Catalan Government receives Spanish Constitutional Court warning on penal consequences of holding a referendum

Barcelona (CNA).- The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, and the other members in the Catalan executive received this Wednesday the notice from the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) which suspends the Government’s plan to call a referendum in September 2017. The document also warns the executive members that ignoring the suspension and developing any further action oriented toward launching the pro-independence roadmap may have penal consequences. On Tuesday, the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, and the members of the Parliament’s Bureau also received the notice, which was hand delivered by judicial secretaries from Catalonia’s Supreme Court. “Those who aim to dialogue do so through politics rather than through the courts”, Puigdemont stated on Twitter soon after receiving the TC’s notice.

The notice informs of the TC’s cautionary suspension of the pro-independence forces’ agreed proposal to call a referendum in Catalonia in September 2017. The resolution confirms that the magistrates accepted the Spanish executive’s appeal, which claimed that the plan presented in the Parliament and passed by pro-independence forces governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left pro-independence CUP was unconstitutional since it emerged from the declaration to launch the pro-independence roadmap passed in November and in turn suspended by the TC.

“Good news” for Albiol

The leader of the Catalan People’s Party (PPC) in the Parliament, Xavier García Albiol, considered the notice “good news”. “I hope it will be exemplary”, he stated and added that he hoped that the Government will understand “once and for all” that “damaging the Rule of Law” and “surpassing legality and democracy has consequences in the end”.  “Justice may be slow but it always puts people in their place”, he added before the media and stated that both the Catalan Government and their partners, referring to radical left pro-independence CUP, “moved on a path of disobedience as the Catalan Republic was already launched”.

Another ‘mise en scene’ to warn the Government

This Wednesday’s ‘mise en scene’ is not new for the Catalan Government. On Tuesday, the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, and the members of the Parliament’s Bureau also received the TC’s notice informing of the suspension of the Chamber’s resolution to call a referendum in September of next year. Two months ago, the same episode took place. On that occasion, four deputy clerks hand delivered the TC suspension of Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap. The public servants handed the document to Forcadell, and the members of the Parliament’s Bureau first, and later to the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont and the ministers of the Catalan executive. Also then the notice warned that if the Parliament and the members of the Parliament’s Bureau aim to ignore the resolution they “will be liable for responsibility, including criminal charges”.

“Those who aim to dialogue do so through politics rather than through the courts”, Puigdemont stated on Twitter soon after receiving the TC’s notice. “We have been notified and warned for the third time”, he added.