catalan president

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, officially announced the referendum to the consuls in Barcelona. Before 60 international representatives based in the Catalan capital, Puigdemont emphasised this Wednesday the Government’s “determination” to hold the referendum and assured that “the threats” of the Spanish State won’t change its will. According to Puigdemont, the referendum will take place “in September at the latest” and it will have all the “democratic and legal guarantees”. Joined by the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, and the chairwoman of the consular corps in Barcelona, Peru’s consul Franca Lorella, Puigdemont insisted that the Government “will always bid for reaching an agreement with the Spanish State” to hold the referendum and emphasised its will for “permanent dialogue”. 

“2017 represents the end of the pro-independence process and will mark the start of a new era for Catalonia”. This is what Carles Puigdemont proclaimed on Monday during a conference held a year after being instated as Catalan President. Puigdemont also insisted that the referendum on independence will take place and that it “will be binding because the people will participate and make it their own”. He also called on the Spanish Government “to accept the democratic mandate” and allow the referendum and warned that a ‘no’ “won’t be enough” to prevent the vote from happening. “I won’t accept a simple ‘no’, they’ll have to explain why Catalonia can’t hold a referendum as other countries do”, he stated. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, insisted this Thursday on the importance of passing the budget for 2017. If the bill, which will be put to vote in February, doesn’t receive the required support in the Catalan Chamber, “the Government can’t continue, for reasons of dignity and democratic coherence”, Puigdemont stated. Thus, he called for pro-independence radical left CUP, the main partner of cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ in the Government to have “courage” and allow the bill to be passed. CUP already vetoed the previous budget last summer, forcing the extension of the 2015 budget, after considering it “too autonomic” and not proper of a state which aims to be independent.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, has ruled out running again in the next Catalan elections. He had already stated this last January, when he took office, and he confirmed his intention during a radio interview on Thursday. “In a year from now I won’t be President”, stated Puigdemont and insisted that the Government’s plan was to launch an 18-month long term of office which will expire next summer. “We committed to calling elections six months after the referendum at the most and my task finishes with this purpose, I don’t have any vocation to be a candidate for the presidency”, he assured. Marta Pascal, general coordinator of Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT), Puigdemont’s party, considered the president’s decision “coherent” and refused to open a debate on who will be PDeCAT’s candidate for this position.

Spain’s call for Catalan leaders to attend the upcoming Autonomous Communities’ summits to discuss regional policies has not changed the Government’s plan for the meetings. The Catalan Vice President and Catalan Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, have refused to attend the Council on Fiscal and Financial Policies (CPFF, going by its Catalan initials) this Thursday, citing other political commitments. Catalan Secretary of Economy, Pere Aragonès, will go instead. For his part, Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, has already announced he will not attend the Conference of Presidents convened by the Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, for the 17th of January. “Catalonia has won the right to a bilateral relationship as the demands of the Catalan people have nothing to do with the requests of other Autonomous Communities”, Puigdemont said in October, when he announced that he would not be attending the conference.

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) carried out this Wednesday its usual procedure and hand delivered the resolution notice which warns the Catalan executive of the criminal liability of launching the referendum plan. The document emphasised the magistrates’ duty to “impede or block” any initiative aimed at ignoring the TC suspension of the Government’s plan to call a referendum in Catalonia in September 2017. The notice warns Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, along with the members in the Catalan executive of the “eventual charges” which they may face. On Tuesday, the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, and the members of the Parliament’s Bureau also received the same notice, which was hand delivered by judicial secretaries from Catalonia’s Supreme Court.

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) suspension of the Parliament’s plan to call a referendum in Catalonia in September of next year has outraged many sectors of Catalan political and civil society. This Thursday, Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, stated that the TC’s decision “confirmed” the existence of “constitutional populism” in Spain which claims that “Catalans are not allowed to vote”. In response, assured Puigdemont, the Government will simply “apply democracy”. “Catalans have the right to vote, debate and hold meetings, therefore, we will vote, debate and hold meetings”, he stated. The Catalan President also took the chance to express his support and that of the whole executive for the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, who will face trial on Friday for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote in the Catalan Chamber last July.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, has summoned the members of the National Alliance for the Right to Self-Determination to meet on the 23^rd of December to start organising the referendum on independence. The summit, in compliance with the resolutions adopted at the general policy debate in October, will be chaired by Puigdemont and the President of the Parliament, Carme Forcadell. As sources close to the presidency have told the Catalan News Agency, the meeting will be held in the Parliament just after it has given green light to the 2017 budget. The aim of the meeting is to find political and social consensus around the organisation of the referendum to be held next September 2017. According to the Spanish Government spokesman, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, the meeting is a “symptom of unilateralism”, resulting from requests from “the radicals of the CUP”.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, is suspicious regarding Spain’s executive willingness to dialogue. During this Wednesday’s session of control in the Parliament, Puigdemont stated that Catalonia deserves a bilateral negotiation with the Government in Madrid and that he considers anything other than this a way to “dilute and disguise what is really going on” in Catalonia and therefore “confuse public opinion”. Pro-independence radical left CUP MP, Mireia Boya, went a bit further and urged Puigdemont not to go along with Spain’s “siren calls” in relation to its supposed openness to dialogue. On the other hand, Xavier García Albiol, the leader of the Catalan branch of Spain’s governing party PP, called for Puigdemont not to be like “a statue” before the “signals” sent by the Spanish Government. 

“For the last few years, especially since Catalonia passed the new Statute of Autonomy in 2010, Spain has neglected its duties towards Catalonia”, stated on Thursday Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont. In front of an auditorium full of businessmen and with Spain’s King, Philip VI and Spanish Vice President and Minister for Territorial Administrations, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, also present, Puigdemont emphasised Catalonia’s leading role in terms of business and praised its economic strength. During the ‘Ferrer Salat’ awards, given by Catalonia’s largest employers’ associations in recognition of the most outstanding businesses, Puigdemont lamented the Spanish Government’s attitude and accused it of refusing to listen to the citizens’ demands, which is an “indispensable condition” for having “the productive dialogue we all hope for” and which is the legal basis of a democracy. 

“It is unbelievable that being democratic in Spain is nowadays a risky sport”, stated Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont this Tuesday during an official trip to Paris. After meeting the leader of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), Jean Christophe Lagarde, Puigdemont lamented “Spain’s democratic weakness” but admitted that it “is not surprising”. In the same vein, Puigdemont gave an address on Monday at the centre of political studies of Sciences Po in Paris and denounced the “judicial persecution” that the Catalan politicians who defend the independence process must face. “The legal framework must be at the service of democracy and not the other way around”, he said and lamented the recent demands from the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) to file a complaint against Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote.  

Governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and their main partner in the Parliament, radical left CUP are putting the final touches to a referendum proposal. Both pro-independence forces have agreed to hold a vote by September 2017 “at the latest” and base it on a “clear question” which could be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (to independence). Although earlier this week CUP suggested holding the referendum next July, the radical left party admitted that it is not “for them alone to decide”, CUP MP Anna Gabriel said this Wednesday in an interview with Catalan television TV3. Gabriel also insisted that the referendum will be held “regardless of the Spanish State’s refusal”. In this vein, Gabriel considered that calling a referendum agreed with the Spanish State has to be regarded as “a technique” for the international audience.  

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.