Pro-independence parties fast track referendum law

The pro-independence parties with a majority in the Catalan parliament have used new ‘fast-track’ legislation to register a bill that will allow a self-determination referendum. On Monday, the Together for Yes (JxSí) and CUP-Crida Constituent groups introduced the referendum bill using legislation that is currently before the Constitutional Court (TC in Spanish) following an appeal by the Spanish government.

On Wednesday July 26, the Catalan parliament passed a reform of legislation in which new bills would only require a single reading. Two days later, the Spanish President Mariano Rajoy announced that his government had referred the amendment to the TC, which was scheduled to examine the issue on Monday afternoon. Last Friday, Rajoy justified the appeal saying, “the only intention of the reform is the urgent approval, without basic democratic guarantees, of laws that aim to destroy national sovereignty.”