If South Sudan citizens finally vote for independence, the Spanish Government will respect it and recognise their independence. However, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jiménez, announced that Spain would not review its stance on Kosovo. The Balkan country declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 but Spain is one of the 5 EU Member States that still refuses to recognise it.
Spain’s Highest Court sentences on a case about 3 parents who wanted their children to be taught in Spanish at Catalan public schools. The decision breaks the principle of using Catalan as the language of instruction in Catalan schools. This model has been in place for the last 30 years and guarantees knowledge of both the Catalan and Spanish languages by all pupils, as exam records have been proving. Now, Spain’s Supreme Court is interpreting the Spanish Constitutional Court’s sentence from last June, which stated that Catalan was a teaching language but that Spanish should also be. The fear in Catalonia is that the country will split into 2 separated language communities and social groups will not understand Catalan.
The Spanish Conservative People’s Party (PP) finally presented an appeal to the Constitutional Court on the Catalan Parliament’s law banning bullfighting in Catalonia, which was approved 3 months ago. The PP is arguing that the law exceeds Catalan competences and enters into the Spanish State’s competences. The PP also says that the law restricts citizen rights and freedoms.
After more than 3 years of negotiation, the Conservative People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) have finally agreed on a replacement procedure for the Constitutional Court magistrates who currently have expired mandates. The Constitutional Court has had 4 magistrates with expired 9-year mandates since 2007. The Senate should have already appointed new magistrates, but the two main parties, especially the PP, have been blocking the process.
A renewal was urgent after the legitimacy crisis that occurred during the debate over the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. Some political forces, especially in Catalonia, were expecting a broader reform that would limit the Court’s power to decide on already approved laws via referendum.
Aragon, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community each presented a different appeal before the Court against some articles and dispositions of Catalonia’s main law, the Statute of Autonomy, which was approved in 2006 by a referendum. The magistrates have completely rejected Aragon and the Balearic Islands’ appeals and have “not admitted” the appeal from the Valencian Community.
Catalan President José Montilla and Spanish minister Manuel Chaves meet to demonstrate their will to cooperate in the development of the original Statute
Despite the International Court of Justice's decision, the Spanish Government decided not to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. Both the Spanish Government and Catalan nationalists see implicit parallelisms in both cases, although Madrid denies it.
After the controversial Constitutional Court?s sentence on Catalonia?s autonomy, the Catalan President met the Spanish PM to discuss the resulting scenario. Yesterday, the Catalan parties in the Spanish Parliament failed to pass a motion on the sentence
Newspapers such as ?The Financial Times?, the ?Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung? and ?Le Monde?, online portals such as ?The New York Times?, ?The Washington Post? and the ?BBC World?, and TV News such as ?Euronews? and ?France 24? have all covered it
More than a million people have protested against the Spanish Constitutional Court¡s decision to trim Catalonia?s Autonomy. Today's demonstration is the largest in the history for greater self-government and against Spanish centralism.
The details of the sentence on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy have finally been released today through an 881-page document. On Monday the 28th of June, the Constitutional Court decided to trim the ?Catalan Constitution?, which is currently enforced
The sentence on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy can be appealed before Strasbourg, as one of the most prestigious French experts on Constitutional law pointed out. In addition, a political scientist of Queen Mary College in London says that this reduction
Former US President received the prestigious Premi Internacional Catalunya award in its 22nd edition. In a speech before the ceremony, Carter talked about the situation in Catalonia and criticised the Constitutional Court's sentence. Carter also recommend
The Constitutional Court?s most important sentence in 33 years of democracy, which represents an inflexion point in Spain?s political model, has found no echo at all in International press. Not a single article in the main newspapers from France, the UK,