artur mas

Carles Puigdemont took office this Tuesday and became Catalan President number 130. “We will respond to the people’s hopes” stated Puigdemont during his speech and added that it is “not possible to guarantee” a better life for all citizens “with the skills we currently have, with the skills we have been left”. The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, representatives from all the groups in the Catalan chamber and personalities from civil society attended the ceremony. Current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the Spanish Government’s Delegate in Catalonia, María de los Llanos de Luna, were the only representatives from the Spanish government to attend the event.  

Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) president and mayor of Girona city Carles Puigdemont has been instated as Catalan President number 130 by an absolute majority of the Parliament. Puigdemont, a member of cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ proposed by current Catalan President Artur Mas, obtained 70 votes in favour, 63 against and 2 abstentions. The investiture debate took place this Sunday after a last-minute agreement between pro-independence forces ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and CUP and just before all the legal deadlines were due to expire and new elections would have had to been called in Catalonia.

Just when calling for new elections seemed to be unavoidable, cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP have finally reached an agreement to resolve the presidency of the new Catalan government and launch the independence roadmap. Current Catalan President and ‘Junts Pel Sí’s number four, Artur Mas has decided to step aside and president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) and mayor of Girona city, Carles Pugidemont, has been appointed as the candidate of consensus. In exchange, some of CUP’s MPs will resign in order to guarantee the stability of the new government. The investiture debate will take place on Sunday and a new President would have to be elected before midnight.

Left wing ERC leader and ‘Junts Pel Sí’ number five, Oriol Junqueras, considers it “irresponsible” to talk about elections and urged current governing party liberal CDC and radical left CUP “to be loyal to the country” and “try to find an agreement”. Junqueras noted the “sacrifices” that ERC has made in order to reach the present situation and urged the other pro-independence forces to “use up all the deadlines” as agreement “is still possible”. “Very complicated negotiations have been solved in a few days, even in a few minutes” he stated. According to ERC’s leader, an agreement is better than “a scenario full of uncertainties” which would be elections in March. 

Current Catalan President Artur Mas admitted to being ready to call for elections, but won’t do so until the 11^th of January, when the legal deadline expires. However, Mas insisted that cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ “can’t make any other offer” to radical left CUP since “the presidency of the Catalan Government is not a fish auction”. “Junts Pel Sí has moved on everything which mattered. CUP hasn’t moved on the only thing that wasn’t important: the ‘who’” he stated. “Our mistake was to trust in CUP’s sense of state” he assured and added that CUP “didn’t understand that to turn Catalonia into an independent state it is necessary to add and not to subtract, voting rather than vetoing”. According to Mas, accepting the conditions of those who “put the vetoes and the crosses” would be “the end of the pro-independence process.”

Radical left pro-independence CUP won’t invest current Catalan President Artur Mas as President. On Sunday representatives from CUP’s local and territorial divisions and the 11 from the different organisations related to the radical left party made their choice regarding the next steps on the pro-independence roadmap. “We are not satisfied with this result” admitted CUP MP Gabriela Serra. “CUP has always supported Catalonia’s independence” she emphasised “we have made a move and now we will wait for the others to make a move as well” she stated, referring to pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’. “The process doesn’t finish today. It will continue with or without Mas’ investiture” she concluded. ‘Junts Pel Sí’ have repeatedly insisted that Mas is their only candidate and, therefore, the calendar from now on will most likely lead to new elections, which would take place in March.

Current Catalan President Artur Mas assured that he “would make a fool” of himself if he were to call elections before using up the time to constitute a new government, which legally finishes on the 10^th of January. Until then “there is life”, he assured and admitted that cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’s only choice is to wait for radical CUP’s decision after their General Assembly ended in a tie. Mas insisted that elections are not his “priority” and warned that CUP could “cause” new elections but not “a change in President” as this would “derail” the pro-independence process. According to Mas, ‘Junts Pel Sí’s proposal “has long been studied” and as long as CUP “is within its right to accept it or refuse it” the cross-party list also has “the right to say this is how far we have come”, he concluded.

The eyes of Catalan politics will be set this weekend on pro-independence radical left CUP’s General Assembly, which according to CUP members Natàlia Sànchez and Xevi Generó “will probably be CUP’s most decisive assembly yet”. The 4,000 CUP members registered to attend the event won’t only have to decide on whether to instate current Catalan President Artur Mas but also on the social action plan presented by cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, as well as discussing the basis to start building the Catalan Republic. The assembly will mark the end of the negotiation process between pro-independence forces CUP and ‘Junts Pel Sí’, which started right after the 27-S Catalan Elections. 

The results of the 20-D Spanish Elections and the negotiations to form a new government in Catalonia, which are still ongoing, are worrying the business world. During the celebration of the eighth edition of the Carles Ferrer Salat Awards, which recognise remarkable initiatives in the business world, Foment del Treball’s president Joaquim Gay de Montellà highlighted the difficulties in forming “stable and strong” governments. “Everything would be easier if it would have been possible to start a dialogue process” he stated in a speech before current Catalan President Artur Mas and the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García Margallo. Gay de Montellà also announced that “the risk of recession has moved away and the economy is running”.

The negotiations between cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP reached their deadline this Tuesday. The pro-independence forces have agreed on a 63-page proposal to start building the Catalan Republic and establish the legality of this constitutive process. Now the document will have to be validated by CUP’s base, which will gather this Sunday at the party’s General Assembly. “We are continuing with our democratic commitment” stated 'Junts Pel Sí' top member Raúl Romeva, who highlighted that they are following the “citizens’ mandate expressed in the 27-S elections”. Regarding CUP’s veto against current Catalan President Artur Mas, who is 'Junts Pel Sí's only candidate, Romeva emphasised that they “will instate a presidency rather than a president” and restated their proposal of “a collegiate presidency composed by a President of the government and three government commissions”. 

The negotiations between pro-independence forces radical left CUP and cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ to constitute a new government in Catalonia are continuing. The results of the 20-D Spanish Elections and the victory of alternative left coalition En Comú Podem in Catalonia and the good result of left wing ERC show that Catalonia is turning to the left, according to CUP. The party has therefore reinforced their ‘no’ to instating Artur Mas as Catalan President and has called on ‘Junts Pel Sí’ to propose “an alternative presidency which could generate a greater consensus”. CUP has also invited En Comú Podem and their partners in the Catalan Parliament, Catalunya Sí que es Pot, to join the “constitutive process of the Catalan Republic”.

Christian-Democrat Unió is the smaller party within the former governing coalition CiU. After the political alliance's break up, Unió is running in the Spanish elections "to represent all those Catalans who defend a moderate position" and believe "in dialogue and agreement" as the only "possible solution" to improve Catalonia's relationship with Spain, stated its leader Josep Anton Duran i Lleida. According to Duran the "pro-independence forces are tricking the citizens" in Catalonia, as they have "already reached an agreement" but refuse "to explain its consequences to the citizens" which he assured "represents electoral fraud". Catalonia's independence, besides being "impossible" will lead to "political and economic instability", assured Duran i Lleida and added that none of the parties involved and "of course not the EU" will accept the rupture of a Member State nor another crisis within the EU "like the Greek one but with greater dimensions".

Catalonia "won't get anything" from a reform of the Spanish Constitution, on the contrary, "it will lead to frustration" assured current Catalan President, Artur Mas. "It is nonsense to suggest that Catalonia burns itself to flames by promoting a reform of the Spanish Constitution" as it will lead "to a dead end once again", assured Mas. He made these statements in response to the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) President, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, who urged the Parliament to propose concrete modifications of the Spanish Constitution in order to launch their demands rather than doing so by breaking the law. "We know that the Parliament has the right to propose constitutional reforms" stated Mas "but now it is not about rights, it is about politics, real politics" he assured. Mas made these declarations in Paris, where he was attending the Paris Climate Change Conference.

The members of pro-independence radical left CUP voted against Artur Mas' candidacy for Catalan President with 823 votes out of 1,300 and urged cross-party list 'Junts Pel Sí' to make a move. "If there are elections in March it will be because 'Junts Pel Sí' won't have made the move that people are asking for" stated CUP's number two, Anna Gabriel, and reinforced the party's will "to stay at the negotiations table". CUP's position is now reinforced by their base and their strategy is still to launch an action plan against social poverty, break with the Spanish state, start a constitutive process and choose "an alternative to Mas", as pointed out by CUP MP Benet Salellas. Therefore, they rejected the cross-party list 'Junts Pel Sí' proposal to create a "college presidency" with Mas leading the government together with three "government commissions" with delegated competences.

The negotiations between the two main pro-independence forces in the Parliament over constituting a new government are still ongoing. After radical left CUP repeatedly stated that they won't re-elect Artur Mas as President, cross-party 'Junts Pel Sí''s candidate, the 27-S elections winning list presented this Thursday an alternative proposal: a draft to create three "government commissions" with delegated competences. Under this structure, Mas would continue to hold the Catalan presidency but left-wing ERC leader Oriol Junqueras, current Catalan vice-president Neus Munté and 'Junts Pel Sí' top member former MEP Raül Romeva would constitute a "Presidency's Board". The proposal also suggests holding a vote of confidence in 10 months' time to evaluate the evolution of the agreement.