Next steps on pro-independence roadmap put to vote, despite TC claims of illegality

Barcelona (CNA).- The conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process, which included the possibility of debating on a unilateral referendum on independence in Catalonia, have been included in this Wednesday’s agenda. Thus, the Parliament decided to put these points to vote despite the claims of the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC), which claimed that some of the next steps on the pro-independence roadmap put forward by the Committee and which emerged from the 9-N agreed proposal, were illegal. Representatives from the pro-independence forces, governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP stated that they are due to the democratic mandate which emerged from the 27-S elections. “We are not doing anything illegal” stated Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, adding that he considered it “absolutely normal” for the Parliament to discuss the conclusions.  

Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, the main party in the opposition, voted against including the Committee’s conclusions in the Parliament’s agenda, as did the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the Conservative People’s Party (PP). Alternative left alliance, ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ abstained from voting. The parties which opposed the decision claimed that the vote was “against the law” and urged the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, to impede it.

However, Forcadell stated that it was not for the Parliament’s Bureau to place obstacles in the path of the agenda and emphasised that the Catalan Chamber “is sovereign” and therefore “beyond” the Parliament’s Bureau and its President.

For their part, the pro-independence MPs from ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and CUP assured that they are “not afraid” of the TC and that they are committed to following the 27-S democratic mandate.

Puigdemont: “We are not doing anything illegal”

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont considered it “absolutely normal” for the Parliament to include the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process in this Wednesday’s agenda. “We are not doing anything illegal, this Chamber makes laws and it is absolutely legitimated”, he stated. He considered it “from Mars” to question whether the Parliament could pass a document which has been discussed in a working group. “For a Parliament to pass the conclusions of a Committee is not a democratic exceptionality, it is perfectly normal”, he added.