As president, I have the right to call a referendum based on a law that the Catalan parliament has approved.

I could not disobey the will of the Catalan parliament.

We cannot say no to what has already been approved by the citizens.

I don't want to go to prison... but there is nothing they can do to me that will make me stop this referendum.

In a mature democracy, what is legal is decided by parliament... Our process is legitimised by parliament and by the ballot box.

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.