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President Carles Puigdemont has sent a voice message calling for the Catalan people to continue defending their rights in the face of "an ever more authoritarian state". He made the remarks in conversation with Diether Dehm (Die Linke) who visited him this Sunday at Neumünster prison. The left-wing politician took the opportunity to record a thirty-second audio clip, obtained by Catalunya Ràdio.

In the message, the president says that "we have all the right in the world to decide our future and we can't lower our guard in the face of a state behaving in an ever more authoritarian manner and cutting back fundamental rights".

Translation of the president's full remarks: "The message we have to understand very clearly is that we have to continue forwards. We are defending our rights, rights recognised by the UN. We have all the right in the world to decide our future and we can't lower our guard in the face of a state behaving in an ever more authoritarian manner and cutting back fundamental rights. Let's continue in our way of doing things, which is non-violent, civilised, as we've shown over all these years is the way we Catalans do things."