BARCELONA,
Spain — The Catalan leader, Artur Mas, says Catalonia remains on track
for its scheduled Nov. 9 vote on whether to break from Spain,
but he suggested in an interview on Tuesday that he would not push the
country to a constitutional crisis by holding the vote if it were deemed
illegal.
The
remarks provided the first glimmer of willingness by Mr. Mas, a late
but staunch convert to secessionism, to ensure that Catalonia would not
be responsible for provoking a crisis in Spain. Catalonia, Spain’s
economic powerhouse, is trying to go ahead with a secession vote that
the central government in Madrid has vowed to block.
Mr.
Mas nevertheless indicated that if he could not hold a legal vote on
separation, he would pursue a longer-term strategy to achieve an
independent Catalonia by calling for new elections for the regional
Parliament “as a plebiscite.”
Mr. Mas, who signed a decree
last month approving the Nov. 9 vote, insisted in the interview that
his position had been made untenable by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s
refusal to discuss the vote, even after a failed referendum on
Scotland’s independence last month.
He
said that his government had initially hoped to follow Scotland’s
example and persuade the government of Mr. Rajoy to allow a vote on
independence. Mr. Rajoy’s government has steadfastly refused, and, if
anything, it has been emboldened by the failure of the Scottish vote.
Mr.
Mas said that he would hold a vote without Mr. Rajoy’s approval, but
not illegally, though he complained that the Spanish judiciary was
biased against Catalonia’s interests.
“The
only plan is to vote on Nov. 9, and we will consider all the possible
ways that take us within the law toward that point,” he said.
Spain’s
Constitutional Court recently ordered the suspension of the Catalan
campaign pending a final ruling on its legality. Mr. Mas is hoping for
an early ruling, but the court could take as long as five months to
decide.
For
now, Mr. Mas said his Convergence Party had agreed with other
pro-secession parties to try “another way” in the coming days to
circumvent legal and political opposition from Madrid, though he would
not say what Catalonia would do.
After
that, he said, “we have a third instrument, which we don’t want to use
today, which is elections as a plebiscite” on independence, which would
most likely leave the regional Parliament with a more hard-line majority
of secessionist lawmakers.
Mr. Mas has previously said that “there is no Plan B” to the scheduled Nov. 9 vote on separation.
Calling
a Catalan parliamentary election is only a last alternative, he said in
the interview, kept “in a drawer that is closed at the moment, but not
empty.” He added, “This drawer can only be opened if there is a
consensus among the political formations that are pro-independence — and
at this moment there isn’t.”
Mr.
Mas said he did not envisage resigning even if Catalans could not vote
on schedule. But a failure to hold the vote would be a major setback for
Mr. Mas.
The
Catalan leader has fanned expectations for independence among Catalans
since a falling-out with Spanish leadership two years ago, after Mr.
Rajoy rejected a Catalan request to reduce its fiscal contribution to a
Spanish system that redistributes tax revenue from rich to poor regions.
That
fiscal dispute coincided with hundreds of thousands filling downtown
Barcelona to push for independence on Catalonia’s national day.
Catalonia has 7.5 million people, or 16 percent of Spain’s population,
and it is Spain’s most powerful economic region, accounting for 19
percent of the national output.
Catalonia’s
bitterness over Spanish leadership remains. Mr. Mas said Catalans were
entitled to feel without even “a minimum of confidence that the
institutions of the state act fairly” toward the region.
“I’ve
evolved just like the majority of the Catalan society,” Mr. Mas said
Tuesday. "I don’t believe anymore in the Spanish state of the 19th and
20th century because that is as a state in which we tried to do
everything possible to fit in well and we didn’t manage.”
Rather
than dialogue, Mr. Rajoy created a climate of “institutional hostility,
which isn’t normal in a Spanish democracy that should already be
mature,” Mr. Mas argued.
Mr.
Rajoy has accused Mr. Mas of pushing Catalonia into a corner by raising
false expectations among its citizens and signing a decree to hold an
independence vote that Mr. Mas knew would violate Spain’s Constitution.
Mr.
Mas, however, said it was his duty to fight for Catalan citizens who
wanted to vote on their future, even if the result of such a vote was
uncertain. “The one who fights can win or lose, but the one who doesn’t
fight has already lost,” he said.
In
a separate interview on Tuesday, Carme Forcadell, the president of the
Catalan National Assembly, a citizens’ platform that has organized the
most recent pro-independence demonstrations, predicted Catalans would
not turn to violence or civil disobedience if no vote took place on Nov.
9, “as long as people can see that it’s really because of the Spanish
state rather than our politicians giving up.”
She
added, “We’re a very mature people, which has gone through a lot of
suffering and knows the only way forward is democratically and
peacefully.”
A version of this article appears in print on October 9, 2014, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Catalonia’s Leader Plays Down Talk of Secession Crisis.
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