Catalan parliamentary bureau should not admit passage of referendum law, says socialist leader

Leader of the PSC Catalan socialists, Miquel Iceta, argued in an interview with ACN that the parliamentary bureau should not admit the passage of the referendum bill introduced by the JxSí and CUP parties. The pro-independence groups that together have a majority in the Catalan Parliament used fast-track legislation currently under consideration in the Constitutional Court (TC in Spanish) to introduce a bill that could allow an independence referendum on October 1.

Talking to ACN, Iceta accused the referendum bill as it stands of being “completely outside the framework of the law” and said it contravened the rulings of the Constitutional Court and Catalonia’s Council of Statutory Guarantees (CGE in Catalan). The socialist leader also said that the fast-track amendment passed last week “makes it clear that a single reading can only apply to bills that allow for it due to their simplicity,” and in his opinion the referendum bill does not fall into this category.

Last Wednesday, the Catalan Parliament passed the amendment to the chamber’s rules to allow bills to pass with a single reading, thanks to the votes of the Jxsí and CUP majority. While the Catalan socialists decided not join the conservative PPC and liberal Cs parties in supporting the decision to refer the amendment to the TC, the party announced it would keep a close eye on how it was used.

Hence Iceta’s objection to the use of the legislation to fast-track the referendum law: “Under the terms it was passed, the regulation does not cover the single reading of a bill with these characteristics,” insisted the socialist leader. To do so, he went on to say, would be to deprive MPs of certain rights and impede parliamentary debate of the bill.

The socialist leader pointed out that the key moment will be when the parliamentary bureau chooses to admit the bill for debate, which he claims should not happen because the CGE has already ruled that the Catalan Government “does not have the necessary powers to convoke a referendum on self-determination."