In addition, the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister referred to Mas's
interview in 'Le Figaro', published this Friday, where the Catalan
President says that if a referendum or a consultation vote on
Catalonia's independence from Spain is banned, he might call for
plebiscite elections. De Santamaría was scornful of this since
"elections are for another purpose", which is "to elect the
representatives of an Autonomous Community parliament" and not to hold a
referendum in disguise. She warned that "a referendum cannot be held
whatever the formula", therefore suggesting that the Spanish Government
could ban such elections. The Catalan President is the only person who
is legally authorised to dismiss the Catalan Parliament and call fo
early elections. These elections could turn into a plebiscite if the
parties supporting independence included the unilateral declaration of
independence as their main electoral proposal.
The Spanish Parliament rejected a non-binding self-determination vote
On Friday, after the weekly Cabinet Meeting, Soraya Sáenz de
Santamaría, offered the traditional press conference, the first one
after the debate in the Spanish Parliament. On Tuesday evening the
Spanish Parliament rejected a motion to transfer to the Catalan
Government the power to organise a specific non-binding
self-determination referendum, using Article 150.2 of the Constitution.
86% of all Spanish MPs rejected a motion presented by the Catalan
Parliament to this effect, which was backed by some two-thirds of
Barcelona’s Chamber. The People’s Party (PP) – which runs the Spanish
Government and holds an absolute majority at Madrid’s Parliament -, the
Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) – including the MPs from the Catalan
Socialist Party (PSC) -, and the minority populist and Spanish
nationalist party Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) voted against the
motion. The remaining MPs, mostly representing parties from Catalonia,
the Basque Country, Galicia, the Canaries and the alternative left,
backed it. 299 MPs voted against the Catalan petition, 47 MPs backed it
and there was 1 abstention.
Rajoy referred to a hypothetical Constitution reform, which he totally blocks
The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy finally participated in the
debate and rejected the petition using his own interpretation of the
Constitution, stating that Catalans could not possibly hold a vote on
this issue within the current legal framework and therefore he could not
authorise it. However, he pointed out that the Constitution could be
reformed, although at the same time he has been blocking this way in
recent years and has refused to talk about it so far.
The Catalan Parliament representatives stressed that allowing a
self-determination vote was only a matter of political will.
Furthermore, they stressed that today’s “no” would not stop Catalonia’s
self-determination process, since there are other legal ways open. The
President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, did not participate in
the debate since it was a parliamentary initiative, but he made an
official statement from his office in Barcelona. Mas highlighted that
Catalonia's offer to talk will still be there if the Spanish authorities
want to negotiate later on. In the debate, Catalan representatives
insisted on several occasions on their will "to negotiate about
everything". However, Mas also warned that the self-determination
process will carry on using other legal and democratic ways.
