Rajoy considers as “profound failure” Catalonia sovereigntist consultation

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, considered this Wednesday that the sovereigntist consultation organized in Catalonia on Sunday showed “a profound failure of the independence project” because two out of three Catalans did not vote.

The query “showed the profound failure of the independence project. Two out of three Catalans have not even bothered to participate,” he said in his first reaction to Sunday’s vote.

Rajoy said that the “only legal way” to reach a constitutional reform is referendum, which has already anticipated that its majority party in parliament will oppose.

“It is a fundamental duty (dialogue),” he said, adding that “all the dialogue in which I intervene must be framed within the limits set by the Constitution.”

In this regard, he urged President Artur Mas to propose to Parliament a reform of the constitution of 1978 which has already been shown supporter the main opposition party, the Socialist Party, although he said that the ruling PP would vote against a text that threatened the unity of the country.