Junqueras (ERC) says that organizing a referendum is not in the Penal Code and considers the unilateral path democratic

It alleges that "all the ways that allow citizens to decide about their future, voting" is "evidently a democratic way"

BARCELONA, 13 Dic. (BARCELONA) -

The ERC leader, Oriol Junqueras, has insisted that 1-O was not a crime and has argued that "organizing a referendum is not in the Penal Code." In his opinion, the unilateral path is a democratic path because it allows citizens to vote and decide on their future.

In an interview on Ràdio 4 and La 2 this Tuesday, collected by Europa Press, Junqueras made it clear that "a referendum is not in the Penal Code and therefore it is not a crime." "ERC defends all democratic ways" to achieve independence, he has pointed out.

When asked if it is also unilateral?, the former vice president of the Generalitat has insisted that "ERC defends all democratic paths". And at the insistence of the interviewer when asking if "the unilateral way is a democratic way or not", Oriol Junqueras has responded: "all the ways that allow citizens to decide about their future, voting respecting human rights and freedoms fundamentals, it is clear that it is a democratic path".

These statements come just one day after the ERC and the PSOE reached an agreement to reform the crime of embezzlement, with the introduction of new assumptions that favor those convicted of the process and also some of those currently under investigation.

According to Junqueras, the embezzlement reform serves to "correct the reforms of the Criminal Code that the PP approved with names and surnames" to condemn independentistas, for which he has maintained that it favors society as a whole and has rejected that it responds only to the situation of those convicted of 1-O.

The pro-independence leader has maintained that major political issues "require multilateralism", although he has pointed out that they have elements of unilateralism.

"We defend the path of negotiation and international recognition," he has claimed, and has considered that with more support within the independence movement, the Republicans would go further in the defense of democracy.

He has valued that the PSC and the PSOE have taken some steps to end the "repression" and has indicated that the repeal of the crime of sedition is one of them.

"Are you going in the right direction? Go. Slowly? Very slowly," he reflected on the PSC after he himself demanded that the Catalan socialists move towards justice, in his words.

Asked if the pardons for those convicted of 1-O are one of these steps, he has considered that they are not "an act of generosity, it is an act of reparation and justice" since -according to him- they were unjustly imprisoned because in the Criminal Code there is no criminal offense for calling a referendum.

Asked if ERC is giving support to the PSOE, Junqueras has denied it: "We work for society and the citizens, and if in any aspect there is another party that agrees with us, then it agrees with us."