The president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, described it as a "reasonable deal" to leave aside last year's referendum and the ensuing declaration of independence in the Parliament if the Spanish government proposes holding an independence referendum.
"The Spanish government should give a response because we want to vote. In fact, we voted on 1st October [2017], but we can negotiate this referendum and the declaration of independence on 27th October", he said in an interview with former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond for his program on RT.
On his first meeting with new Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez in July, he celebrated the fact that they were able to "sit down together at the same table and speak about everything", which he sees as a good start to finding a solution.
Rajoy or Sánchez, it doesn't matter
That said, however, the president said that "for the Catalans it's the same thing having Mr Sánchez or Mr Rajoy", referring to the centre-right PM Sánchez replaced. He urged the centre-left Sánchez to demonstrate he can act differently to his predecessor.
Torra noted that in the last three elections to the Catalan Parliament, pro-independence parties won a majority: "The people have expressed their support for the idea of the Catalan republic, and this is our government's objective, to continue on with what the people ask us to do".
He said he has a democratic mandate from the latest of these elections, on 21st December last year, when "voters voted for politicians who would continue the [independence] process which started five or six years ago".
Spanish and European justice
Torra expressed regret that pro-independence politicians remain in prison, comparing them with their fellow members of the previous Catalan government who travelled abroad and are free to travel "all around Europe except Spain", now the international arrest warrants against them have been withdrawn.
Before the arrest warrants were withdrawn, Germany had refused to extradite Carles Puigdemont on the charge of rebellion, Belgium had refused to extradite three of his ministers entirely. "It's the opinion of German justice, Swiss justice, Belgian and Scottish justice. We see how in four European countries, the justice system goes in one direction and in Spain it goes in precisely the opposite direction. Who's right, Europe or Spain," he asked.
On the situation of those in prison, he called for their immediate release and rejecting negotiating on the subject: "In some way we would be admitting that they're in prison for some reason".