Politics

Madrid-born Pedro Sánchez won the primaries of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) with 48% of the votes and will be elected the party's new Secretary General, replacing Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. Meanwhile, Miquel Iceta received 85% of the votes and will replace Pere Navarro as the new Secretary General of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), being the only candidate in these primaries. Both of them share the previous leaderships' views on Catalonia's self-determination process: they oppose independence and November's consultation vote. Both the PSOE and the PSC held elections on Sunday but the primaries' winners will be officially elected by the emergency party congresses to be held over the next two weekends. Sánchez defeated Eduardo Madina (36%) and José Antonio Pérez Tápias (15%), who was the only candidate fully supporting Catalonia's self-determination vote and shaping Spain as a pluri-national state.

The Catalan President, Artur Mas, stated on Thursday that he is happy to meet with Spanish President Mariano Rajoy in Madrid anytime if he calls a meeting. “If you say to someone that you are available to meet him when he wants and he does not come back to you, you get the impression that he does not want to see you”, Mas admitted during a parliamentary session in Barcelona. The Catalan and the Spanish government have been embroiled in the last few days in a discussion on whether or not the Catalans have requested a meeting, and whether or not this is actually going to happen.

The future president of the European Commission said during a meeting with the EFA/Greens Group in the European Parliament that he does not want to interfere in the political process started in Scotland or Catalonia. “I greatly respect democratic expressions in European territories, but I do not have the arrogance nor the wish to try to get involved in a debate that affects the territorial and political organization of member states”, said Juncker. The PPC candidate to the top job of the EU added that the Catalan situation “should be solved in Spain” and not in Brussels.

The MEPs from the Centre-Right pro-Catalan State (CiU), Ramon Tremosa and Francesc Gambús, and the MEP from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNB), Izaskun Bilbao, wrote to the re-elected President of the European Parliament stating that the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician languages in the plenary just depends on a “political decision”. The MEPs asked the leader of the Chamber, a former bookshop owner, to show “respect” for their languages. Tremosa, Gambús and Bilbao said that the decision would cost nothing to the European Parliament as many Spanish translators also speak Catalan, Basque or Galician.

James Costos confirmed that the United States and its enterprises “are watching” the political process in Catalonia and are “of course interested in what the outcome will be”. The representative of the US government in Spain said in Madrid that in the event that “things change,” business needs to be prepared for this. “Business leaders have to look at things that are coming down the pike and take decisions based on that”, he stated.

The Secretary General of the People’s Party, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, said that it is not “in any way” possible to reform the constitution to ease the demands of Catalonia, which is pushing for a referendum on independence from Spain. She also warned that the role of the new king, Felipe VI, is to protect Spanish unity. “The monarch’s mission is to ensure that national sovereignty is respected and to check that the unity of Spain is not put at risk”, she said during an event in Madrid.

The President of the Catalan Government reiterates his petition to Madrid to change the law in order to accommodate the wish of the Catalan people to vote on their future. Mas compared the political situation in Catalonia to that of a river which is about to overflow its banks. “If the people in charge of expanding the river edge don’t do it, they risk an overflow of water”, he stated. The Catalan President said Catalonia has always respected the law but law needs to adapt to “changing circumstances”.

The Spanish Minister of Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Diaz, on Thursday restated his belief that Catalonia would become more “vulnerable” to terrorist attacks, drug trafficking and organised crime if it were to separate from Spain. He argued that "without the protective umbrella” of Spain’s security forces and collaboration with international intelligence agencies, these threats to Catalan security would increase. "United we are stronger than divided," he reiterated. Some have regarded this warning as over-dramatic, with the Catalan Minister of Home Affairs, Ramon Espadaler, describing it as “apocalyptic.”

The Catalan President argued in an interview that Catalonia will need to show “strength” in the wake of the referendum, scheduled for the 9^th of November. A coalition government with the two main parties in Parliament, the Centre-Right pro-Catalan State (CiU) and the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC), has been on the cards for a long time. The leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, said previously that he is “absolutely ready” to form a coalition to “culminate the process” towards independence but that this would mean having an agreement on “all” issues, including economical ones.

Catalan parties welcomed the new King in a cold manner, and some were even directly absent from the coronation and participated instead in events in favour of a republican regime. However, after a few days of uncertainty, the President of the Catalan Government and leader of the Centre-Right pro-Catalan State CiU, Artur Mas, attended the ceremony in Madrid. Despite the fact that CiU did not give its explicit support to the King's succession, the CiU representatives were all present at the ceremony, although without showing enthusiasm. In addition, Mas insisted that he continues with his "wait and see" attitude, as the King's speech "did not offer anything new". Meanwhile, representatives from the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) did not attend the ceremonies, neither did representatives from the Catalan Green Socialist Coalition (ICV-EUiA), who participated in a small pro-republic demonstration in Barcelona at the exact same time the new King was swearing the Constitution.

Jordi Ausàs, who was Catalan Minister for Governance and Administration between March 2008 and December 2010, was condemned to 4 years in jail and to pay a €195,000 fine for tobacco trafficking and not paying the corresponding taxes. The Lleida Province's High Court stated on Thursday afternoon that Ausàs had participated in an organised criminal band that was smuggling tobacco through the border between Andorra and Spain since the summer of 2010, when he was in office. Back in 2012, when Ausàs was formally accused, the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) temporarily suspended his party membership until the situation was made clear. The ERC have not issued any official statement at the time of writing this article and Ausàs’ lawyers have not confirmed whether he will appeal the Court's decision.

The new King of Spain, Felipe VI, highlighted the unity of the country but also its diversity in his first speech as monarch. In a ceremony before the Spanish Parliament and Senate on Thursday morning, Felipe VI gave a speech portraying the guidelines of his reign, just after swearing loyalty to the Constitution, including the Autonomous Communities, as he stressed. He defined himself as "a Constitutional King", who is "the symbol" of "the unity and permanence of Spain". However, he also highlighted that "unity does not mean uniformity" and he pointed out that the Constitution asks "to respect and protect" the different languages in Spain, which are "a shared heritage" and "bridges for dialogue". Despite praising "diversity", Felipe VI delivered his speech entirely in Spanish, despite a small final greeting in Catalan, Basque and Galician. In addition, he defined Spain as "a great nation" to be "proud of", without mentioning Spain's pluri-national status.

Eduardo Madina, who is the main candidate to become the new Secretary General of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), nuanced his previous statement in which he supported a "legal" self-determination vote in Catalonia. Madina stated on Monday he would back a "citizen participation mechanism", "agreed" with the Spanish authorities and within the broader framework of a Constitutional Reform, when he was asked about Catalonia's self-determination referendum. However, after all media interpreted he was backing an agreed self-determination process, to which the PSOE opposes, Madina corrected his words and said they were "a mistake". "In order to avoid misinterpretations: the legal consultation votes that I accept are those foreseen in the Constitution for the entirety of Spain", he added on Tuesday.

Despite the fact that the International Liberal-Democrats explicitly recognised Catalonia's right to self-determination in their last congress in April, their group within the European Parliament (ALDE) has finally accepted 6 MEPs from the Spanish nationalist and populist parties Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) and Ciutadans (C's), who totally oppose this principle. Desperately looking for seats in order to continue being the 3^rd largest political group within the Euro-Chamber, the ALDE leadership proposed to accept the membership request from UPyD and C's, who would bring 4 and 2 MEPs respectively, despite the strong protests from the Catalan Liberal party CDC (which is part of the governing Convergencia i Unió coalition, CiU) and the Basque National Party (PNV). The members of the ALDE finally voted to accept UPyD and C's MEPs, but they also approved the creation of a sub-group defending Catalonia's self-determination.

The Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) stated it cancelled a debate on the EU Membership of an independent Catalonia because they could not find a speaker arguing that Catalonia would be excluded from the EU. However, the Catalan Government and the Catalan Public Diplomacy Council (Diplocat) suspect the Spanish Government pressured the CEPS to cancel the debate, as it already tried to do with previous events. The Spanish Executive denied the accusations, which are also rejected by the CEPS. The event was organised weeks ago and was supposed to take place on Tuesday at 9.30am at the CEPS facilities, which is the most prestigious think tank in EU Affairs. It was "postponed" on Monday evening, just a few hours before it was due to start. A prestigious Constitutional expert, who advises the Catalan Government, Carles Viver i Pi-Sunyer, was supposed to present a report arguing that Catalonia would remain within the EU.