binding referendum

‘En Comú Podem’, the alternative left coalition which won the last Spanish Elections in Catalonia, obtaining 12 MPs in the 350-seat Spanish Parliament, bid for “finding alliances” and “fighting for the recognition of Catalonia’s right to decide” before setting out other scenarios “which are not real yet”. These are some of the key points which ‘En Comú Podem’ leader, Xavier Domènech, presented this Tuesday at a press conference in the European Parliament. According to Domènech, achieving European support to hold a referendum in Catalonia is a task which should be pursued “through persistence rather than urgency”. In this vein, he admitted that “the Spanish State’s pressure” to diminish international support for the referendum “are public and obvious”. Domènech insisted on his party’s bid for holding “a referendum with all the guarantees” in Catalonia rather than “a 9-N plus”, that is to say, a repetition of the symbolic vote on independence which took place in 2014

Former Catalan President, Artur Mas, testified before the court this Monday for alleged disobedience and breach of trust for allowing the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. During his testimony, Mas insisted that the non-binding referendum “was not a personal whim or a last-minute idea” but “the consequence of wide parliamentary agreements and explicit and reiterated mandates of the Chamber”. Moreover, he emphasised that the 9-N "was unstoppable" since it was in the hands of volunteers rather than under the Government's control. Mas insisted that the 9-N took place “after democratic elections which nobody refuted nor questioned”. Mas refused to answer the Public Prosecutor’s questions after his testimony. Former Catalan vice-president, Joana Ortega and former Catalan Minister for Education, Irene Rigau have also declared before the judge.

The Catalan Chamber passed on Thursday the pro-independence forces’ agreed proposal to call a vote on independence in Catalonia by September 2017. Governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, radical left CUP and alternative left alliance ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ allowed the bill to go through. According to the bill, the referendum has to be “binding” and based on a “clear” question and a “binary” answer. In the event that ‘yes’ to independence wins, the bill foresees calling constitutive elections in March 2018. The document also establishes that “lack of agreement with the Spanish State” is not a reason for the referendum to be rejected. The Parliament also passed the ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot proposal to hold a referendum “with real political and legal effects” and launch the necessary initiatives “before the Spanish State”. Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the Conservative People’s Party (PP), refused to vote, considering the proposals to have emerged from resolutions which have been suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC).

Current Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, responded this Friday to Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont’s request to hold a binding referendum on independence in Catalonia. “National sovereignty doesn’t accept neither comas nor conditions”, she stated. “What Mr Puigdemont is asking for can’t be negotiated, neither by us, the Spanish Congress nor the Senate, because it is not ours but belongs to the 47 million Spaniard”she added, referring to Spain’s sovereignty. Sáenz de Santamaría warned Puigdemont that “he is subject to the law”and that going “further”from his functions “disrespects the national sovereignty”. Thus, Spain’s Vice President closed to the door on the possibility of agreeing a referendum in order to overcome the deadlock in Catalonia, as Puigdemont suggested during his vote of confidence speech. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, insisted on the Government’s will “to collaborate with a Spanish State which would allow Catalans to vote”, but warned that the offer to hold a binding referendum on Catalonia’s independence “doesn’t expire, but [it] won’t paralyse us either”.“It’s either a referendum or a referendum”, he stated before the Parliament during the first phase of the vote of confidence and forecast that the vote will take place “in the second half of September”. The Catalan President called on MPs to start “a chain of confidence which will not end tomorrow [when the vote of confidence will take place] but continue until Catalonia becomes an independent country”. In this sense, he warned those who won’t support the budget for 2017 not to support him on Thursday and “avoid further wasting of time”. Although Puigdemont assured that he was “not afraid” of the vote of confidence result, he also insisted that he will call new elections if he doesn’t obtain enough votes.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, will call the Spanish Government to hold a binding referendum in Catalonia. He will do so on the 28th of September, coinciding with the vote of confidence to which he will submit in the Parliament. Puigdemont confirmed this this Sunday in a press conference before the international press. He also predicted that there will be constitutive elections in Catalonia within a year’s time, according to the pro-independence roadmap. Puigdemont also commented on Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs’ statement comparing Catalonia’s pro-independence process “defiance” to a terrorist attack. According to the Catalan President, José Manuel García Margalló’s words were not only “inopportune” but “harmful to victims of terrorism”.