Politics

The ban on bullfighting in Catalonia, approved by the Parliament in 2010 and effective since 2012, has been suspended this Thursday by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). Eight of the eleven magistrates in the court considered that the prohibition to host bullfighting in Catalonia “restricted the citizens’erights and freedoms”. Moreover, the TC emphasised that it is for the Spanish state to regulate this “intangible cultural heritage”nand “guarantee its preservation”. Catalan Minister for Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, insisted on the executive’s commitment to preventing “shows which imply animal suffering”hfrom taking place in Catalonia and assured that bullfighting won’t return to Catalonia. Bullfighting has been, for centuries, presented by Spanish nationalism as ‘the national fiesta’, the utmost celebration of Spanish pride. In other Autonomous Communities, such as the Canary Islands, bullfighting has been banned for decades.

Catalonia’s Public Prosecutor accused Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, of “wrecking” the Spanish State’s territorial model established in the Spanish Constitution by allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote. In the lawsuit presented this Wednesday before Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) in accordance with Spain’s Public Prosecutor’s demands, Prosecutor José María Romero de Tejada also stated that Forcadell deliberately ignored the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) warnings and “despised the Spanish Constitution” with her “extravagant” action. De Tejada’s complaint accuses Forcadell of “deliberately modifying the electoral mandate” that emerged from the 27-S elections, which led to a pro-independence majority in the Catalan Chamber. 

The Catalan Parliament passed this Wednesday a bill aimed at annulling all the express judicial sentences of the Franco regime, known as summary court-martials. 78,000 people were condemned between 1939 and 1975, 20,000 of them through these judicial procedures, among which was the Catalan President Lluís Companys, who was executed in 1940, and the anarchist activist Salvador Puig Antich, who was one of the last victims of the Francoist garrotte executions for political reasons. Now, 41 years after Franco’s death, the victims and relatives of the victims is seeing the Parliament take action so as that all the verdicts can be declared null and void. This proposal of judicial reparation for the “dignity” of the victims was driven by the cross-party pro-independence coalition ‘Junts pel Sí’, the radical-left CUP and the alternative left-coalition ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot' (CSQP).

The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) and the ‘Institut de Ciénces Politiques Louvain-Europe’ (ISPOLE), organised this Tuesday an event entitled “Catalonia: A New State in Europe?” at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) located about 50 kilometres east of Brussels. The conference included the presence of Amadeu Altafaj, Representative of the Catalan Government to the EU, Michel Liégeois, President of ISPOLE and Michael Keating, Professor of Political Science at the University of Aberdeen and Director of the ESRC Centre on Constitutional Change, amongst other experts. However, all the attention turned to the public when a supposed student claimed to represent Spaniards and Catalans which were absent and questioned the objectivity of the event. Later on, Laura Martínez Bocos admitted to speaking on behalf of the Spanish Embassy in Belgium, where she holds the rank of Counsellor.

Current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, has been reproved by the Spanish Parliament. All the parties in the Spanish Chamber, except from the currently governing People’s Party (PP) voted in favour of the bill presented by the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDECat) which called for Fernández Díaz’s immediate resignation. The current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs was recently in the spotlight after several tapes revealed his implication in a smear scandal to discredit Catalonia’s main pro-independence parties, ‘Convergència’ (now renamed PDECat) and left wing pro-independence ERC. The recordings, which were made in 2014, revealed a conversation between Fernández Díaz, and the Director of Catalonia's Anti-fraud Office Daniel de Alfonso Laso, who was dismissed soon after the tapes were made public.

“It is unbelievable that being democratic in Spain is nowadays a risky sport”, stated Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont this Tuesday during an official trip to Paris. After meeting the leader of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), Jean Christophe Lagarde, Puigdemont lamented “Spain’s democratic weakness” but admitted that it “is not surprising”. In the same vein, Puigdemont gave an address on Monday at the centre of political studies of Sciences Po in Paris and denounced the “judicial persecution” that the Catalan politicians who defend the independence process must face. “The legal framework must be at the service of democracy and not the other way around”, he said and lamented the recent demands from the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) to file a complaint against Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote.  

Catalonia wants to be the first region to implement the New Urban Agenda, a document to be adopted this week at Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development in Quito, Ecuador. The aim of this meeting of local and regional leaders is to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable urban development, assess accomplishments to date and provide guidance to states, city and regional authorities, civil society, foundations, NGOs, academic researchers and U.?N. agencies in this field. The Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, has offered to the United Nations that Catalonia be the first territory to implement the conclusions of the New Urban Agenda and stressed that the Catalan model "is inclusive, cohesive and committed to sustainable development".

Spain’s Public Prosecutor, Consuelo Madrigal, urged Catalonia’s Supreme Prosecutor, José María Romero de Tejada, to file a complaint against Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell. Madrigal accused Forcadell of alleged perversion of justice and disobedience for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote in July. However, she dismissed the misappropriation of public funds, which dispels the possibility of applying criminal charges. Thus, the Catalan Supreme Court (TSJC) will be in charge of these proceedings, together with those for the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014, which have to resolve whether former Catalan President, Artur Mas and former ministers Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau are liable for ignoring the TC’s resolutions and allowing the 9-N to take place.

24 photographs from Miquel Ruiz, a Catalan photographer, are being displayed at an exhibition in Sarajevo, which kicked off on Thursday. The picture of the Library of Sarajevo destroyed by Serb artillery during the siege of the Bosnian capital is one of the masterpieces of the exposition ‘We don’t forget’, which takes place precisely in the same monumental building which appears in ruins in the image and which was restored in 2014. The Catalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, stated during his visit to the exhibition that it recalls that “Catalonia has always been with Sarajevo and Bosnia, even when the EU turned its back on them”. Romeva added that the images call us “to persevere in the construction of peace".

The Spanish Council of Ministers approved this Friday to submit a complaint against the bill proposing a Catalan referendum on independence in 2017 to the Constitutional Court (TC). The Spanish executive requests the TC to declare null the proposal passed by the Catalan Parliament on the 6^th of October last during the General Policy Debate and to temporarily suspend it. Furthermore, in its report the executive also urges the magistrates to transfer the case to the Prosecution Office so that criminal proceedings against the President of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, can be opened. The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, reacted to the measure and stated that the Spanish reaction was “predictable” and did not come as a surprise. In a press conference held in Madrid on Monday, the politician asked once again for dialogue. Puigdemont also said this Friday with regret that the Spanish Government response is always “a string of contestations".

Neither former Catalan President Artur Mas, former Vice President Joana Ortega nor former Catalan Minister for Education Irene Rigau will go to prison for organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence. The judge investigating the case opened on Thursday an oral hearing against the three politicians for the crimes of disobedience and administrative corruption, but dismissed the charge for embezzlement of public funds, the only one that could result in imprisonment. In doing so, the magistrate is in accordance with the resolution of Catalonia’s Public Prosecutor, which last week requested a 10-year ban from public office for Mas and a 9-year ban for the other two public figures summonsed over the same case, but did not accuse them of misappropriation of public money. 

European Free Alliance (EFA) director, Günther Dauwen, would approve if the Catalan Democratic Party (PDC), the new name for former liberal ‘Convergència’, were to leave the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and join the EFA in the European Parliament instead. “The family of regionalist nationalists would be more homogeneous and consistent and that could help to reinforce our message”, Dauwen told the CNA. Although he admitted that there hasn’t yet been any official request, if joining the EFA “could help to promote and make progress” for the Catalan cause “a positive decision could be expected”. Dauwen also noted that left wing pro-independence ERC, which together with other 44 groups belongs to the EFA, wouldn’t oppose welcoming the PDC to the family. PDC MEP, Ramon Tremosa has repeatedly said he was “not comfortable” within the ALDE because they voted “following instructions from Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, a private brand of the Conservative People’s Party”.

Administrative Court Number 14 of Barcelona has prohibited Badalona City Hall from opening any municipal offices on Spain’s National Day, this Wednesday the 12^th of October. The municipal government of Badalona announced earlier this week that it would offer their workers the possibility of working during the festivity in exchange for another free day, the 9^th of December, coinciding with the Immaculada long weekend. This measure would have allowed the opening of offices providing services to citizens, with a skeleton staff of at least 50%, but the judge believes there are political intentions behind the municipal government decision to turn the 12-O into a voluntarily holiday and that these would harm "the general, social and collective interest" of the celebration, as well as the "ideological freedom" of workers. Parallel to the rise of Catalan national sentiment, the 12^th of October is regarded in Catalonia as a day used by extreme-right forces to claim the union of the country and fight independence. 

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont and the Parliament’s, Carme Forcadell, received this Tuesday the notice issued by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) which suspends the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process. Four deputy clerks delivered the documents which warn that if the Parliament and the members of the Parliament’s Bureau ignore the resolution they “will be liable for responsibility, including criminal charges”. The TC also urges the Public Prosecutor to proceed with the corresponding actions against Forcadell. Last August, the TC suspended Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap, ratified by the majority of the Parliament, claiming that the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process, the group responsible for designing Catalonia’s strategy towards independence, violated the Spanish Constitution. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, insisted this Monday on the need “to find a political solution for Catalonia”and urged Spain’s government to “have political courage”and “negotiate”a referendum. He made this statement at a press conference held in Madrid which was attended by more than 9 ambassadors, 8 of them from EU countries, but without any representatives from the Spanish Government nor from the governing Conservative People’s Party (PP). “Let’s listen to each other and let’s decide the best solution, without restrictions”said Puigdemont and insisted that “a negotiated proposal is a priority”for the Catalan Government. In this vein, Puigdemont called for the Spanish Government to discuss key aspects of the referendum such as “the date and the question”and invited Spain’s executive to “present an alternative proposal which can compete with Catalonia’s”. “Once Spain breaks the deadlock, our proposal will still be there”, he stated.