The head of Spain's Catalonia's region has said a vote on independence will go ahead on 9 November but added that it would not be "the final say".
Artur Mas had originally called a referendum but it ran into opposition from the Madrid government and was suspended by the Constitutional Court.
Mr Mas said a non-binding poll would be held under a different legal framework.
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy had earlier welcomed reports that the referendum was being called off.
Economic and cultural grievances have fuelled Catalan nationalism.
The wealthy region of 7.5 million people contributes more to the Spanish economy than it gets back through central government funds.
Like other Spanish regions, it enjoys a degree of autonomy but campaigners accuse Madrid of recently seeking to undermine Catalan in favour of Spanish as the main language of instruction in schools.
'Catalan jurisdiction'Hours earlier, on Monday evening, the Catalan regional government reportedly announced to a meeting of pro-referendum parties that the vote was off.
But on a morning of high drama at government house in Barcelona, Mr Mas went before reporters to say a vote would be held.
"The vote on 9 November can be considered the preparatory vote before the definitive one," he explained.
It would be a normal vote, he explained.
"There will be ballots and ballot boxes," he said. "We can't apply the decree [to hold a referendum] but it will be possible to vote."
The referendum's original two questions"Do you want Catalonia to be a state?
"If so, do you want Catalonia to be an independent state?"
Source: Catalonia Votes website
Some 20,000 volunteers and Catalan municipal buildings would be used, so Spanish government support would not be required, he said. Everyone in Catalonia over the age of 16 would be welcome to vote, he added.
"The Catalan government has jurisdiction over consulting popular opinion," Mr Mas insisted.
Barb for RajoyThe Catalan leader had strong words for Spain and Prime Minister Rajoy, who has refused to countenance a Scottish-style referendum in Catalonia.
"The real adversary is the Spanish state, which has done everything to stop us voting," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Rajoy had welcomed the apparent scrapping of the referendum and called for "dialogue".
"The fact that the referendum is not taking place is excellent news," he said at an event in Madrid.
Mr Mas said in response: "Sometimes such news lasts just a few hours."
Asked what would happen if Madrid tried to block the vote in its new form, he said: "That depends on us and we won't make it so easy for the Spanish state this time to block it."
Spanish social media reflected the increasingly bitter divisions over Catalonia's future.
MasGameOver was a top trending topic on Spanish Twitter on Tuesday morning, with pro-Spanish bloggers sharing a photo of Mr Rajoy smiling.
Meanwhile, pro-Catalonia bloggers flagged up the remark by Mr Mas about Spain being the "real adversary", with the words "Estado Espanol" ("Spanish state") also trending.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Catalans water down secession vote
Dengan url
http://worldartikelku.blogspot.com/2014/10/catalans-water-down-secession-vote.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Catalans water down secession vote
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Catalans water down secession vote
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar