Mas pays out more than 2 million euros for the 9 November consultation as required by the Court of Auditors

Former president Artur Mas deposits 2.2 million euros against the bond claimed by the Court of Auditors for organising the 9 November consultation and requests an extension of the deadline to deposit the rest (some 3 million euros). The money comes from the Caixa de Solidaritat, a solidarity fund reactivated by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium at the beginning of September. This fund had initially been set up to pay the fines imposed by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia for organising the referendum. On 23 November, following several extensions and additional payments, Mas, along with former ministers Homs, Rigau and Ortega, and Jordi Vilajoana (one of the Government of Catalonia’ssenior officials, to whom the Court of Auditors claims responsibility for the 9 November consultation) announce that they consider the amount claimed to be fully covered because they have already deposited 2.9 million euros and assigned several properties as collateral.