What he did say was that, if Puigdemont declares independence tomorrow, he could "end up like the one who declared it 83 years ago". The reference is to former Catalan president Lluís Companys who, in 1934, declared the independence of Catalonia for which he ended up arrested and imprisoned.

The spokesperson later sought to correct himself, saying that he was speaking about Companys' imprisonment and not his tragic end in 1940: execution by firing squad. He then undid some of this, saying that "the only fascists are the separatists" and that "Puigdemont has become a squatter in the Catalan government and the CUP [Popular Unity Candidacy] post-truth junkies". He also warned the Catalan president to "talk with his lawyer", as he said former Basque leader Juan José Ibarretxe did,saying that if he doesn't renounce the independence plan he could end up facing 7 years in prison.

He then called on the whole government to drop the independence project without waiting for anything in exchange. "There is nothing do negotiate", he said, with those who he labelled "terrorists", in exchange for them "stopping breaking the law". He explicitly compared Puigdemont and vice-president Oriol Junqueras with the architects of the 23rd February 1981 attempted coup d'état, Tejero and Armada.

In terms of making pacts, he said there will be no bilaterality with Catalonia, that it will receive the same treatment as the other autonomous communities. "It isn't the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. There are few things left to transfer to the autonomous communities. If they wanted to talk about financing,