"There are dark clouds and we don't want there to be a storm". Calls from the Catalan independence movement for dialogue to agree a referendum on self-determination have been intensifying in recent days, and were the focus of a press conference in Brussels this lunchtime by presidents Quim Torra and Carles Puigdemont. The two presidents were appearing after the start of the meeting of Junts per Catalunya's parliamentary group taking place in the Belgian capital through Friday.
The president in exile, Puigdemont, opened the press conference with the call Torra had made just hours earlier in his speech at the National Theatre of Catalonia. "Everyone's" wish is, in Puigdemont's words, to see what openings might present themselves: "Everything is on the table. The responsibility is shared".
Dialogue, however, requires a change in the state's attitude, they say. They have to abandon abandon the "culture of article 155", the article of the Spanish Constitution used last year to fire Catalonia's government and suspend its autonomy. "No one will bring us the flag of dialogue, but we have to go there with a certain willingness to reach agreements. If the first thing they do is warn 'we could apply article 155 to you', it's not the best way to start this sensible and peaceful dialogue," said Torra.
The president called for Sánchez's government to explain its proposal. As for his government, he said that its "basic starting point is the referendum on 1st October last year, the countrywide standstill and the declaration of independence. "We're taking a risk. We're saying that we're willing to talk about a binding and recognised referendum on self-determination," he said.
Torra went as far as explicitly joking about Sánchez's suggestion of a referendum on self-government: "As Puigdemont says, we have an agreement, we agree the referendum is on self-... But [we don't agree] on what comes next, because 80% of Catalan society agrees on a referendum on self-determination".
Both presidents wanted to take the opportunity to call for "huge" turnout for the Diada, the Catalan national day. "We need a large success this year, perhaps more than ever, because the situation is different", they said, noting the existence of political prisoners.