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Barcelona’s High Court has decided to close the case since the leader of the People’s Party (PP) in Catalonia, Alícia Sánchez-Camacho, reached an extra-judiciary deal with the espionage agency Método 3. The agency had recorded a private conversation with the former girlfriend of the eldest son of Jordi Pujol, the historical leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU). Parts of the alleged recorded conversation involving the Pujol family were leaked, as well as information about their own intimate lives and other PP leader’s private life. Speculations about who ordered the recording pointed towards the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), CiU and even the PP or Sánchez-Camacho herself. Now one of the shadiest political scandals in Catalonia will end without any public conclusions. This contradicts Sánchez-Camacho’s initial statement, when the story was first made public. At the time, she had stated that she would go “until the end” to shed light on the issue.

The Spanish Executive has presented a 720-page report in which it proposes 120 measures “to eliminate duplications” and “improve the coordination” between government levels in order to “rationalise” and “increase the efficiency” of the public sector. However, the initiative proposes a true recentralisation of Spain, since almost all the measures point towards transferring powers and services back to the Spanish Government. The Catalan Executive and the non-Spanish-nationalist parties have announced a common front to stop “the pruning” of Catalonia’s self-government. Madrid’s document proposes the direct elimination of several institutions that are defined in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, approved by citizens through a binding referendum. Furthermore, it cancels pending power devolutions, which had been planned for years but whose effective transfer has been constantly delayed.

The Argentinean Judiciary is investigating crimes perpetrated under Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, notably the execution of Catalan President Lluís Companys in 1940. Companys was the only incumbent president to have been executed during World War II. A few weeks ago, his political party (ERC) filed a complaint in Argentina in order for his speedy military trial to be declared null and void, as the Spanish institutions have refused to do so on numerous occasions. Spain’s Amnesty Law of 1977, which is still in force to this day, has always prevented Franco crimes from being investigated and from going to trial. In 2010, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, who became internationally famous for investigating Argentinean and Chilean dictatorships, was disbarred from office after trying to open a case against Franco crimes. Therefore, the plaintiffs have appealed to universal Justice, seeking restitution in other jurisdictions.

The controversial Reform of the Education System continues its progress towards parliamentary approval, now in the Spanish Senate. The Catalan Education Minister, Irene Rigau, stated that with the new law – which “recentralises” and totally “invades” devolved powers – the Autonomous Communities are “delegations of the Central Government”. Furthermore, Rigau asked the Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, “to be brave” and “eliminate” the Reform’s points regarding the language immersion principle. This Reform goes against the Catalan school model, which has been in place since the early 1980s and is backed by an almost-total consensus in Catalonia. Rigau pointed out that only 26 cases out of 1.2 million pupils in Catalonia had requested a different model than the one offered. According to her, changing the entire education system and the language equilibrium in Catalonia for 26 families is “abusive and counterproductive”.

The Court based in Strasbourg has answered the appeal of the lawyer representing the Mortgage Platform (PAH), which had occupied an entire apartment block in Salt, near the Catalan city of Girona. 16 families occupied the block in order to get a house, but 3 left fearing eviction. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has temporarily delayed the eviction of the entire apartment block as a precautionary measure until it has fully studied the case, arguing that evicting the families would go against international law on housing rights. The ECHR has given the Spanish Government 8 days to prove it has adopted the measures to guarantee such rights. The decision comes the day the eviction was planned. Families and a thousand supporters received the news crying of joy and shouting the PAH’s motto: “Yes, it can be done; yes, it can be done”.

One of the six ‘fathers’ of the Spanish Constitution, Miquel Roca, who currently leads one of the largest law firms in Spain, stated that the Constitution does not ban a referendum on Catalonia’s self-determination. “It is a matter of political will”, since Catalonia is recognised “as a nationality” by Spain’s main law, stated the respected lawyer, who also used to be a leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU). In front of a committee of the Catalan Parliament, Roca remarked that it would be “absurd” to call for a referendum at Spanish level, as it would only be binding in Catalonia. In the rest of Spain it would not be binding, emphasised Roca, as “it is said in Article 92”. This article reads that non-binding referendums can be called regarding issues of extreme importance.

The Catalan Government has published a report listing all the Spanish Executive’s disloyalties towards Catalonia including not respecting legislation, devolved powers and cultural aspects. The 50-page document has a chapter quantifying the costs of such disloyalty, which totals €9.375 billion, according to the Catalan Government. €5.748 billion correspond to infrastructure which has not been built; €672 million to a reduction in institutional transfers; €1.715 billion to spending increases due to the Spanish Government’s unilateral decisions; and €1.239 to revenue reductions due to similar unilateral decisions which have never been compensated. The report does not take into account the so-called fiscal deficit – the €16.5 billion that each year Catalan tax-payers transfer to the rest of Spain. The Catalan Government emphasised that there has been “a permanent disloyal activity” since 2000.

The People’s Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government, used its absolute majority in the Spanish Parliament to pass a controversial reform of the Education System, which is not supported by the teachers’ unions or the rest of the political parties. Among several aspects, the new law goes against the Catalan school model, based on the linguistic immersion principle, which guarantees that all pupils master both Spanish and Catalan by the end of their studies, ensuring equal opportunities. The reform is the personal project of Spain’s Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, who used to collaborate in far-right television channels. The Catalan Education Minister, Irene Rigau, confirmed that she will take the new law to the Constitutional Court and stated that the reform will not be implemented in Catalonia in 2014.

On the same day, the Court re-affirmed its decision to keep its current Chairman in position despite his anti-Catalan public stance and having been a member of the governing People’s Party (PP) until 2011. On top of this, Catalan and Basque Members of the European Parliament from five different parties formally asked the European Commission to intervene against the politicisation of the Spanish Constitutional Court, stressing that EU democracies should have an independent judiciary. The Constitutional Court is the highest interpreter of Spain’s legislation, has to guarantee the respect of fundamental rights and acts as a referee between the different government levels and political actors. In this capacity, it ruled against the appeal presented by the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) against the law that abolished the requirement to know Catalan for working as a public servant in Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, despite it being the local language.

The Spanish Constitutional Court has decided not to exclude its President, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, from cases directly affecting Catalonia’s self-government institutions despite his anti-Catalan statements and being a member of the People’s Party (PP) until 2011. Among many statements, in 2005 he made one of the most controversial ones when he said that “Catalans are educated to hate Spanish culture”. The Catalan Government asked him at least to apologise publicly for those words, made at a public event, and to take them back. Furthermore, all the Catalan parties except the Spanish nationalist ones rejected the Court’s decision since the institution loses even more credibility. The anti-Catalan nationalist party Ciutadans (C’s) warns that keeping Pérez de los Cobos in position will allow Catalan independence supporters to take legitimacy away from the Court.

This coming 11^th of September – which is Catalonia’s National Day – pro-independence supporters have organised a gigantic human chain called the ‘Catalan Way Towards Independence’ that will cross Catalonia from North to South stretching 400 km and passing through some of the main cities, such as Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona. After having organised the 1.5 million-strong demonstration of 2012, the civil society platform Catalan National Assembly is preparing a new massive demonstration that calls for independence from Spain. This year’s peculiar demonstration is inspired by the ‘Baltic Way’ of 1989, which gathered 2 million people forming a 670 km-long human chain crossing Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The ‘Baltic Way’ was organised exactly 24 years ago and issued a manifesto that read “a common European home can only by set up if all European nations are granted a free right to self-determination”.

The Catalan Government has reminded it has the exclusive powers to rule local governments in Catalonia, an authority which stems from the Catalan Statute of Autonomy approved by the Spanish Parliament and a binding referendum. Therefore, it does not recognise the Spanish Government’s law proposal on local governments, approved last week in Madrid, and will reject any imposition. The new Catalan law foresees the volunteer merging of municipalities and elimination of 1,034 remunerated positions in the County Councils. It also reshapes the body managing services within the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. Furthermore, it strengthens the control on the creation of new local bodies and the public services offered by municipalities.

The new President of the Spanish Constitutional Court, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, has turned out to be a member of the People’s Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government. In addition, the expert in labour law had drafted several reports for the PP on several issues. On top of this, Pérez de los Cobos wrote a book with many sentences against Catalonia and Catalan citizens, amongst other controversial stances. According to the Catalan Government, this person cannot chair an institution that has to act as a referee between the different levels of government in Spain and that has to interpret the Constitution regarding very sensitive issues, such as Catalonia’s self-determination. For this reason, the Catalan Government demanded that Pérez de los Cobos be excluded from all the cases that involve the Catalan Executive.

In March of this year the Catalan Supreme Court (TSJC) cancelled the Catalan Government’s allocation of the publicly-owned Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATLL) – which supplies water to the 5 million people of Greater Barcelona – to the joint venture led by Acciona and including the Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual. The Government presented an appeal but the TSJC confirmed on the 19^th July its previous decision. Now, the Catalan Government has decided to take the issue to Spain’s highest court to defend the allocation. The Government is convinced the tender process was done correctly, but the other main contender, Agbar, states the opposite. In addition, a Catalan Government’s internal body overlooking public tenders stated that Acciona’s offer should not have won.

The Constitutional Court rejected the allegations presented by the Catalan Parliament against the decision to temporarily suspend the Declaration of Sovereignty. This text was approved in January by two thirds of the Catalan Parliament and it stated that the people of Catalonia are sovereign to decide on their collective future. The Spanish Government took the Declaration to the Constitutional Court, which accepted the appeal and temporarily suspended the text until it reached a final decision – which might take years. The Catalan President stated he was counting on the Court’s decision to maintain the suspension and he emphasised that Catalonia’s self-determination process keeps moving forward. The majority of Catalan parties accused the Constitutional Court of being politicised while Spanish nationalist parties celebrated the decision.