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Rajoy's promises not to be trusted

Catalan Government argues for introduction of breach clause to guarantee investment promised by Spanish PM

“We do not see any credibility in it at all.” This was how the Catalan Government reacted to Mariano Rajoy's promise to invest €4.2 billion in infrastructures in Catalonia yesterday. The Catalan executive believes that the Spanish PM is “disoriented” if he thinks that with announcements like the one he made yesterday he is meeting Catalonia's demands - which are actually focused on holding a referendum - especially after previous failures by the PP and PSOE governments to make infrastructure investments.

After an atypical weekly meeting of the Executive Council, with Oriol Junqueras as acting president since Carles Puigdemont is on an official trip to the United States, Neus Munté called for the promise to be guaranteed by introducing a clause of non-compliance. This would differentiate Rajoy's initiative from the repeated breaches of commitments suffered by Catalonia in the past. At least, that was the argument put forward by Puigdemont from Washington. “They go from promise to promise until in the end they fail to comply”, the Catalan President said.

The Catalan Government argues that breaches of commitments to Catalonia have so far not cost Rajoy anything. They are therefore demanding that the millions he is willing to invest by 2020 be allocated now so that the Catalan Government can monitor progress of the investment. Aside from infrastructure, however, the only announcement that will satisfy Catalans, according to the Government, is acceptance of the referendum. “What people want is to simply be able to vote”, said Puigdemont.

For the Catalan executive, Rajoy's performance in Parliament was merely a way of covering up for the fact that Operation dialogue never existed.

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