The «Council for the Catalan Republic» has begun to build the structures of the new Catalan state (in collaboration with the government of Catalonia, which remains subject to the repressive measures of the Spanish state) abroad. Led by the legitimate Catalan president and MEP Carles Puigdemont, forced into exile by Spain, the Catalan government in exile, formed on 8 April 2022, issued the following statement on 9 April 2022:
«Political declaration of the new government
(Government of the Council for the Republic)
The new Government of the Council for the Republic, at its first face-to-face meeting held on 8 and 9 April in Northern Catalonia, wishes to make the following political declaration:
1. Social, political and institutional unity has made it possible to achieve the highest levels in the exercise of the Right to Self-Determination of the people of Catalonia. Since its constitution, the Council for the Republic has worked to maintain the strategic consensus between parties and entities to culminate the process of independence.
2. The Spanish state is not willing to dialogue or negotiate any of the conditions that have been proposed to resolve the conflict. After more than four years of repression, none of the attempts to open ways in this direction have meant a single advance. All the accumulated evidence confirms failure.
3. The Council understands that it is necessary to return to the paths that allowed the success of 1 October 2017 to culminate the independence process, and that it is necessary to return to the consensuses based on the following foundations:
(a) That with respect to what the Catalan people and institutions have decided: the vote in favour of constituting Catalonia as an independent state in the form of a republic, and the declaration of independence of 27 October 2017, by means of a resolution that the Parliament of Catalonia has never repealed.
b) The forces that voted for the Declaration of Independence remain politically linked to that decision. Respect for the Parliament of Catalonia requires that those who wish to disassociate themselves do so by means of an equivalent parliamentary act.
4. In its attempts to facilitate strategic consensus, the Council for the Republic has always expressed its willingness to become the working space for parties, entities and citizens to build this consensus. For this reason, the Council's government
a) has held regular and sustained conversations, in a discreet manner, with the main entities and parties throughout the year 2021.
b) has provided the detailed proposal in the strategic document «Let's get ready», which specifies the idea of democratic overflow.
c) It has expressed a willingness to change its governance and discuss its institutional structure.
d) It noted that the disagreement between some of the actors on the validity of the mandate of 1 October 2017 has prevented efforts to reach this consensus from succeeding.
5. The difficulties in reaching agreement with parties and entities do not stop the Council's efforts to make possible the fact expressed in its point 3 of this communiqué. The Council expresses the determination to deploy its structures, its governance plan and its capacity for action to build the fundamental consensus, which is that of the citizenry.
Many Catalans, as well as honest democrats and human rights defenders around the world, already support the «Council for the Catalan Republic» through membership or donations. The Catalan nation depends on the solidarity and support of the whole world. The more people around the world support it, the sooner the governments of many states will also realise that the Catalan people must no longer be denied their human right to self-determination. The peaceful and democratic construction of a new state in the centre of Europe will permanently change and reshape the European Union.