New referendum law fails after Esquerra and Junts abstain in Parliament

Catalonia's major pro-independence parties, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Junts, have abstained in a vote to bring forward a new referendum law in the Catalan parliament on Thursday, prompting the legislation to fail.

The proposal was submitted by far-left CUP and suggested writing a new referendum law in the Catalan parliament, a vote that coincided with the celebration of the November 9, 2014 non-binding self-determination vote. 

While Junts and ERC abstained, the other groups voted against it, and Ciudadanos did not take part in the vote. 

Far-left CUP was against ERC and Junts' amendments as they said it "diluted" the motion, while the two major parties said that in 2017 a law had already been passed and that right now is a different moment. 

In fact, hours before the vote took place, Junts had reached an agreement with the Socialists to back a prime ministerial bid led by Pedro Sánchez, which includes an amnesty law for those crimes related to the independence push between 2012 and 2023. 

This is something that CUP does not agree with because they believe a referendum law has to be done by the Catalan parliament and not while negotiating support for a Spanish PM. 

"Right now, you have reached an agreement," Montserrat Vinyets, CUP MP, said in Parliament. 

"We are waiting for the agreement to include a referendum, and if this is not the case, we will be waiting for you with our proposal even though today does not go ahead," she added. 

The text proposed by CUP was focused on "immediately" building a new writing team in Parliament to create a new independence referendum law as the first step to hold the vote before the term ends, which is expected to happen in February 2025, unless there is a snap election before. 

The motion also included addressing the European Commission, the United Nations, and the Council of Europe before the second quarter of next year to ask for a "democratic solution to the conflict based on self-determination and amnesty."