CATALAN President Pere Aragones has called for an alliance of institutions and civil society to make a second independence referendum in Catalonia "inevitable".

He cited the release of the political prisoners and the criticism of Spain from the Council of Europe (CoE) as vindicating the Catalans’ right to self-determination.

Aragones made a call to political parties, business and society as a whole to join a national push for an amnesty for those punished over the 2017 referendum and a new indy poll.

“Amnesty and self-determination, this is the will of the majority of the citizens,” Aragones told the Catalan parliament.

“There is no other solution than the referendum, it is the solution that gives equal conditions and does not force anyone to give up their position.

“Those who defend continuity within Spain, can win with a referendum.”

The president urged all political parties who supported amnesty and self-determination, to talk to others, including his own Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).

“We will seek everyone’s complicity,” he said. “We need an agreement capable of bringing together those who do not defend independence but the right to self-determination.”

Aragones went on to stress the importance of the CoE, which, in a report, had called on Spain to cease its repression against the independence movement after drawing comparisons between it and Turkey.

He said: “The Council of Europe, a body of which Spain is a part, concluded that it has the right to ask about the independence of Catalonia and that the sentences of sedition were unfair.”

Aragones said the negotiations with the Spanish state would be “the most complex in the contemporary history of Catalonia”, but he was adamant that that dialogue was the way to resolve the conflict by agreeing a second referendum.

His remarks came as a German member of the CoE called for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to implement its report recommendations, which included removing the European arrest warrants hanging over exiled former members of the Catalan government, including the former president Carles Puigdemont and his ministers Clara Ponsati and Toni Comin, all of whom had fled Spain to avoid prosecution over the 2017 indyref.

In an interview with VilaWeb in Catalonia, Andrej Hunko, a member of the German party Die Linke (The Left), said the Spanish government knew perfectly well what the outcome of the CoE debate on its report last week would be.

“The debate was Monday afternoon, Monday morning Pedro Sanchez announced the pardons,” said Hunko.

“The reality is that the Council of Europe was important … After the Franco regime, Spain first entered the CoE, signed the Human Rights Treaty and then approved the constitution. It meant a first step towards democracy.

“And that is a big difference with Turkey. Erdogan, in particular, does not accept court decisions or criticism. Spain is more sensitive.”

Although CoE resolutions are not binding, Hunko said he hoped Spain would follow them, including the withdrawal of the warrants, or Euro-orders: “I have noticed that Pedro Sanchez has a lot of pressure from the Spanish right.

“Two weeks ago I was in Madrid … I saw thousands of people protest against the pardons. I have seen the pressure exerted by the right on Pedro Sanchez.

“But it would be good for them to follow that part of the resolution. It would be good for the image of Spain.

“The Council of Europe could play the role of international mediator in the Catalan case, I think. Of all the international organisations, I would say that for conflicts like [this] it is the best.”