0
Interview
6 September 2015 2.00 h

This list has one aim: independence

Romeva heads an electoral candidate list that includes leaders of civic bodies and political parties that are part of an attempt to bring sovereignty to Catalonia

'We are here because all the other scenarios have proved impossible'
'I get the feeling that many people, of all stripes, believe that the moment has come'

The Junts pel Sí elec­toral list pro­poses a cross-sec­tion of in­de­pen­dence sup­port, headed by some­one with pro­gres­sive back­ground. When he an­nounced in March that he was leav­ing ICV, Romeva said he had no in­ten­tion of join­ing the list of any other po­lit­i­cal party.

What changed since March for you to ac­cept join­ing a can­di­dacy list?
The con­text changed. Firstly, this is not a party list, it is a joint list made up of ERC, with CDC, MES, Súmate, and so on. Also, this list has a very spe­cific ob­jec­tive. As I said when I left ICV, and still say, I don't see my­self as an MP in an au­tonomous com­mu­nity. What is dif­fer­ent is that this list has an ob­jec­tive, which is to get a spe­cific man­date, so that we can achieve in­de­pen­dence in the short­est time pos­si­ble.
At some point you will have to choose sides.
All of us on this list, once the in­de­pen­dence process has begun with con­stituent elec­tions, will go one way or the other. It is ab­surd to think that I have ac­cepted Mr Mas's line, be­cause it is he who has ac­cepted mine. And Oriol Jun­queras also has his own ideas. This list is strictly a tool.
Are you ready to speak with one voice in the cam­paign? And for the day-to-day run­ning of a coun­try?
Con­sen­sus has to be found to allow that. We are here be­cause all the other sce­nar­ios have proved im­pos­si­ble. The ideal op­tion would have been a ref­er­en­dum, and we did every­thing to make that hap­pen, in­clud­ing 9-N. This is an ex­cep­tional sit­u­a­tion. Then there is this out­go­ing gov­ern­ment, which has to act as a gov­ern­ment of na­tional unity, to rep­re­sent the range of op­tions, and do two very im­por­tant jobs. One is to pro­vide an in­sti­tu­tional frame­work with the state struc­tures we lack. But the day-to-day will have to be man­aged and de­ci­sions will need to be taken. That's why it is im­por­tant for this pe­riod to be as short as pos­si­ble.
When did you de­cide to get in­volved with this?
When I re­alised that the sit­u­a­tion was stuck in a cul-de-sac from which we could not get out. I was con­cerned to see peo­ple tense, un­com­fort­able and frus­trated after all those years of mo­bil­i­sa­tions and try­ing to change things peace­fully and de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally. That is why, with­out look­ing for it, dif­fer­ent peo­ple from dif­fer­ent sides said to them­selves: “Maybe I should give it a go”. And I am also talk­ing about Carme and Muriel as well as my­self.
Did the fact you had co­in­cided with Jun­queras in Brus­sels help?
Cir­cum­stan­tially, yes. The mis­take would be to as­sume that peo­ple who co­in­cide share the same ide­ol­ogy. I am some­one in­volved in a lot of is­sues, such as the man­age­ment of com­mon as­sets, en­ergy man­age­ment and equal­ity of rights in all spheres. And I have no in­ten­tion of giv­ing that up. But not all the de­ci­sions af­fect­ing those is­sues de­pend on Cat­alo­nia, they de­pend on an agent that more­over is in the role of ad­ver­sary. In such a sit­u­a­tion it is to be ex­pected that peo­ple of dif­fer­ent be­liefs come to­gether for a spe­cific aim, in this case in­de­pen­dence.
Are things heat­ing up with the ad­ver­sary, the State?
I am sure of it. So far there has been no offer, no pro­posal, no will­ing­ness to talk, just in­sults and legal pro­ceed­ings.
Are you ready to go to prison?
What a ques­tion!
You are in­fring­ing the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law. The threats are not jokes.
Ok, it is no joke. We are all aware we have a col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­ity to take ad­van­tage of this op­por­tu­nity. When I am on the street I get the feel­ing that many peo­ple, of all stripes, be­lieve that the mo­ment has come. This feel­ing com­forts me. We do not know how the State will re­spond. I do not know what it is ca­pa­ble of. What is clear, is that no one is going to build such a spe­cial thing as this with­out tak­ing on some risk.
Given your ex­pe­ri­ence in Brus­sels, what do you ex­pect from the EU?
That de­pends on if there is a clear ma­jor­ity in favour.
Let's as­sume so.
Eu­rope has two key prin­ci­ples: le­gal­ity and democ­racy. The Span­ish State puts a lot of em­pha­sis on the legal as­pect, ful­fill­ing the law, which for the EU is oblig­a­tory. How­ever, it is also true that laws change ac­cord­ing to the con­text, and that is why the EU puts democ­racy on the same level as the law. If a ma­jor­ity here de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally vote for in­de­pen­dence, the EU will have to as­sim­i­late this sit­u­a­tion. That does not mean sup­port it, but to ac­cept it as fact. After that there are a num­ber of pos­si­ble re­sponses and each mem­ber state has its own view. There is also an im­por­tant prece­dent in Scot­land.
Does the prox­im­ity of the gen­eral elec­tions open up the chance of a change in the gov­ern­ment's at­ti­tude?
It does, but it will de­pend what hap­pens in Cat­alo­nia. If on Sep­tem­ber 27 a ma­jor­ity vote for Cat­alo­nia to be­come a state, a very dif­fer­ent sce­nario could de­velop. What I do not ex­pect is a pro­posal from ei­ther the gov­ern­ment or the op­po­si­tion par­ties. If there is a change, it will only be as a con­se­quence of what hap­pens first in Cat­alo­nia.
Is it pos­si­ble for the 27-S elec­tions to truly be con­sid­ered a plebiscite?
I think so. You can­not see the vote in terms of au­tonomous elec­tions. Legally they will be called as such, but in prac­tice they will not, be­cause a great many peo­ple un­der­stand that this is the only way. And we are not talk­ing about a few peo­ple. Many media out­lets in Madrid are ob­sessed with Mas, Mas, Mas. Yet on 9-N more than two mil­lion peo­ple turned out to vote, de­spite the cir­cum­stances, which can­not be de­scribed as the ob­ses­sion of a sin­gle per­son.
Do you con­sider the Catalunya Sí que es Pot list as an ad­ver­sary?
Not at all. If we are where we are it is be­cause we could not do what we wanted to do, which was vote in a ref­er­en­dum. And there are par­ties that are now part of the Sí que es Pot move­ment that were ex­plic­itly in favour of vot­ing. It is true that until Sep­tem­ber 27 there will be a lot of peo­ple who are not with us, whether re­lated to CUP, ICV or EUiA, be­cause they do not feel com­fort­able. From Sep­tem­ber 28, how­ever, the process that will begin will have to take every­one into ac­count. I would also say to many of those peo­ple that if there is no clear ma­jor­ity in favour, there will be no of­fers pos­si­ble from the State. That is why I do not buy the ar­gu­ment that first we have to see what hap­pens in Madrid. On the con­trary: what hap­pens in Madrid de­pends what hap­pens first in Cat­alo­nia.
Can you see your­self as pres­i­dent?
If the re­sult is in favour there will be a new gov­ern­ment with a man­date, and the pres­i­dent could well be Artur Mas. My role is ir­rel­e­vant and will de­pend to­tally on the man­date that this gov­ern­ment has.
Sign in. Sign in if you are already a verified reader. I want to become verified reader. To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader.
Note: To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader and accept the conditions of use.

Published on

Most Viewed