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The Spanish government has decided to take the Catalan Law on Empty Houses, the Catalan Law for Local Government and the Catalan Law on Equality between Men and Women to the Constitutional Court. The executive in Madrid has announced this only two days after a meeting between Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and Catalan President Carles Puigdemont in which both leaders agreed on trying to reduce the number of litigious cases between the administrations. With these appeals, the number of Catalan laws challenged by the Spanish government in the Constitutional Court tops 30. Once the appeals are accepted by the Court, the laws will be automatically temporarily suspended.

The pro-independence forces in the Catalan Parliament, governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, reaffirmed this Thursday the agreement to start building the Catalan Republic, which was approved by the Catalan Chamber on the 9th of November and later suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). Both parties have supported the motion presented by CUP which aimed to relight the proposal. Thus, 71 MPs of the 135 sitting in the Parliament voted in favour, while the 11 MPs from alternative left ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ have abstained. Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and Catalan People’s Party (PPC), which is the Catalan branch of the conservative and current governing party in Spain PP, voted against the motion. “We are here to do what we said we would do” stated ‘Junts Pel Sí’ MP, songwriter and anti-Franco activist, Lluís Llach. On the other hand, PPC’s Xavier García Albiol stated that the vote didn’t mean anything as “Catalonia will continue to be Spain, whether you like it or not”.

Three new Catalan government delegations will be opened during this term of office. According to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Jordi Solé, the new delegation in Lisbon will be in full operation “in the following months” while those planned for the Vatican City and Morocco are still pending deployment by the Government. Although these three new delegations have already been appealed by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC), Solé insisted on the “key role” that these institutions play in Catalonia’s foreign affairs strategy and emphasised the government’s will to “continue deploying Catalonia’s institutional representation in the world”. The Catalan government already has seven delegations abroad, as well as three more projected in the short-term and some others to be opened in the near future.

Spain’s executive has repeatedly insisted on the alleged illegality of the new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs and has taken its creation and competences before the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). The Catalan government decided to change the name of this department as a “preventive measure” to avoid the TC taking further measures against it but the Spanish executive again appealed and urged the TC to suspend the Ministry, “regardless of the denomination”, after considering that its competences “remain unchanged”. This Thursday, the Parliament has decided that they won’t obey the TC’s cautionary suspension of the new Ministry, the opposite to what the Catalan People’s Party (PP) and Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ urged the government to do.

The former Catalan Minister for the Presidency and Catalan coalition ‘Democràcia i Llibertat’s current leader in the Spanish Parliament, Francesc Homs, has voluntarily testified to Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) regarding the celebration of the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. Homs, who was President Mas’ right hand man at the time the vote took place, assured that the TSJC has “political” intentions regarding this case and that it is at the Spanish government’s service. Last October, the TSJC also summonsed former Catalan President, Artur Mas, former Vice-President Joana Ortega and Catalan Minister of Education Irene Rigau for having authorised and co-organised the non-binding and symbolic vote.

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) accepted the appeal presented by the Spanish executive against the Parliament’s committee to study the constitutive process of a potential Catalan Republic. According to current Spanish vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the Catalan Government’s first aim was to make it “a legislative” committee but they decided to turn it into a “study committee” in view of its possible unconstitutionality. Furthermore, Spain’s state attorney believes that by launching this committee the Parliament would not be fulfilling the TC sentence which suspended the pro-independence proposal approved in the Catalan chamber on the 9^th of November.

The Catalan government has decided this Tuesday to change the name of the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs, amid the controversy with the Spanish executive and after the recent suspension of the department by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). The new name is to be the ‘Affairs and Institutional Relations and Foreign Affairs and Transparency’. “We have made this decision in order not to stop” stated Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva. The pro-independence party ‘Junts Pel Sí’s top member and former MEP also assured that the government “won’t stop doing” foreign action and insisted that “neither the functions nor the responsibilities” of the department have changed.

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) has accepted the appeal presented by the Spanish executive to suspend the new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Thus, the department lead by pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ top member, Raül Romeva will be suspended at first for five months, which is the period that the TC has to study whether the new Ministry is in line with the Spanish Constitution. Earlier this month, the current Spanish vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, and current Spanish Minister for Justice, Rafael Catalá claimed that the Catalan government had exceeded the competences in matters of foreign action specified in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. For his part, the Catalan President Carles Puigdemont assured that Catalonia “will continue to do foreign action”and defended the legitimacy of the new department. 

The judicial process for alleged fiscal fraud and money laundering against family members of the President of Catalonia between 1980 and 2003 Jordi Pujol continues. This Wednesday, Pujol testified before Spain's High Court, 'La Audiencia Nacional', and gave further details on his father’s legacy, some €4 million which it is alleged was kept in Andorra for 34 years without informing tax authorities. He insisted that his father, Florenci, left the sum for Jordi Pujol’s wife and children, not for him, due to the risk of retaliation for his political activities in the years after Franco’s death. The founder of the centre-right Catalan nationalist coalition CiU in the 1970s also set himself apart from some of his sons’ businesses and denied being a corrupt politician. His wife, Marta Ferrusola, refused to answer any questions from either the judge or the prosecution.

The current Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, announced that the processing of the three laws which would prepare Catalonia for its disconnection process from Spain may be taken before the court. According to Rajoy, Spain’s legal services will analyse these laws and if evidence that they “could contradict what it is said in the Constitution” is found “the Spanish government will act as is has done up to now”. “The government is temporary, but the State, the Constitution and the laws are still in force” he warned. Rajoy also announced that the executive will approve this Friday a conflict of jurisdiction to be presented to the Spanish Constitutional Court regarding the creation of the new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 

The Spanish government’s acting vice president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría announced that the competences of the new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs will be taken before the court. The commission to study the constitutive process of a potential Catalan Republic, which was approved on Thursday during the new government’s first plenary session, will also be appealed. Spain’s executive believes that both actions violate competences of the Spanish government. On the other hand, Spain’s executive will not impugn new Catalan President Carles Puigdemont’s taking office, during which Puigdemont didn’t mention Spain’s King nor the Spanish Constitution. 

The magistrates of the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) have unanimously declared the Parliament's declaration of independence unconstitutional and, therefore, invalid. The TC has considered that the agreed pro-independence proposal approved by the Parliament on the 9^th of November violates core articles of the Spanish Constitution, such as "the indivisible unity of Spain" and "the subjection of the public powers to the law" and also "attacks the Rule of Law". The TC has made its decision only 22 days after the appeal presented by the Spanish executive was accepted, which makes this resolution the fastest in the TC's history. On the other hand, the appeals against Spanish Government's abortion reform, led by People's Party (PP), are waiting for a resolution since 2010.  

Catalonia will be the only Autonomous Community in Spain whose part of the Spanish Liquidity Point (FLA) will be subject to extra control measures. "It is arbitrary discrimination" against Catalan citizens and the Government's suppliers, stated current Catalan Finance Minister Andreu Mas-Colell this Tuesday and announced that the Government will take the measures before the Spanish Supreme Court. Spanish Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro justified the imposition of "specific and additional controls" to guarantee "transparency" and ensure that “the FLA won’t fund pro-independence whims”. Mas-Colell accused Spain's executive of trying to take political advantage of an "ordinary procedure between administrations" and urged the Spanish government to pay the pending 3,034 million euros from the FLA before the end of the year. 

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) announced this Wednesday the acceptance of the appeal made by the Spanish government to stop the reform of Catalonia’s Tax Agency. The TC declared “invalid and unconstitutional” article 4 of Law 9/2015, which stipulated that all those civil servants who want to be eligible for a position in the body would need to have permanent positions in Catalonia. According to the law reform, those “officials who are assigned duties substantially matching those of the body and who already hold permanent positions within Catalonia’s borders”would be eligible to voluntarily join the Catalan Tax Agency through specific selection processes. The Spanish government’s appeal claimed that the proposal was against “the right of all Spanish citizens to access the entity under the same conditions”.

The Catalan chamber will present a plea against the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC)'s suspension of the independence declaration. The Parliament's Bureau approved this on Tuesday, with the support of pro-independence 'Junts Pel Sí' and alternative left coalition 'Cataluna Sí que es Pot's 5 members of the Bureau. The Bureau’s two Anti-Catalan nationalism representatives, from Ciutadans and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), voted against the proposal. "We don't understand that a jurisdictional body could stop democracy" stated Parliament's first vice-president and 'Junts Pel Sí' MP, Lluís Corominas. According to Ciutadans' representative in the Parliament's Bureau, José María Espejo, the declaration of independence "did have an unconstitutional component" as it stated that "only those laws approved by the Catalan Parliament would be obeyed".