Quotes from Carles Puigdemont

Sometimes one has to take on responsibilities that weren't those one imagined.

There's no alternative to Catalan independence.

If Madrid does not want an accord, and the majority of Catalans want an independent state, how can you avoid that?

The British people have the right to decide - have the right to decide whether or not they want to be part of the E.U. And I shouldn't interfere in this.

In 2010, the Spanish constitutional court annulled a large part of the Catalan statute of autonomy negotiated between Catalonia and the previous prime minister, Jose Luis Zapatero. This demolished one of the main agreements achieved during the Spanish transition to democracy - Catalonia's recovery of self-governance.

Spain's parties must steel themselves to do the sensible thing and treat the Catalonia issue with the seriousness it deserves.

They are very brave when they talk about other countries where they have no competencies, but where are they when we citizens need them? Is Europe's solution to Catalans to turn its back?

We do not want to turn our back on Spain. It's the opposite. We are convinced that a relationship between equals will improve our relationship.

We must have serious dialogue between Catalonia and the Spanish state on a referendum, on independence, and on how a separation from Spain - if that's what the Catalan people choose - would be accomplished.

Catalan politics emancipated from the Spanish politics on September 27, 2015. Since then, we've acted with a sovereign mentality, political sovereignty.

The alternative to independence is decline, because the relationship with the Spanish state is not good; everyone knows that.

A lot of people are angry about the democratic abuses that have been committed by the Spanish government.

How can we later criticise other countries outside the European Union for adopting such measures to repress opponents when we are tolerating this inside the European Union with European citizens? Like me - I'm a European citizen.

I think, in Spain, they are too used to reaching the limits of democracy and then stepping over them.

European values, civil rights, freedom of speech, freedom of informatio,n and freedom of assembly are being violated by Spain's central government.

To me, the European Union says there is a charter that protects you; you have fundamental rights, and they are staying silent when they are violating my fundamental rights.

I don't believe there will be anyone who will use violence or who will want to provoke violence that will tarnish the irreproachable image of the Catalan independence movement as pacifist.