The comments from Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on Tuesday stopped short of the full and unilateral declaration of independence that had been expected since part of his region overwhelmingly voted to break away from Spain earlier this month in a highly controversial independence referendum. Instead, Puigdemont said he was willing to meet with the central government in Madrid “to start dialogue,” and “to arrive at an agreed solution to advance with the demands of the people of Catalonia." [...]
Puigdemont clearly thought he’d found a way to bridge the increasingly fervent insistence on the part of Catalan separatists to break with Spain and Madrid’s desire to hold on to its wealthiest region. He announced that the results of the contested independence referendum held on October 1 gave Catalonia “the right to be an independent state.” But then he offered to suspend those results for several weeks to engage in talks with the Spanish central government. [...]
It was both something of an olive branch and potential political suicide. Nearly 90 percent of the 2.3 million Catalans who cast ballots were pro-independence. But the vote was held under highly unorthodox conditions. The Spanish Constitutional Court ruled the referendum illegal and the central government sent in the Spanish national guard to stop the vote. Police forcibly dragged would-be voters from the polls and shot rubber bullets into crowds, leading to more than 800 injuries. Some 5.3 million eligible voters boycotted the vote.
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