On Friday at 11am, the 6 parties supporting the self-determination consultation vote scheduled for the 9th
of November started a meeting with the Catalan Government in order to
agree the next steps to be taken to ensure that Catalans can vote. At
the end of this edition, on Friday evening, the parties were still in
the meeting. However, at lunch time (when the meeting was initially
expected to end), the Minister for the Presidency and Spokesperson for
the Catalan Government, Francesc Homs, addressed the press and stated
that they will continue meeting in the afternoon and evening, and that
they did not rule out the possibility of continuing discussions over the
weekend. Despite the meeting being far from ending, Homs emphasised
that all the participants had already agreed to keep the 9th
of November's call, despite the Constitutional Court's temporary
suspension of the law and the decree on which it is based. The Catalan
Government and Parliament have filed allegations and they are hoping the
Court will accept their arguments and lift the suspension on time.
Catalonia asks the Court to come to a decision with the same diligence it accepted the appeal
In addition, Homs asked the Court to decide on the issue quickly, as
quickly as it ruled to accept the Spanish Government's appeals. In fact
the Constitutional Court organised a non-scheduled and urgent plenary
meeting just 5 hours after the Spanish Government had filed its two
appeals on Monday 29th of September in order to discuss their acceptance. The Court's next regular plenary meeting was due on the 7th
of October. It was the first time in the entire democracy that the
Court met on a Monday and in such a short time, which somehow questions
the separation of powers in Spain. The acceptance of the Spanish
Government's appeals means the immediate temporary suspension, pending a
final decision that can take months or even years. Normally the Court
takes weeks to accept an appeal.
A roadmap towards voting
In the current scenario, the main question is whether Catalan
authorities will be able to organise a self-determination consultation
vote on the 9th of November with enough legal and democratic
guarantees, given the Constitutional Court's suspension, the boycott of
Spanish nationalist parties and the tight schedule. They have agreed to
continue with the consultation vote call but it will be particularly
complicated to develop the necessary legal and organisational steps with
the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension. Which gives rise to
the following question: would the Catalan authorities break Spanish law
in order to base their decision on the Catalan law only, this being
backed by the democratic legitimacy of the Catalan people? And if so, at
which point? Before or after the 9th of November? Besides,
many think that the most likely scenario will be early elections
organised as a plebiscite on independence.
In fact, in the last Catalan Parliament elections, held in November
2012, 80% of the elected MPs had run promising the organisation of a
"legal" self-determination vote. After pressure from the Spanish
Socialist Party (PSOE), the leadership of the Catalan Socialist Party
(PSC) finally decided not to participate in the agreement reached in
December 2013 to hold a self-determination vote on the 9th of
November, 2014. Such an agreement was reached after months of waiting
for an answer from the Spanish Government, who refused to sit and talk
about the issue, ignoring the Catalan elections' democratic mandate. In
the last 10 months, Catalan authorities have insisted that they would be
willing to reconsider the consultation vote's exact question wording
and date if the Spanish Government made its own proposal. However, the
Spanish Government, through a restrictive interpretation of the
Constitution (not shared by all experts) has repeated its claim that
such a vote is "illegal" and has shielded itself behind a do-nothing
attitude, aiming to block any movement in Catalonia.
The parties that reached the agreement in December 2013 have remained united over the 9th
of November's call, despite some public debates held in the last
months. These parties represent 87 of the 135-seat Catalan Parliament,
65% of the total. The parties are the governing centre-right pro-Catalan
State coalition CiU, which is led by Mas and brings together Liberals
(CDC) and Christian-Democrats (UDC); the left-wing independence party
ERC – which shares a parliamentary stability agreement with the CiU; the
Catalan green socialist and post-communist coalition ICV-EUiA; and, the
alternative left and radical independence party CUP.
