Pro-independence parties ready to disobey Spain's resolution

Barcelona (CNA).- Pro-independence parties left wing ERC and radical left CUP reacted this Monday to the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC)’s suspension of the pro-independence roadmap, ratified last week by the Parliament. CUP MP Mireia Vehístated that the Catalan Chamber “will continue to launch the Constitutive Process”of the Catalan Republic and assured that the radical lefties “won’t obey the TC’s decision”. Regarding the possibility that the TC may suspend the Parliament’s President Carme Forcadell as well, CUP MP Anna Gabriel warned that this would represent “a point of no return”for the Spanish state and that this would require “a countrywide response”. In a similar vein, pro-independence left wing ERC’s spokesman in the Spanish Parliament Joan Tardàlamented the “authoritarian way”and the “judicial violence”used by the Spanish state. “We will remain faithful to the Parliament and if we have to disobey we will do so”, he warned.

The Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, also lamented the TC’s decision to suspend the pro-independence roadmap and said on twitter that Catalans “already suspended the TC on the 27-S”, referring to the last Catalan elections, which resulted in a pro-independence majority in the Parliament.

‘Ciutadans’: “Breaking the law has consequences”

Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, the party in the opposition, also commented on the TC’s suspension. The vice president of the Catalan Chamber, JoséMaría Espejo-Saavedra, considered the magistrates’ decision “normal”and stated that “breaking the law has consequences”. He also stated that the Parliament’s decision to pass the pro-independence roadmap “is against the majority of Catalans and also Spaniards”and that he therefore backed the TC’s procedure.

PP accuse pro-independence parties of “putting Catalonia’s autonomy at risk”

Conservative People’s Party (PP) leader in the Parliament, Xavier García Albiol celebrated the TC’s decision, which he considered “a wise call for attention”and hoped that pro-independence parties would not use it “to continue acting as if they were victims”and turn upcoming dates, such as Catalonia’s National Party on the 11th of September “into a pro-independence coven”.

According to Albiol, pro-independence parties ERC, CUP and the former Convergència party, now renamed the ‘Catalan Democratic Party’, are “responsible for the institutional crisis”in Catalonia. “There hasn’t been such a crisis since Franco’s dictatorship”he stated and accused these parties of “having achieved what Franco couldn’t achieve himself: putting Catalonia’s autonomy and self-government at risk”. He also accused the pro-independence parties of “being responsible for the tension”in Catalonia and warned that “every defeat will be answered with more Rule of Law”.

Albiol also called for the pro-independence parties to use the 20-day period that the TC offers to present appeals against the suspension “to go back to political normality and abandon the childish and unreal arguments”.

PSC call on Parliament to abandon “the unilateral way”

 

The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), which refused to vote on the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process last week, considered the TC’s suspension a “reasonable and logical”decision. Indeed, PSC MP Alícia Romero called both the Parliament and the Catalan Government to “be cautious”and abandon “the unilateral way”since “it is not the way”and is only leading to “confrontation”. 

‘Catalunya Síque es Pot’: “The Court can’t respond to democracy”

Alternative left alliance ‘Catalunya Síque es Pot’considered the TC’s decision to “certify that it is impossible”to resolve the political confrontation between Catalonia and Spain “through the court”or even “through the criminal way, as is being suggested”, stated the party’s leader, Lluís Rabell. He insisted that a political problem “can only be solved by political and democratic means”and that, in the end, “people will have their say,  like it or not”.

‘Societat Civil Catalana’expect Forcadell to be suspended

'Societat Civil Catalana', a Spanish unity association which has been repeatedly linked with extreme right organisations, also reacted to the TC’s suspension. In a communique they “celebrated”the magistrates decision regarding Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap and hoped for it to lead to “the suspension from office of the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and other MPs”. ‘Societat Civil Catalana’s President, Rafael Arenas, considered pro-independence process to be “an attack on the Rule of Law and a violation of Catalans’ basic liberties”. Arenas expected the TC’s decision “to prevent the Parliament from becoming an instrument to serve a coup against democracy and the constitutional order”.