Autonomy according to Jordi Pujol
There are two legitimate premises to autonomy: to assert and defend the collective personality, and the aspiration to develop democracy. These are two complementary approaches to a single concept.
The reasons we claim autonomy
Catalonia has called for autonomy because:
- It seeks to protect itself from the risk of depersonalisation and "decatalanisation".
- It seeks to develop and project its personality in accordance with its Catalan identity.
These motives are as healthy as they are creative and fertile. Self-rule is a way to develop democracy. Recognition of a collective identity is an example of democracy, and the lack of recognition of a collective identity is an example of authoritarianism: it is dictatorship.
Relations with the central government
The relationship with the central government of Spain is not easy, since it remains insensitive to these questions. This prejudices the application of Catalonia's Statute, which is the cornerstone of self-determination. It is for this reason that Catalonia continues to call for a self-governing statute, not an administrative decentralisation, which is constantly subjected to an erosive and distrustful control.
Autonomy will not be demanded, defended and exercised with the same passion by those communities with a clear and staunch determination as by other communities moved solely by criteria of effective administration.
