The catalan way to freedom | catalan views
The catalan way to freedom
By Santiago Vidal
The results of the 27-S elections, which were considered a plebiscite on independence by all the public institutions involved, showed that Catalan citizens' future expectations can be divided into three groups.
One group was formed by 2 million Catalans, those who expressed the clear will to start building a new independent State in the legal and political form of a republic and with the intention of keeping good relationships with Spain. This group represents 48% of the voters and were gathered around left-wing pro-independence ERC, liberal party CDC and pro-independence radical left CUP.
A second group is made of 500,000 people whom also want to carry out some substantial changes in the current Spanish political context. They identified themselves as republican and progressive but they feel that there is still a chance to reach an agreement with Spain and therefore their project is focused on reforming the Spanish State through a referendum. They represent 12% of the citizens and they are represented by ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot'.
Finally, there is a third group formed by the so-called "unionist" parties, that is to say, the People's Party (PP), Catalonia's Socialist Party (PSC) and Ciutadans. They obtained 39% of the electors' votes. Needless to say, their programme consists of keeping the current status quo, monarchic and conservative, pretending to do some reforms which are actually addressed to centralise the power even more.
In this context, the pro-independence declaration approved by the recently constituted Parliament has been the real start in the self-determination process. The declaration explicitly asks the Spanish State to set a calendar to agree the separation of both nations and establishes within 18 months as the deadline to achieve the agreements required.
However, the fact that Catalonia doesn't yet have a new Government which could implement the key points of the declaration means that the announced disconnection couldn't start until January 2016. And this despite the cautionary suspension ordered by the Spanish Constitutional Court. It must be said that from now on, and as a decision of the Parliament, supported by the majority of MPs, the Spanish Constitutional Court's resolutions are not to be taken into account, since this state body is not a real court of justice but a political body of the Spanish government. Proof of this is its composition: the majority of its members are not magistrates but former members of the PP and Spanish Socialist Party, PSOE. Further proof is the sense of their resolutions.
We must be patient and wait to see what the political scenario will be after the 20th of December, the date when the new Spanish Congress and Senate will be elected.
The conclusion is that Catalonia's transition process from a nation to an independent State has started and now it will be only the citizens' responsibility to successfully culminate it.
Santiago Vidal Marsal
Judge
