“Catalonia will not be forced to leave”

Generalitat Vice President and economy minister, Oriol Junqueras, arrived yesterday at the XXXIII Meeting of the Cercle d’Economia in Sitges with the clear intention of showing business people that the independence process and the celebration of a referendum pose no danger to the economic stability of Catalonia, nor to its membership of the EU.

Junqueras aimed to reassure his audience of the impossibility of an independent Catalonia being forced out of the Union: “There is no legal mechanism providing expulsion unless a member requests it,” and this, he added, is a situation that will never happen: “we are Europeans, and I will repeat it as often as necessary, we have no intention of leaving, it is impossible.”

Junqueres produced a barrage of economic data to show that Catalonia is on track and that the political context is not impeding economic recovery, going as far to claim that the government will probably upgrade the GDP growth forecast for 2017. He also said that finally the Catalan GDP has moved and will probably reach €233 billion by year’s end and also reminded listeners of the continued increase in foreign investment in the country. In terms of reducing deficits, Catalonia is responsible for 85% of the deficit reduction in Spain’s administration between 2015 and 2016. Brandishing the responsibility of the Catalan administration, he repeated president Carles Puigdemont’s desire to take complete responsibility for economic development, a message which had a cool reception on Thursday.

Once more, Junqueras regretted that Catalonia’s wish to establish dialogue with the Spanish government had not received a positive response on either political or economic levels.