Catalan Parliament agrees to appeal Article 155 in Spain’s Constitutional Court

The Standing Committee of the Catalan Parliament has agreed to appeal the Spanish government's enforcement of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution in the Constitutional Court. The proposal was put forward by the JxSí pro-independence coalition.

The appeal comes after the Council of Statutory Guarantees ruled that dismissing the Catalan president and all of his government ministers did not respect the principles of “graduality and proportionality”.

The pro-independence JxSí coalition and left-wing CSQP party voted in favor of the proposal, while the unionist Ciutadans, Catalan Socialists and Catalan PP parties voted against it. The far-left Catalan pro-independence CUP party abstained, arguing that it does not recognize the court.

JxSí and CSQP vote in favor of the proposal

The president of JxSí’s parliamentary group,Lluís Corominas, argued that the appeal is a “political denunciation, theoretically within a legal framework." Corominas noted that the “only conspiracy” that has occurred in Catalonia is on behalf of the Spanish government, with the aim of "suspending Catalonia’s self-autonomy” and “imprisoning political ideas”.

The JxSí parliamentary president also said that the enforcement of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution is an “abuse” and he accused the Spanish government of “violating its own legal system.”   

For CSQP, MP Marta Ribas said that her party backed the proposal to appeal the enforcement of Article 155 because they see it as “inappropriate”. "We have always been very clear: neither UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence), nor 155. We support the appeal because there are reasonable grounds to believe that the constitutional and legal limits have been exceeded,” she said.