Barcelona, Spain
The summons to appear before the court this week came after the Spanish king on Tuesday night charged that the Barcelona separatists were acting “outside the law and outside democracy.”
With each passing day, national authorities and the pro-independence forces in Catalonia appear to be moving inexorably toward a dramatic confrontation.
On Wednesday night, Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan regional president and a leading secessionist, made a televised address defending the decision to stage a vote deemed illegal and unconstitutional by the courts.
Puigdemont said Catalonia was united and “the people were doing what other peoples have done before them” — to chart their own destiny.
Yet in his short address, Puigdemont did not use the word “independence,” nor did he say what would happen next.
Instead, the Catalan leader used the words “compromise,” “mediation,” “coexistence,” “peace” and “dialogue.”
“We are a country that can achieve our dreams,” he said, without specifics.
In an interview on Tuesday, Puigdemont repeated earlier promises that his government would submit results of the referendum to the Catalan parliament and call for a sovereign republic.
“We’re going to declare independence 48 hours after all the official results are counted,” Puigdemont told the BBC.
The Catalan leader said all the votes from abroad would arrive and probably be counted by the end of the week.