Thursday, February 14, 2019

Interview: The president in difficulty. Alsina to Torra: "If defending self-determination were a crime, you would be prosecuted by now"

Víctor Santos


The president of the Generalitat has made his first interview after the beginning of the trial of the leaders of the procés in the Supreme Court

Víctor Santos

Carlos Alsina has interviewed this morning in 'Más de uno' of Onda Cero to Quim Torra after the start of the trial on Tuesday to the leaders of the procés in the Supreme Court. The journalist has been very able to build a gap between them and has left the President out of play on more than one occasion with replies to his answers.

The talk has had several moments in which the journalist has put the politician in a bind. Torra has maintained that Jordi Cuixart, like the rest of the politicians in prison, are imprisoned for defending an idea: "No, you defend the same idea and you are not prosecuted", the presenter answered. "If defending self-determination were a crime, you would be prosecuted by now. Are you prosecuted?", the presenter asked; the politician had no other choice but to respond with a "no".

But the thing has not rested there, as both have also become entangled because of the percentage of pro-independence people in Catalonia: "There are 80% of Catalans who want to peacefully resolve the exercise of the right to self-determination", the President has stated bluntly. And Alsina has asked: "Is that 80% obtained from a source like the Ara newspaper survey?" "And from many other surveys," added Torra.

"What was the question asked to the respondents in the survey of the newspaper Ara on which you rely to say that 80% of Catalans are in favor of self-determination? Because in the question might be the trap", the journalist insisted. "In the survey the question was to do with an agreed referendum, as in Scotland", replied the interviewee.

It was in that very moment when the presenter clarified that Scotland is "a nation". "And Catalonia is not?" the President has defended himself. "You know it is not. In the statute of Catalonia it is not defined as a nation. How many times does the word "sovereignty" appear in the statute of Catalonia?" Alsina has been interested in knowing. "Well, if you go to the legal texts this conversation will have difficulties", said Quim Torra, and this has tried the patience of Carlos Alsina: "Are you asking me not to look at the legal texts and to focus instead on the survey of a pro-independence newspaper".

Quim Torra: "Democracy goes before the law"

In the course of the talk, Quim Torra has repeatedly called for "the voice of Catalonia" to be heard in order to hold a referendum. "Promote a reform of the constitution," Alsina answered; and when the President has stated that he does not have the majority to promote the change, the journalist has been forceful in his response: "Search for that majority." Torra, meanwhile, has come to ensure that "democracy goes first, before the law".

"You want to resolve the conflict in such a way that Spanish society accepts what you are demanding, this is the only solution that you propose". "But does this not seem normal to you?" Torra asked Alsina, to which he has answered bluntly: "How will it seem normal to me that you are devoting all your political action to snatching from the Spaniards the possibility of deciding about the Spanish nation? Do you think that Spaniards have no right to decide where Spain starts and ends?"




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