage to pursue a clearly defined process leading to the effective proclamation of the Catalan Republic to step aside and make room for others prepared to take more determined action and accept the risks inherent in disobedience.”
Three scenarios have been considered by the members of the ANC: a joint referendum with the State after a direct bilateral negotiation, dismissed as “naive” and “impossible”; a referendum agreed to by an international body, labeled as “very unlikely”, and the unilateral route, the means they consider “most likely” and the “only” that allows them to be “more proactive.”
Josep Goded 