MARIANO Rajoy, whose conservative government sent thousands of riot police to Catalonia to try to stop the October 2017 independence referendum, has told a court “there was no referendum”.
The remarks from the former Spanish prime minister, who was unceremoniously dumped last year in a no-confidence motion by Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE), came in his evidence yesterday at the trial of 12 independence leaders at Spain’s Supreme Court in Madrid.
Rajoy said his government would not have talks about or authorise an independence referendum.
“I said that there would be no referendum and in fact there was no referendum … What was called was not a referendum … October 1 was an illegal convocation,” he said, adding that Catalan leaders knew his position: “They were fully aware that I was not going to authorise a referendum to liquidate the sovereignty of Spain.”
Rajoy went on to defend his decision to deploy National Police and Civil Guard officers to Catalonia, where they used riot batons and rubber bullets against people trying to cast their vote.
That was an “exceptional situation”, he said,
claiming that police were defending themselves and the constitution.
In answer to questions from lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde, representing former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and former foreign minister Raül Romeva, he addressed the violence in Catalonia with an attempt to distance himself from the deployment: “I have never made a decision about a police operation. This is the thing for those who set up the operations.
“If people had not been summoned to an illegal referendum, we should not have seen the injuries of some people or the agents of the bodies and security forces of the state.”
Around 1000 civilians were injured during the police operation, some seriously. The 12 accused face charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds and Rajoy said a year ago that no public resources had paid for the referendum, which he said did not happen.
Yesterday, he said: “We eliminated the budget for the referendum from the [Catalan] budget.”
Following the referendum and a declaration of Catalan independence, Rajoy took the unprecedented measure of imposing direct rule on the wealthy north-eastern region under Article 155 of the Spanish constitution.
Shortly after that he called a regional election hoping the independence drive would lose steam, but that backfired and returned a pro-independence majority to the Catalan Parliament.
This was only the second time a former prime minister has testified in Spain’s highest court. Rajoy was already Spain’s first sitting prime minister to give evidence in summer 2017 over a long-running corruption scandal that tainted his People’s Party and ultimately ended his political career.
The trial continues.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel