The Catalan Parliament establishes the committee for self-determination with 80% support

Barcelona (ACN).- On Thursday, the Parliament of Catalonia set up the parliamentary committee for the right to self-determination with the support of all the parties except the Spanish nationalists People’s Party – which runs the Spanish Government – and the anti-Catalan nationalism Ciutadans. 80% of MPs support the creation of this commission, which will study legal ways to organise a self-determination vote in Catalonia. The Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Núria de Gispert, will chair the committee due to its importance. De Gispert has guaranteed she will play the “neutral” role of “moderator”. On the same day, the youth of the parties supporting the creation of this committee signed a manifesto backing up Catalonia’s right to self-determination, stating that Catalans have the democratic right to freely decide on their collective future. The parties supporting the creation of this parliamentary committee are: the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) – which runs the Catalan Government; the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) – which is the second largest party in the Parliament and has a stability pact with the CiU; the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) – which is part of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE, to which it is federated; the Catalan Green Socialist and Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA) – which is associated with the Spanish Izquierda Unida; and the radical left-wing and independence party CUP. They all support Catalonia’s right to self-determination and they hold 107 seats in the 135-seat Parliament.

Catalonia has taken another step on the road to self-determination with the formation of a parliamentary committee to study the legal ways in which to organise a self-determination vote in Catalonia and discuss organisational matters such as the type of question, constituency and date. As a fact illustrating the importance and transversal nature of this committee, it will be chaired by the Chamber Speaker herself, Núria de Gispert.

The PP and C’s leave the room

This decision was heavily criticised by the People’s Party (PP) and Ciutadans (C’s), the two Spanish nationalist parties who opposed the creation of such a committee and  who are totally against Catalonia’s independence and its right to self-determination. Therefore, the PP and C’s refused to participate in the new committee. In fact, after the voting and before the committee started its activities, the PP and C’s MPs left the room.

“The most important” committee created in the last few years

The President of the Catalan Parliament defended her role as the committee’s chair, since it is “the most important” committee created in the last few years. De Gispert guaranteed she will act in a “neutral” way, as a “moderator” and said she will be “looking for the groups’ complicity and dialogue”. She also send a message to the PP and C’s: “they know the door of this committee is open and it would be positive if they were participating in it”. Therefore, she added that “they will be welcome to participate in it”.

In her first speech as the committee’s Chairperson, De Gispert announced that the group will meet again before the end of July, in order to approve the list of experts that will appear before the committee. Furthermore, she asked the MPs for “outward-looking, generosity and lucidity”, because “so much hope and expectation cannot be jeopardised”.