MOSCOW, September 22 (RIA Novosti) - Catalonia's leader Artur Mas urged Spain's government "not to use the Constitution to silence Catalonia's people" after the region approved a law to allow for its own, albeit nonbinding, referendum on independence, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"Is it good to use [the Constitution] so that a people that wants to speak can't do it?" Mas said Sunday in response to the central government's filing a lawsuit to block the referendum in Spain's Constitutional Court, the WSJ reported.
"I'm the 129th president of the Government of Catalonia, an institution that existed before the Constitution," he emphasized, adding that the Catalan government had a long institutional history that merited consideration, along with the Constitution.
A day after a majority of Scots voted against secession from the United Kingdom, the Catalan parliament approved a law allowing the referendum on independence. Mas is expected to sign a decree formally convoking the referendum for November 9 after the law is published in the coming days.
The Spanish government has made a request to the Constitutional Court to issue an injunction to halt the vote. If the court agrees to hear the case, Catalonia would not be allowed to proceed with the vote until a final decision is made.
Catalan separatists accuse the central government of draining the region of tax revenues and constraining its linguistic and cultural autonomy. The central government, however, claims Catalonia benefits from the union with Spain and has a wide autonomy. Separatist tendencies in Catalonia were fueled during the lead up to the independence referendum in Scotland.
