constitution

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Around 600 jurists signed a manifesto in favor of holding a referendum on independence in Catalonia in accordance with the Spanish government. The signers of the text, which was presented on Wednesday at the Bar Association, gave “full support” to the celebration of such a vote. Furthermore, they stated that the referendum is “legitimate and legal” and that “it fits” within the Spanish Constitution. They also warned that “continuous opposition” from Madrid to coming to an agreement about the referendum justifies “other options” for Catalonia’s citizens to be able to express themselves on how they want to decide their future. Catalonia's Minister of Justice, Carles Mundó, was also present at the signing of the manifesto.

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) one of the legal bodies responsible for suspending the most initiatives aimed at executing Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap in the last few years, replaced its president this Wednesday. Francisco Pérez de los Cobos stepped down after nearly four years in office and took the opportunity to call for “political dialogue” . He defended Spain’s unity but admitted that the Spanish Constitution “can’t tackle all the problems derived from the constitutional order, especially those which emerge from the desire of one part of the state to alter its legal status”.  In the presence of the Spanish Minister for Justice, Rafael Català and the four magistrates which took office this Wednesday, Pérez de los Cobos emphasized that dialogue is an “urgent and unavoidable necessity”.

The Catalan Department for Foreign Affairs, International Relations and Transparency will promote a seminar to share the main experiences of participative democracy worldwide. The initiative will start on the 9^th of March at Barcelona’s Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB) and will consist of eight sessions focused on the constitutive process which took place in Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. According to the Department, the aim of these sessions is to share recent experiences which took place in different countries in Europe and Latin America where citizen participation was not only innovative but key in the elaboration of new constitutions. The seminar will include the presence of international professors and experts in this field.

At least a dozen Catalan City Councils will open their doors on the Spanish Constitution Day, on Tuesday the 6th of December. In addition, in almost 300 cities, such as Barcelona, the councillors of pro-independence parties will work, although City Hall will remain closed. Besides this, different protest and solidarity activities will also take place throughout Catalonia, following the recommendations of the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI), the promoter of the initiative. The organisation sent a manifesto to the elected members of the City Councils so they can read it in front of the municipal offices this Tuesday at 12 pm (CET time). The text deems the Spanish Constitution a “corset” and “a prison for democracy” that “impedes the Catalan people from freely deciding their political future”. The symbolic opening comes just two months after Spain’s National Day festivity, on the 12th of October, when several City Councils decided to open the municipal offices.

The Catalan Government Spokeswoman, Neus Munté warned this Tuesday that the “Spanish Constitution can’t be understood as a Criminal Code” and insisted on the Government’s commitment to “obey the democratic mandate of the 27-S Elections” and launch the pro-independence roadmap. She made these statements one day after the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) decided to suspend Catalonia’s plan to disconnect from Spain and opened the door to applying criminal charges to the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allowing the approval of the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process. According to Munté, the TC should be “a referee” in charge of settling “the constitutionality of the laws” rather than “an executor court”.

Pro-independence forces, governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, approved this Monday an agreed proposal which foresees the following steps to take on the roadmap towards Catalonia’s independence. The document establishes that the “Constitutive Process” will be divided into three stages: first there will be a participative process amongst the citizens, the second phase will imply passing the so-called three laws of disconnection, calling for new elections and writing the draft of the Catalan Constitution. At this point, the text mentions a “democratic unilateral mechanism which will allow to call for the Constitutive Assembly”, the body which will be responsible for writing the Catalan Constitution. The last stage will be a referendum to put this new Constitution to vote. 

PSOE’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, proposed a “political agreement with Catalonia” which would be bilateral and in the context of the reform of the Spanish Constitution foreseen by the Spanish Socialists. According to PSOE’s candidate for Spanish President, this agreement would “recognise” Catalonia’s “singularity” and “improve its self-government” while always “respecting the implications of the principle of equality”. However, Sánchez didn’t specify whether this agreement would imply a new Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia. This bilateral agreement is one of the proposals in the document “Commitments for a ‘yes’ to the government of change” which PSOE presented this Monday. Another one is a possible reform of the funding scheme of the Autonomous Communities which would start in the next two months. 

The new Catalan state will be “a citizen and participative republic”, based on a presidential system, without an army but with an “Agency for Security and Defence” which would protect citizens and control the borders. These are some of the points of the first draft that ‘Constituïm’, a group made up of several professionals from different fields that has already put together previous attempts at writing a Catalan Constitution, delivered this Wednesday to the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell. In total, the first proposal presented up to now includes 49 articles. The draft also foresees Catalan and Aranese, a language which is spoken in the northern region of Val d’Aran, in the Catalan Pyrenees, as the only official languages of the republic, with Spanish set to have a “special status”. The text will now be sent to several groups so they can study its constitutive process. Among those reviewing the document are the different political groups in Parliament along with civil society associations such as the National Assembly of Catalonia (ANC), the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) and the association promoting Catalan culture, Òmnium Cultural.

The leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) says the plans are “illegal and unilateral” but that he could offer a better fiscal settlement to Catalonia. The Catalan President and the Spanish presidential hopeful met on Tuesday in Barcelona in the first of what they hope could be a series of meetings to restart the dialogue between Madrid and Barcelona. The Catalan President thanked Sánchez for his willingness to talk to him, but regretted his comments about a potential “coexistence crisis” in Catalonia.

The committee designed to study the constitutive process which has to put in place the basis of a future Catalan Republic has set to work. This Monday, pro-independence cross party ‘Junts Pel Sí’ MP Lluís Llach took responsibility at the head of the committee, after his predecessor, Muriel Casals, died from a head injury after suffering an accident in the beginning of February. The pro-independence parties in the Parliament considered it “indispensable” to set up a debate on the future Catalan constitution. “It will never be prohibited”, stated alternative left coalition ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ MP Joan Coscubiela. The committee starts its work amid warnings from the Spanish executive, which ultimately took this committee before the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) to evaluate its legality and potential future suspension.