Catalonia summons for early elections as a first step towards independence

EFE

The president of Catalonia Artur Mas announced on Wednesday the early elections of September 27, 2015 as a first step towards independence of this Spanish region if the secessionist parties obtain majority.

“I have taken the decision to hold Catalan (…) elections on September 27, 2015,” said in a press conference in Barcelona Artur Mas, after agreeing his plan with the main opposition party.

Mas, head of the conservative nationalist group CiU, and the leader of the independence formation of left and Republican ERC, Oriol Junqueras, agreed this week to anticipate the elections, after having overcome the discrepancies in recent weeks around running for elections in a coalition or in separate lists.

After a nearly five-hour meeting on Wednesday, Mas said he “had redone the unity pact” between his party Convergence and Union and ERC to “bring this political process of national transition to victory.”

The call was branded yesterday by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, of “evidence of failure” of such policies and a distraction to the real problems.