Congress president rejects Puigdemont’s offer to explain referendum

Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will get no chance to explain the independence referendum to the Spanish Congress after his request was refused on Friday by the lower chamber’s president, Ana Pastor. In a letter to Puigdemont, which ACN has seen, Pastor says that the chamber’s regulations would only allow the Catalan president to appear if presenting the matter in the form of a bill, before going on to refer him to the Senate.

Citing article 87 of the Constitution and article 127 of the chamber’s regulations, Pastor informed Puigdemont that the rules “do not contemplate any plenary session debate to which you could request to appear.” However, Pastor goes on to inform the president that Spanish Senate regulations do allow for a president of one of the autonomous communities to appear before it, as part of the General Committee of Autonomous Communities. In short, Puigdemont can only address the Spanish Congress on the matter of the referendum if he is willing to submit it to a vote.

Pastor says that she received Puigdemont’s request on Thursday June 29, even though his letter was sent on June 16. In his letter asking Pastor to allow him to explain the referendum to Congress, Puigdemont anticipated a refusal with the argument that it is not “reasonable” to repeat formulas that include a vote that is destined to be “rejected, cut down or unfulfilled”, something he pointed out has happened on a number of occasions in recent years. In fact, in April 2014, the Spanish Congress rejected the non-binding referendum eventually held unilaterally on November 9.

As for the Senate, Puigdemont already asked for permission to give an address in the former assembly hall in March, and was informed by the upper chamber that it could only take place in the chamber’s autonomous communities committee. Puigdemont rejected that offer and so the talk ended up taking place in the Madrid town hall instead.