CiU’s Duran warns of “unilateral independence” risk in Catalonia

The leader of the Uniò faction of Catalonia’s governing CiU bloc, Josep Antoni Duran Lleida, delivered a stark warning to Mariano Rajoy in Congress Thursday about the government’s inaction over the northern region’s independence drive.

Duran, who is opposed to separation from Spain and has often acted as a mediator between Barcelona and Madrid, said that Rajoy faced “a unilateral declaration of independence that some are going to approve in the Catalan assembly.” The Uniò leader added that the “sense of being attacked” prevalent among Catalonian citizens could lead to “irrationality and from there to conflict.”

UPyD leader Rosa Díez echoed Duran’s comments, charging the government with “irresponsibility, frivolity and cowardice” for failing to act while “the nationalists prepare a democratic coup d’état, without blood but equally violent against constitutional order.”

Rajoy limited himself to responding that the fight against the economic crisis is paramount and that Spain’s laws and Constitution must be respected. “Catalonia is very important for Spain. Catalonia is a thriving and enterprising land,” the prime minister said.

Duran replied that the government has failed to comply with the Constitution and let bilateral agreements, “that you and I agreed upon,” such as grants and “what was recently agreed in the Socialist era, which is the payment of 759 million euros.”

Catalonia this week drafted a 50-page folio of complaints against Madrid’s treatment of the region, among which was the sum of 9.3 billion euros it says the central government owes the region. Rajoy’s administration has thus far refused to answer Catalonia’s grievances other than proposing negotiations over a new financing deal for the region as of next year.

“This requires a political solution,” Duran concluded. “I get the sensation, Mr Prime Minister, that you are one of those people who thinks that time solves everything and in this case it is not so, it is the opposite. The more time that passes, the smaller the space for a solution becomes.”