“Catalonia is hereby established as a State that is free, sovereign,
democratic, social, ecological and respectful of rights. The political
and legal form of the organisation of the State is a citizen and
participative republic”. Thus begins the definition of Catalonia in the
proposed constitution presented this Wednesday by ‘Constituïm’. The
Constitution furthermore adopts the Senyera, the official red and white
striped flag of Catalonia, as its flag, ‘El Segadors’ as its national
anthem, Catalan and Aranese as its official languages, and instates
Barcelona as its only capital.
Under these initial requirements, the proposal carries
up to 49 articles that would form the Catalan Constitution, which
establishes the particularities of the independent Catalonia that these
17 independent jurists imagine. The text provides, as the spokesmanof
‘Constituïm’ Jordi Domingo explains, a presidential system in the style
of the US or France. “The Constitution states that Catalonia will have a
president to be elected by everyone in a single constituency. The
people, through a free and direct election with a single constituency,
could vote for a president, as in the USA, saving itself from, among
other things, this precariousness of the government”, he stated. The
text, in fact, states that this president would then select the
ministers along with the “President” that would make up his government.
Parliament, however, would be chosen in other elections, along with the
Catalan Auditor and the Ombudsman.
The “special” status of Spanish
One of the elements that has already caused the most controversy is
the unique official status granted to Catalan and Aranese. The proposal
grants official status to Catalonia’s own languages and establishes that
Spanish should have a “special status” that a law should regulate. “For
cultural and historical reasons Spanish deserves special treatment”,
affirmed Domingo, who also points out that those citizens who have come
to Catalonia after their education or before the “linguistic
normalisation” should be able “to continue addressing the administration
in Spanish”. The rest, however, should “assume that Catalan is the
official language”. However, it clarifies that it will neither persecute
Spanish nor forbid its use in any social or public sphere.
Regarding the possibility of having an army, the text does not
provide for this possibility because “armies of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, regardless of how advanced they may be, are
unnecessary”, according to Domingo. This is why the suggested proposal
to create a “National Agency for Security and Defence” would be
responsible for protecting citizens, borders, infrastructure and more
global elements. “Having nothing to do, however, with a conventional
army” specified Domingo. In addition, the Institute of Peace and Truce
would be a body that would act in international “humanitarian efforts
and aid in conflict area” interventions.
The spokesman of ‘Constituïm’ affirmed that the text is “open to
debate, to change, modify, and crumble if necessary” and denied that it
is an “absolutely closed” proposal. For this reason, he asked Forcadell
to pass the text along to the Parliamentary Commission of the
Constitutive Process, and they will then forward the text to political
groups, pro-independence institutions, such as those responsible for the
massive demonstrations on Catalonia’s National Day, and various Catalan
figures.
‘Constituïm’ the first to present a draft Catalan Constitution
‘Constituïm’ (‘Let’s constitute’) gathers together judges,
economists, engineers and other professionals from different fields who
have worked to hand over the project of a Catalan Constitution. The
group has analysed previous drafts, such as that presented by Catalan
judge Santiago Vidal, but also more than 3,000 citizen proposals.
The platform defines itself as an organisation which emerged from
civil society and, therefore, is willing to collaborate with as many
sectors of society as possible, in order to enhance the constitutive
process and make it as representative as possible.
