Spanish Constitutional Court rejects 3 appeals against the Catalan Statute of Autonomy

Madrid (ACN).- The Spanish Constitutional Court has rejected the appeals against the Catalan Statute of Autonomy from Aragon and Balearic Islands. The appeals were relating to the 13^th additional disposal regarding the Aragon Crown Archives, to which Catalonia was the political and economic centre. The Court has also “not admitted” the Valencian Community’s appeal, saying that point 5 of article 206 regarding levelling mechanisms on public funding is constitutional. They have also declared article 220 regarding the Mixed Commission Spanish State-Catalan Government on Economic Affairs and Taxation and point 1 of the 3^rd additional disposal regarding Spanish State’s investments in Catalonia as constitutional. There are still 3 other appeals against the Catalan Statute of Autonomy from 2 other Autonomous Communities to be decided upon: Murcia and La Rioja, as well as from the Spanish Ombudsman.

On the 28^th of June, the Spanish Constitutional Court decided on the Conservative and Spanish Nationalist People’s Party’s (PP) appeal against Catalonia’s main law, the Statute of Autonomy. The appeal questioned more than a hundred articles in an extremely controversial debate, completely politicised by all sides. With a delegitimized court, the Court trimmed Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy, which had previously been approved via referendum, as well as by the Spanish and the Catalan Parliaments. The Court’s decision had a tremendous impact on Catalan politics, as well as Spanish ones. Catalonia’s independence movement grew and the biggest demonstration ever support calling Catalonia a nation filled Barcelona streets with more than one million people.