The best leaders don't set timid and selfish goals but instead set bold targets that may be harder to achieve.

Spain's constitution was introduced to cement democracy after Franco's dictatorship, but this government is exploiting its wording as a means to deny us our right to vote.

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.

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

It is crucial that there is a government in Madrid secure enough to engage with Catalonia politically rather than continue the denial and legal obstructionism of the Rajoy years.

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.