On Wednesday, November 12, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy urged the government of Catalonia to seek constitutional reforms to resolve their political problems with Madrid, but ruled out the possibility of negotiations about the referendum on the independence of Catalonia, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors of Spain prepared a lawsuit against the head of Catalonia Artur Mas on charges of insubordination and dishonesty after he decided to hold an informal poll on the independence of Catalonia on Sunday, November 9.
"If what he (Mas) wants is to change the constitution to better fit into it…he has all the right to do so. He should have started from there," Rajoy told a news conference.
The head of the government said that he would oppose any reform that touched on national sovereignty, and ruled out the possibility of negotiations on a referendum on independence. "He (Artur Mas) will get the same answer as always. What was illegal a year ago, continues to be illegal today," said Rajoy.
"What happened in Catalonia was an act of political propaganda. It (poll) was conducted without compliance with the resolutions of the COP. Where independence supporters wanted to demonstrate their strength, they showed their weakness. It was an illegal action, which also demonstrated weakness of the organizers. The dialogue is possible when at least the minimum legitimacy is observed," he said.
"I strongly believe in dialogue to solve political problems. But any dialogue should take place within the limits of the constitution," Rajoy concluded.
On Sunday, November 9, Catalonia voted for independence in an informal poll. 2.2 million people out of 5.4 million Catalans participated in the voting.