With the campaign for the 21st December Catalan election about to start, Catalan politician Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, who led UDC (Democratic Union of Catalonia) for almost 30 years, has reappeared in Madrid's Ritz hotel where he revealed regrets over the decline of his party, allied with Miquel Iceta's PSC (Socialist Party of Catalonia, Catalan branch of PSOE) for the election, and rejection of the political situation after the declaration of independence. He defended the agreement as a way to pull Catalonia out of the "pit" he says it's in. He also supported the application of article 155, but urged the state towards constitutional reform.
"The separation of Catalonia and Spain would be a tumour with metastasis in the European Union", he said about why member states of the EU would have avoided taking a stand after the unilateral declaration. The former leader of UDC was especially tough on this point, stating his belief that, in the 21st century, it wouldn't be possible to have an independent Catalan state without leaving the EU. "I don't know about two, three or four centuries ago, [however] today it doesn't make sense to be independent if the following day nobody recognises you, not even the Parliament of Flanders", he said, at a time when part of the Catalan government is in Belgium.
Duran also attacked the economic effects of the independence process, the day after Barcelona lost on its bid for the new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency. "It's not true that Europe has seen the violence of the 1st October [referendum]", he said about Carles Puigdemont's argument that the Spanish state's repression was the reason for the result. "The lie has done us a lot of damage," he said. As such, he argued that article 155 wasn't an "attack on democracy", but the way to stop the drift that Catalans "have lived first-hand" to call "needed elections".
Duran also refused to play along with the independence movement over the eight ministers in Estremera and Alcalá Meco prisons as, in his opinion, they're not political prisoners "legally" speaking, but "imprisoned politicians", although he said he didn't agree with the legal decision. On a number of occasions he attacked the ideological about face from CDC (Democratic Convergence of Catalonia) to embrace the independence movement. "I hadn't noticed that [then CDC leader] Artur Mas was an independence supporter before, but it's very legitimate for people to change," he said. That said, he showed his disapproval of the breakup of the CDC and UDC coalition as the "detonation of a party of government".
The former politician rejected the idea of returning to front-line politics, but defended the agreement with PSC for 21st December. "I won't be a minister in any government", he said, whilst arguing that the agreement between Ramon Espadaler and PSC's Miquel Iceta is in response to an "emergency", an "exceptional situation". "They are political traditions and families capable of rebuilding Europe after the Second World War, they have common denominators, but I doubt that Iceta will become a Social Christian or Espadaler a socialist".
Duran asked the state for an offer towards constitutional reform "not to placate the independence movement", but for all Spaniards. "We all have an interest in finding a new framework with which to prolong the '78 regime", he said, referring to the political system created after the end of the Franco dictatorship. "The constitutional pact needs revising, constitutions are defended by reforming them," he said. That said, he believes that anything to be voted on need first agreeing between the government and the Congress, and that unilateral responses need to be avoided.