Mas alludes to slavery in context of Catalan sovereignty

Catalan premier Artur Mas took the tone of the sovereignty debate up a notch on Wednesday, when he compared his independence drive with the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of women.

"If the laws were just laws and had no spirit, women would not vote and slaves would continue to be slaves," said Mas, of the nationalist coalition CiU, in reply to accusations by the Popular Party (PP) that a unilateral referendum on independence would be illegal.

The conservative PP and the non-nationalist regional party Ciutadans have been the most critical voices against a hypothetical referendum that CiU and other nationalists want to hold next year.

Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, leader of the Catalan branch of the PP, told Mas to take his proposal for a referendum to the Spanish Congress for approval, and accept the results of that vote, which in all likelihood would yield a "no," since the Socialists have also positioned themselves against outright independence.

Instead, Socialist leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba is seeking a middle-of-the-road solution involving more devolved powers to the regions through a federal state structure. This would require changing the Constitution, something he has been asking of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy repeatedly.

"I reiterate the Socialists' will to engage in dialogue, reach consensus and update our norms of coexistence," he told Rajoy in Congress on Wednesday. "It is not easy, but we have to do it if we want to retake the road we began together 35 years ago, which was not an easy one but which led us down a path of progress and freedom."