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Pimec and Foment, Catalonia’s largest employers’ associations, have expressed outrage at the Spanish Government’s budget proposal for 2015 and its planned investment in Catalonia. Both Foment, which groups the largest employers, and Pimec, who represents small and medium-sized enterprises, have criticised that the Spanish Government has allocated to Catalonia only 9.5% of Spain’s total investment, despite it contributing 19% of the country's GDP and having 16% of its population. Spokespersons for both organisations have said the shockingly low budget is at odds with Catalonia’s high productivity and represents "a missed opportunity", both for economic growth and political dialogue, considering the independence debate. According to Ramon Adell, from Foment, Catalonia "as the engine of recovery, deserves a greater investment in infrastructure."

On Tuesday the Spokesperson for the Catalan Government and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, emphasised that "there is no deadline" to decide whether the self-determination consultation vote will take place, which is scheduled for the 9^th of November but which has been temporarily suspended by the Constitutional Court. The previous day, Homs had stated that between the 13^th and 15^th of October a decision should be made regarding some of the preparations for the vote, since they cannot be put in place just before opening the polling stations, a statement which was widely interpreted as a deadline. This statement caused an upset reaction by the government's ally, the left-wing independence party ERC. Moreover, the Catalan Government has appointed the members of the 7 territorial electoral bodies that will supervise November's vote and has started to receive registration petitions from foreign-national voters.

The Spokesperson for the Catalan Government and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, stated that between the 13^th and 15^th of October , a decision must be reached on whether or not the self-determination consultation vote can take place on the 9^th of November. Considering that Catalan authorities want to hold such a vote with enough democratic guarantees and that the Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended its direct preparations, Homs argued that there is a deadline for the possibility of restarting direct preparations, since "they cannot start on the 7^th or 8^th of November". Therefore, according to the Catalan Government, if the Constitutional Court lifts the temporary suspension before mid-next week, they will still have enough time to put everything in place in order to hold the 9^th of November's self-determination vote. However, 1 of the 7 members of the vote's Control Commission did not think the same and announced his resignation on Sunday evening.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has organised a meeting with the parties supporting the 9^th of November's consultation vote on independence in order to agree the next steps to be followed after the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension. They have agreed to keep the 9^th of November's call but, at the close of this edition on Friday evening, they had debating during the whole day on how to guarantee a legal and democratic vote. The meeting was supposed to end at lunchtime, but it has carried on until the evening and participants do not rule out the possibility of continuing discussions over the weekend. A wide range of political parties, representing 65% of the Catalan Parliament (ranging from the Christian-Democrats to the Alternative Left), have to decide whether the 9^th of November's call will be kept until the end or if they will call for early elections within a few days, with or without the possibility of forming a national unity government.

The Spanish Government plans to compensate €1.35 billion to the companies behind the failed Castor project, the off-shore gas storage facility built off the coast of Vinaròs, a Valencian town near the Catalan border. The company Escal UGS, controlled with a 66.7% stake by ACS, filed a claim in July last year for the €1.6 billion cost. The project which funded with €1.4 billion worth of bonds issued by the European Investment Bank in a controversial new funding scheme, was forced to temporarily stop a few weeks after it began in September last year, after it was found to be responsible for almost 1,000 earthquakes in Catalonia's Ebro Delta.  However, due to a clause from 2008 in the agreement, Escal was legally entitled to compensation. The Spanish Government tried to free itself of this obligation, but last October the Supreme Court allowed it. This decision has been highly controversial and will cause further political, financial and ecological earthquakes.

The judicial battle for the 9^th of November's vote was intensified in the last few hours by Catalan authorities and the Spanish Government. On Thursday evening, the Catalan Parliament's Bureau agreed to challenge 2 of the 12 Constitutional Court members for their closeness to the People's Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government. They are the Court's President, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, who was a PP member until 2011, and Pedro José González-Trevijano, who is directly dealing with the Spanish Government's appeal. Moreover, the Spanish Government has announced it will include in its appeals, the election of the members of the Control Commission for consultation votes, which was voted for on Wednesday by the Catalan Parliament and ratified by the Catalan President on Thursday, despite the Court's temporary suspension of the law on which it is based.

Another opinion poll has shown that a wide majority of Catalans want to hold a self-determination vote to determine their relation with Spain. This time, the question was not a general one but it specifically asked about the 9^th of November's consultation vote, which the Spanish authorities completely oppose. Despite the controversy and Madrid's attempts to block it, 70.8% of Catalans would back November's vote, while 22.9% would oppose it. Moreover, the left-wing independence party ERC would win the next Catalan elections with 19.8% of the votes, while the governing centre-right pro-Catalan state coalition CiU would come in second place (13.1%) and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) would be 3^rd (5.8%). The largest group of voters are the undecided (23%) and 10.4% would abstain. The People's Party (PP), running the Spanish Government, plummeted to the 8^th place (2.1%).

On Thursday, the day after the Catalan Parliament elected the members of the electoral body that should control the development of consultation votes in Catalonia, including November’s independence consultation, the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, signed the decree appointing the new members. Mas made this step the day before meeting with parties supporting November’s vote to reach an agreement on the new steps to be taken. Spain’s Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the law and the decree on which November’s vote is based. The suspended law was regulating the creation of this Control Commission but the Catalan Parliament’s legal services argued that its members could be elected, as it did not have a direct effect. With the decree, Mas ratified this election, but included an ambiguous clause regarding its validity.

Film buffs and festival fans will be flocking to Sitges these next 10 days, as the 47^th Sitges International Film Festival opens this Friday, a long-awaited event after the success of previous years. Catalan filmmaker Jaume Balagueró will open the festival, with the latest in his popular REC series, ‘REC 4: Apocalypse’. The festival, which already sold nearly 32,000 tickets early this week, has a budget of €1.7 million, 2.5% more than last year. The event is anticipated to have a “wider programme than ever” according to the Festival’s Director, Ángel Sala. While under the umbrella of all things sinister and fantastic, the line-up will include everything from the latest gems to classics of the genre and a wide selection of fictional feature films, shorts and documentaries.

A sweeping majority of the Catalan Parliament has approved a new law recognising the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people and persecuting homophobia and transphobia. The new law includes fines for homophobic behaviour at the work place and positive discrimination measures, such as having to prove one’s innocence if accused of homophobia (a measure already in place for those accused of domestic violence against women). 80% of the Catalan Chamber has backed the new law and the conservative and Spanish nationalist People’s Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government, was the only group who voted against the bill, which was filed by 4 left-wing opposition groups. The centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU, which runs the Catalan Government, split its votes, as the largest Liberal party CDC completely backed the law and the smallest Christian-Democrat party UDC voted against specific articles, although it did not oppose the entire measure.

Based on a report from its legal services, the Catalan Parliament has elected the 7 members of the Control Commission that will supervise the development of the 9^th of November's consultation vote on independence. This decision comes the day after Catalan authorities temporarily suspended the direct preparations for November's self-determination vote following the Constitutional Court’s decision to temporarily suspend the law and the decree on which they are based. However, a majority of the Parliament argue that electing the Control Commission would not be a direct action as it does not have any effect, according to the legal services report and previous sentences from the Constitutional Court. However, parties against November's consultation refused to participate in the Parliament's vote. On top of this, the People's Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government, threatened to take the MPs who elected the Commission to justice.

In 2015, Catalonia will receive the lowest investment from the Spanish Government in the last 17 years, in relative terms. The Executive chaired by Mariano Rajoy will only spend 9.5% of the territorial investments in Catalonia, despite the fact that the Autonomous Community accounts for 19% of Spain's GDP and 16% of the country's population. The percentage is even lower than last year's, when Rajoy allocated 9.6% of the territorial investments to Catalonia, which leads Spain's economy. In the current political climate, when the relation between Catalonia and Spain is seriously questioned by a majority of Catalans, such figures are far from supporting the "better together" way.

People massively and peacefully gathered in front of each town hall in Catalonia on Tuesday evening in order to protest against the decision to suspend the self-determination consultation vote made by the Constitutional Court the day before. Citizen protests have been organised in each of the 947 municipalities in Catalonia, despite the heavy rain in parts of the territory. In Barcelona, for instance, thousands of people carrying umbrellas filled up Sant Jaume Square, where the City Council is located. The demonstrations were organised by the civil society association that were behind the massive rallies of September 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural. These grass-roots organisations are not giving up and launched their own campaign for November's vote.

The Catalan Government and Parliament will file allegations against the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension of the Law on Consultation Votes and the decree calling November's self-determination consultation vote. The temporary suspension was approved on Monday evening and entered into force this Tuesday morning. Despite the appeal against the Constitutional Court's action, the Catalan Government has decided to "temporarily" suspend the institutional campaign and direct preparations for the 9^th of November's consultation vote on Catalonia's political future. The Spokesperson of the Catalan Government and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, explained that such a decision was made "to prevent public employees from being backed into a corner", as the Spanish authorities could persecute them.  The left-wing parties clearly supporting independence – ERC and CUP – want to disobey the Court's temporary verdict, but the governing and centre-right CiU as well as the greens and post-communists ICV-EUiA want to continue with the vote's preparations wherever legally possible. In addition, thousands of people are demonstrating in front of Catalonia's town halls against the Constitutional Court's decision.

The Constitutional Court has accepted the Spanish Government's two appeals filed on Monday against the 9^th of November's self-determination vote decree and the Catalan Parliament's law on which it is based. This decision automatically means the temporary suspension of the law and the decree, a suspension which could be extended after 5 months should the Court not have yet reached a definitive verdict. In addition, it also suspends "the rest of actions" deriving from the law or the decree's implementation, including those taken "by third parties". The decision has been made in an urgent and non-scheduled plenary meeting, which was organised just 5 hours after the Spanish Government had filed the appeals. The Constitutional Court's plenary never meets on Mondays and its next meeting was scheduled for the 7^th of October. The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has criticised "the supersonic speed" by which the Court has met. Mas asked this body to act as "the referee of all and not only of a part".