Catalonia's Leadership Vows to Hold Independence Referendum in 2017

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont and Vice President Oriol Junqueras made a joint statement on Wednesday in which they promised not to go back on their pledge of holding a referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain later this year.

“There is only one thing which we will not do: refrain from voting this year,” Puigdemont and Junqueras said in an article published in French Le Soir newspaper.

The leaders added that it was not the differences of Spain and Catalonia which attribute to the desired separation, but rather the “absence of agreement to solve them.”

In late September 2016, Puigdemont pledged to look for an agreement on independence from Spain. Shortly afterwards, the Catalan parliament voted in favor of two resolutions: one which called on the regional government to hold an independence referendum in the fall of 2017, and a second which aimed at coordinating the autonomous community's conduct with the central Spanish authorities.

In March, Catalonia approved a draft budget which included an allocation of 5.8 million euros ($6.2 million) toward the preparations for the independence referendum this year. The Spanish government decided to challenge the budget and launched a probe into the actions of the Generalitat, Catalina's government.

On November 9, 2014, about 80 percent of the Catalans who took part in the non-binding referendum on the region's status as part of Spain voted in favor of Catalonia becoming an independent state. Madrid declared the referendum unconstitutional.