Beginning of a new era

Carles Puigdemont began 2017 with a conference at Teatre Romea. It will be a year, he said from the stage, that “will not be normal”. “A process is ending and a new era in the history of Catalonia begins,” he said. His speech focused on restating the Catalan government's commitment to a binding referendum and the culmination of a mandate to open “the era of a free Catalonia”.

Puigdemont avoided banalities to situate the current term in office as the one that will take the country towards a Catalonia that is “more free, wealthier and more prosperous for its sons and daughters.” After setting out the determination of the Catalan government, he warned the public that attaining independence will not only depend on its representatives. In other words, it is the public that will have to once again express its “explicit commitment” on the streets to show the world that the process crosses boundaries and that it is not the product of a political think tank. “It depends on all of us,” he insisted, at the start of a year that will see the trials of Artur Mas, Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau in the TSJC high court and Francesc Homs in the Supreme Court for the 9-N vote.

Puigdemont guaranteed a “binding” referendum because whatever the public decides will be implemented by the Catalan government and parliament, and it will be “valid” because it will be the Catalans who, at the ballot box, will ensure it. Without contemplating the possibility that it may not go ahead, the president of the Generalitat sent a dual message to the State and the EU. To the former, he warned he would no accept either the first or the second “no” to holding the vote. To the latter, he urged it to fulfill its “service to peace and democracy.”