Citizen protest throughout Catalonia against Constitutional Court's suspension of November's vote

Barcelona (ACN).- People massively and peacefully gathered in front of each town hall in Catalonia on Tuesday evening in order to protest against the decision to suspend the self-determination consultation vote made by the Constitutional Court the day before. Citizen protests have been organised in each of the 947 municipalities in Catalonia, despite the heavy rain in parts of the territory. In Barcelona, for instance, thousands of people carrying umbrellas filled up Sant Jaume Square, where the City Council is located. The demonstrations were organised by organised by the civil society associations Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, which were behind the massive rallies of September 2012, 2013 and 2014 that gathered more than 1.5 million people each time. These grass-roots organisations are not giving up hope of voting on the 9^th of November and launched their own campaign to ask citizens to participate and vote for independence. This campaign aims to mobilise up to 100,000 volunteers to carry out a door-to-door survey to visit all the homes in Catalonia.

Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday evening in front of Catalonia's town halls against the Constitutional Court's decision, despite the heavy rain that fell during the afternoon and evening. Carrying umbrellas, thousands of people gathered in front of Barcelona's City Council as well as in front of all the other 946 existing town halls. In fact, 94% of all Catalonia's municipalities voted in the last few days for motions supporting November's self-determination consultation vote.

Catalonia's self-determination process "is not over"

On Monday the Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the Catalan Law on Consultation Votes and the decree calling the 9th of November's self-determination consultation vote. Such a temporary suspension, which entered into force this Tuesday morning, was approved by the Court on Monday evening in an urgent manner, just 5 hours after the Spanish Government had filed its appeals, which questions the separation of powers. The temporary suspension of the law and the decree does not mean they are illegal, but it is just a cautionary measure whose duration can be as long as it takes the Court to reach a definitive decision on the issue. The Catalan Government and Parliament announced on Tuesday that they will file their allegations against the Court's decision, asking the Madrid-based body to reconsider its decision. However, the Catalan Government's Spokesperson, Francesc Homs, stated that Catalonia's self-determination process "is not over" because of the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension. In fact, Homs stated on Monday that the Spanish Government and the Constitutional Court could make "the greatest mistake in Spain's democracy" by not allowing Catalans to vote on the 9^th of November, since citizens will vote sooner or later anyway and the opposition from the Spanish establishment feeds pro-independence support.