{"id":195055,"date":"2018-12-23T19:20:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T00:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=195055"},"modified":"2018-12-23T19:20:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T00:20:34","slug":"spanish-pm-consensus-only-way-to-resolve-catalonia-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/23\/spanish-pm-consensus-only-way-to-resolve-catalonia-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish PM: Consensus only way to resolve Catalonia crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia that what \u201cis needed is a wide consensus that right now doesn’t exist in Catalonia.\u201d (File Photo By Ministry of the Presidency, Government of Spain\/Wikimedia <\/a>commons, Attribution<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BARCELONA, Spain \u2014 Spain’s prime minister said in an interview published Sunday that only a solution supported by a large majority of Catalans and legal under the Spanish Constitution will resolve the crisis over whether the Catalonia region should secede or remain part of Spain.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia that what \u201cis needed is a wide consensus that right now doesn’t exist in Catalonia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters in the wealthy northeastern region were evenly split in supporting parties for and against secession when the last regional election was held a year ago. However, the separatist politicians who prevailed in that vote and the previous Catalan election insist on pursuing a break with the rest of Spain.<\/p>\n

While Catalonia’s regional government wants a binding referendum on independence, Sanchez is urging them to work with counterparts who favour unity with Spain on drafting a new charter law for the region, one that significantly more than half of the region’s 7.4 million residents would support. Sanchez has not detailed what he would like a new charter for Catalonia to look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always said that we can find a solution to the Catalan political crisis within the Constitution,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cBut the problem is not independence, it is about harmonious coexistence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many separatists have said a new charter wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the region’s long-song demands for autonomy, saying independence was the only answer.<\/p>\n

Separatist lawmakers tried and failed to break Catalonia away from the rest of the country in October 2017, igniting the worst political crisis in Spain in decades.<\/p>\n

Sanchez, the Socialist leader who inherited the problem from his conservative predecessor when he came to power in June, has made mending relations with Catalonia a priority.<\/p>\n

Sanchez travelled from Madrid to Barcelona on Thursday and met with the regional government’s president, Quim Torra, a fervent separatist. The two leaders issued a statement saying they were committed to maintaining a dialogue that would lead to a \u201cpolitical proposal that has the backing of large part of Catalan society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez acknowledged in the newspaper interview that arriving at a proposal backed by both sides would \u201ctake years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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