The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, stressed this morning that his and the Catalan Government’s commitment to resolving the political conflict in Catalonia is through “a Scottish-style referendum” voted on “by the citizens of Catalonia”. This avenue is included in the report of the Academic Council for the Clarity Agreement, delivered today to the Catalan Government, which, Aragonès stressed, is shown in the document to be “not only possible, but also viable, legal and a possible shared solution to Catalonia’s political conflict with the State”.

“It is the clearest, most conclusive and most open way of knowing the position and decision of the citizens of Catalonia”, added the President, who insisted that the report also shows a referendum “is not a strange solution, but a habitual solution in conflicts over sovereignty”.

Following this path, the citizens of Catalonia could vote “yes or no on independence”, from which point the path that necessarily leads to implementing the result would begin. “The desire is that it should be agreed on and that all parties should be involved in establishing rules of the game” and also in deciding “which paths to take” once the citizens’ decision at the ballot box is known.

Next steps

After receiving the report, the President announced that the next step will be to commission a report from the Institute of Self-Government Studies to “specify the legal instruments” to make the referendum possible. And, at the same time, once the negotiations for the investiture of the presidency of the Spanish Government are over, Aragonès will convene a round table of Catalan parties where he will present the conclusions of the report with the aim of “strengthening the existing consensus in Catalonia”. “There is a broad, cross-sectional majority of citizens in Catalonia who want to decide the political future of Catalonia and there is a State that opposes it. Therefore, the nature of the conflict must be addressed, and we must do so beyond dialogue and negotiation between the governments of Catalonia and the State”, he added.

During his media appearance, the President also wished to thank the work of the Council, its “inclusive outlook” and the fact that it has reached an “academic consensus”, taking into account the different backgrounds and positions of its members with regard to independence. “They have been able to agree on a path, principles and criteria, and what has been done at the academic level should also be done in the country and with the Spanish State,” he said.

The Academic Council for the Clarity Agreement delivered its report to the President this morning at a meeting held at the Palau de la Generalitat building. The Catalan Government then discussed its content in an extraordinary meeting.

The Academic Council is made up of Mar Aguilera Vaqués, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Barcelona; Eva Anduiza Perea, full professor of Political Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Marco Aparicio Wilhelmi, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Girona; Astrid Barrio López, professor of Political Science at the University of Valencia; Pau Bossacoma Busquets, professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Faculty of Law and Political Science; Elisenda Casañas Adam, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Edinburgh; Lesley-Ann Daniels, research fellow at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI); Josep Lluís Martí Màrmol, professor of Philosophy of Law and Politics at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and the chairperson, Marc Sanjaume-Calvet, lecturer in Political Theory at the UPF.