THOUSANDS rallied outside a Barcelona court yesterday in support of separatist Catalonian regional President Artur Mas.
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The leader of Spain’s secessionist region could be suspended from office or face up to a year in prison on charges of civil disobedience, prevarication and misuse of public funds.
About 400 pro-independence mayors and independence party leaders joined Mas and his government councillors as he walked to the court in Barcelona at the head of a cheering crowd of about 5,000 people.
He has gone before a court in the city to testify over a referendum on independence from Spain, which went ahead last November despite being ruled illegal. “That is why I have asked the court if behaving like a democrat is the equivalent of acting like a criminal”. “In my judgment, acting like a democrat means listening to the people”.
“This is a political matter, and it should have been resolved politically”.
The Catalan independence movement has raised political tensions in Spain as it recovers from several years of recession and prepares for a general election on December 20. “It seems to me a complete overreaction to criminalize it”, he said to journalists after leaving the courtroom.
Speaking outside the court, the 59-year-old told supporters: ‘I hold myself responsible for all of this.
Mas called the vote for November previous year, following Scotland’s abortive bid to secure statehood.
The September 27 elections saw the pro-independence block, made up of Mas’ coalition “Junts Pel Si” (Together for Yes) and the Left-wing CUP party, win an overall majority of seats, but failed to claim 50 percent of the votes cast.
About 2.3 million of Catalonia’s 7.5 million local residents took part in the poll, and almost 1.9 million of the participants voted in favor of secession from the rest of Spain.
In a press conference in Brussels, Rajoy asserted that the Spanish justice system was independent and reminded Mas that “justice is what guarantees his rights and freedoms and that’s how he should see it”.
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‘Making threats and trying to stop the courts taking the decisions they should is absolutely unacceptable’. Because of that, he has promised to transform Catalonia from one of Spain’s richest regions into a country of its own.
