Referendum campaign unsettles authorities and opposition parties

Not everyone welcomed the launch of the campaign encouraging a ‘yes’ vote in the October 1 independence referendum. In fact, the attorney general immediately opened an investigation into the campaign launch event held in Tarragona on Thursday. While on Friday the authorities had neither demanded information from the company that manages the Tarraco Arena Plaça where the event was held, or ordered police to take any action, the ongoing investigation aims to determine whether the event can be considered illegal for defying the high court suspension of the referendum and events to prepare for it.

In fact, the attorney general, José Manuel Maza, publicly challenged the legality of the whole referendum process on Friday. Talking to the Cadena Cope radio station, Maza said that thousands of Catalans had been “abducted” by the pro-independence parties, who had convinced them that the process comes under international law. “No! It is an offence and it is illegal and all citizens who go to vote should know that,” he said.

The state’s hardline approach to the referendum process was also seen in the Spanish government’s reaction to the offer of talks from pro-independence leaders. Describing it as “sarcastic”, the Spanish government rejected the offer made in a letter sent to Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and the King of Spain, and signed by Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, Vice President Oriol Junqueras, Mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau and Parliament president, Carme Forcadell. “It is sarcastic to talk of dialogue at this stage and alongside a series of continued acts of disobedience," said Spanish government spokesman, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, who pledged further legal action against referendum campaign events.

“Time for putting people before parties”

Yet, PSOE leader, Pedro Sánchez, was critical of both sides in the Catalan conflict and argued that the public was paying the price for a political crisis that had caused “a rupture of coexistence and neglect in the management of essential public services.” Without making specific reference to the referendum campaign, Sánchez stressed the need for talks: “Catalonia is in Spain’s heart and the dialogue proposed by PSOE in Congress is the first step towards a fair outcome that the majority of Catalans want,” he said, adding that “it is not time for recriminations, for party initials or flags,” but rather “for wisdom and common sense, for putting people before parties."

However, the leader of the Catalan PSC socialists, Miquel Iceta, was more explicit in his criticisms of the handling of the political crisis. "Saying you want to negotiate while putting on all types of activities to carry out an illegal vote has no credibility,” said Iceta, in reference to the joint letter calling for talks sent to Rajoy by the pro-independence leadership. For Iceta, the only way the Catalan government could credibly ask for talks would be if it stopped “infringing the law”. Yet, at the same time, the PSC leader said he was confident that Colau “would do nothing illegal” in her agreement with Puigdemont to encourage residents of the Catalan capital to take part in the referendum.

Opposition calls for clarity from Colau

Other Catalan opposition parties were not so trusting of the Barcelona mayor’s intentions. On Friday, the Cs and PPC municipal parties criticized Colau’s “opacity” over her agreement with the Catalan president. Both parties called on Colau to guarantee that no city council premises would be used for the October 1 vote. “We want clear positions, that the city council remains within the law, that it complies with the rulings of the TC (Constitutional Court),” Cs municipal leader, Carina Mejías, told press. It was a position also taken by Barcelona PPC leader, Alberto Fernández Díaz, who called for the details of the deal to be revealed. Fernández Díaz also warned the mayor that she will be held responsible “for what she does but also for what she does not do,” in other words, preventing or impeding the referendum.