Sputnik: Is it possible that a parallel government could be put into place in the region of Catalonia?
Alfonso Valero: No, it's nonsense. Puigdemont had himself projected and accepted that he had no opportunity to be appointed president of the government. Then they agreed that he would be the second person on the list, who would be one of the originally incarcerated politicians. Now, if someone else is coming up and saying Puigdemont is going to govern in exile, it's absolute nonsense. i just think they are trying to get more media attention.
How possible is it? Well, it is absolutely impossible. The reason being, that the independentist parties themselves are not accepting the proposals of the other parties. The party of Puigdemont is proposing that it can only be one of the members of their own party, ERC are saying that it is important to move on. They agreed to appoint Mr. Roger as the president for the parliament, as part of the ERC. On the other hand, you have the CUP, of whom one of the leaders has run away- avoiding the courts of Spain, now living in Geneva with a complete makeover.
Sputnik: What is the future of the Catalan government? Could Jordi Sanchez be appointed as president?
Alfonso Valero: No. Jordi Sanchez cannot be appointed as president of the government of Catalonia. The important thing is that- the Separatists know this, they know this very well. What is likely to happen in the future of the government of Catalonia? The one thing that we should know is that the criminal processes open against former leader Jordi Pujol and his family, as well as some of the other criminal cases being brought and investigated in the courts, about the corruption scandals, the payment of the 3% commissions to get public works and so forth. The last thing the Separatist parties want at this moment in time is for things to calm down, and for citizens to worry about something else other than this process. They will be delaying it as much as they can, focusing on this appointment of a new president, planning streets rallies, and delaying it for as long as possible. The best thing that they will be waiting for the opening of the trial of the Jordi's and the politicians, in order to get more attention and international media fame, focusing on that controversy. In the meantime, they will just be gaining time, in order to avoid doing anything. Even some of the hardcore separatist parties are now saying 'Stop this nonsense or we are not going to get anything'.
Sputnik: You mentioned the 'corruption scandals'- what are you referring to when you say this?
Alfonso Valero: Well, that is what they called the rule of the 3%. The 3% was money that would have to be paid to the government, specifically to the government in the region of Catalonia. Four of five companies are wanted for breaches of public procurement of services. That was sort of untapped, and leaked upon the change of government between Jordi Pujol and Joan Maragall. That was the first time that the 3% came about. Since then, there has been not a lot of investigation but years after, upon discovering all of this illegal financing from the party of Jordi Pujol, and the direct benefit to the family of Jordi Pujol, there's been a number of cases going on with inquiries made to Andorra following the money to Panama and all the jurisdictions of what money was being taken out by Pujols' family. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, there were many different cases, all of these processes are now in these long investigations. I think that is the problem with the Spanish judicial system, it's not that it is political; it’s that it's very long, and it's taking a long time to investigate these cases of corruption.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.
