Barcelona/Prague, Nov 1 (CTK) – The Catalan separatists are unlikely to win the forthcoming elections that the Spanish government recently declared because people in Catalonia want peace and security, Czech writer and translator Monika Zgustova based in Barcelona has told CTK.
The Catalan separatist regional government headed by Carles Puigdemont made a grave mistake when it held an irregular independence referendum.
“According to me, Puigdemont made several mistakes. First, he called on people to vote in a referendum that was irregular. It was clear that the police would play some role in it,” Zgustova said.
Madrid tried to prevent the referendum from being held by force, sending the Spanish police to Catalonia. Many polling places remained closed due to it.
“If he had declared an early election immediately after the referendum, he could have won and kept trying to hold a peaceful dialogue, which might have been possible with another Spanish government,” Zgustova said about former Catalan prime minister Puigdemont.
“I did not take part in the vote because Spain repeatedly said the referendum was illegal and would be pointless,” said Zgustova, who has both Czech and Spanish citizenship.
On October 1, 92 percent of the participants in the Catalan referendum voted for their autonomous region to become an independent republic. The turnout was only 43 percent, however.
Madrid declared the referendum illegal according to the Spanish constitution.
If the referendum had been binding, both the turnout and the result would have been different, Zgustova said.
According to opinion polls, the Catalans are divided on the issue.
Zgustova said people in towns prefer staying together with Madrid, while those in the countryside tend to support independence.
The calls for independence got louder also due to the economic crisis and high unemployment, she said.
Puigdemont hesitated to take further steps after the referendum. When the Catalan separatist government in Barcelona declared independence from Spain a few days ago, the Spanish government in Madrid imposed a direct rule on the region.
Many Calatans dislike it that Madrid has taken direct control over their region and this will probably be reflected in the December elections.
Zgustova said she would like Spain to become a federation, but this is absolutely impossible under the present Spanish government.
Catalonia could be independent, but such a thing would have to be agreed on with Madrid, she said.
The separatists’ attempt to decide on independence of their own was not right, she added.
Zgustova, 60, was born in Prague. She emigrated with her parents to the USA in the 1970s and she has been living in Catalonia since the 1980s.
She translated Czech writers such as Jaroslav Hasek, Vaclav Havel, Bohumil Hrabal and Milan Kundera into Spanish and Catalan languages. This year, she issued a book on women who went through the Gulag internment camps in the Soviet Union (Vestidas para un baile en la nieve). A Czech version of her book on writer Vladimir Nabokov has recently been published.
