Catalonia open to offer from Madrid

Catalonia is open to offers from the central government that would allow it to remain in Spain with greater autonomy and control over its taxes, regional finance chief Andreu Mas-Colell said.

Mas-Colell, who describes the struggle for autonomy as a “game of endurance,” said the two main political parties in Madrid will have to come up with an offer that can be put to a vote. Tax powers would be an important element in any deal, and if prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s government thinks no offer would be good enough to convince Catalans to stay, “they are wrong,” he said.

“The more attractive is the offer on the table the more likely that the vote will end up developing as in Britain,” the 70-year-old former Harvard University economics professor said in an interview in London yesterday.