Torra won’t run again
President doesn’t specify what he’ll do if political prisoners are sentenced to jail, but doesn’t exclude a unilateral declaration of independence
Yesterday Quim Torra ruled out running for office in the next parliamentary elections. The President of the Generalitat defended his actions, arguing he is working to lead Catalonia towards an effective Republic from the current position of “legal autonomy”, but that if that does not succeed, he will have “run his course”. “If I come to the conclusion that I cannot bring this country to independence, I will resign”, he warned, in an interview on the El Mon program on radio RAC1, yesterday.
Torra tried not to be drawn on the possible unfolding of events, should the imminent cases against the leaders of the pro-independence movement result in custodial sentences. If this were the result, however, he stated that he plans to immediately write to the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, to formally register his disagreement and request a personal appearance in Parliament, where he would “present a proposal”. The president was cagey on details of this proposal - “Let’s be prudent at this point, it will depend on the sentences” - nor would he specify whether it would be a new unilateral declaration of independence or a call for elections. Torra will attend the trial, in the Supreme Court, with his vice-President..
On the meeting today in Barcelona between the Spanish vice president, Carmen Calvo, Aragonès and Elsa Artadi, Torra expects concrete actions from the Spanish side regarding the proposal for a political negotiation for Catalonia, in the presence of a neutral observer. “We have never talked about any of the 21 points that we proposed. Not even de-Francoisation,” he lamented.