Spanish

By Greg Russell for The National - A LEADING Catalan official has said Catalonia is in a de facto state of emergency and that its battle with Spain’s central government to hold a referendum on independence is a “big problem for Europe”. In an exclusive interview, Sergi Marcen, head of the Catalan Delegation to the UK, told The National the Catalan Government would work “to the last minute” to try to reach agreement with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government to go ahead with the October 1 poll. He said he believed Europe had remained quiet because Rajoy’s Parti Populaire (People’s Party) wielded significant influence and had been pressurising countries to stay out of it. But he added: “It is a European problem because 7.5 million European people – Catalans – cannot vote on their future; the Spanish Government does not have a majority in parliament and are using the laws in a bad way and this kind of behaviour is like the times of the dictator Franco. “So it’s a big problem for Europe, not only Catalonia.” Spain’s actions, he said, were denying Catalan citizens their basic rights. “Spanish Government and the police are going into media offices, lawyers, people’s houses looking for ballots,” he said. “Freedom of expression is banned. Police are seizing Catalan flags, posters or anything related to the referendum. Public events and meetings about it have been banned, so we don’t have the right to speak in public about the right of self-determination in Catalonia.