Catalan Socialists might break up for the self-determination debate

Barcelona (ACN).- On Thursday the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) – which is federated to the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) –announced an extraordinary council for next Sunday to discuss its stance on Catalonia’s self-determination vote. Several MPs and members of the PSC have protested against the party leadership’s decision not to support the Catalan Parliament’s petition to organise a legal self-determination vote following Article 150.2 of the Constitution on devolution. They stress the fact that the PSC ran in the last elections supporting Catalonia’s right to self-determination through a legal vote. The motion asks the Spanish authorities to transfer the powers to call a referendum to the Catalan Government; this is one of the five legal frameworks identified for holding a self-determination vote in Catalonia. This devolution formula is very similar to the one used for Scotland’s referendum. However, the PSC’s leadership and the PSOE agreed last weekend to focus on opposing any initiative in favour of Catalonia’s self-determination that has not been agreed in advance with the Spanish authorities rather than explicitly supporting measures which contribute to a vote on the issue. In line with this, the PSC leadership announced earlier this week that it would oppose the Catalan Parliament’s petition to transfer the referendum powers, arguing that the Spanish Government will not accept it. They argue that this formula will be “a failure” since Madrid will not accept it and they refuse to be “acolytes”. Critical voices say this argument is absurd since, if it was generalised, opposition parties – including the PSOE – should stop all their activity in the Spanish Parliament as the governing People’s Party (PP) never accepts their proposals and they are not approved, because the PP holds an absolute majority.

The rebel PSC MPs, who explicitly support Catalonia’s right to self-determination, have threatened to break ranks and vote for the petition. They might even leave the party or the parliamentary group. The PSC’s Secretary General Pere Navarro has called for this special summit to address the issue. If the PSC split, it would be one of the biggest events in Catalonia’s political landscape within the last 35 years, as it has historically been Catalonia’s second largest party. If several MPs left, the PSC would go from being the 3^rd to the 4^th largest group in the Catalan Parliament.

A few PSC MPs have already broken ranks

The rebel MPs have announced that they would not go against their electoral promises and against a defence of Catalan interests. Following this principle, they have threatened not to follow the indications of the party leadership but to give their explicit support to the Catalan Parliament’s petition asking to use Article 150.2 to devolve the powers to call for a referendum. It would be the second time that rebel PSC MPs break party discipline in the Catalan Parliament. In January, 5 out of the 21 PSC MPs refused to vote against the Catalan Parliament’s ‘Declaration of sovereignty and the right to self-determination by the people of Catalonia’.

Years of internal tensions within the PSC

In fact, Catalonia’s self-determination has been creating internal tensions within the PSC for the last few years and historical leaders have even abandoned the party, since they considered the leadership had kidnapped it and was not fully defending Catalan interests. At the same time, this debate has also created great tensions between the PSC and the PSOE. Several PSOE prominent figures asked the Spanish Socialists to break up with the PSC, with whom they merged in 1977 and formed a single party in Catalonia in order to run together in the elections. Last weekend, the tensions between the PSOE and the PSC were apparently resolved, but at the price of putting the Catalan Socialist Party on the verge of its own split.