independence

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont met with former Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, during the President’s official trip to London. In a face-to-face interview on the radio programme ‘El Balcó’, from Cadena SER radio, Puigdemont praised “Scotland’s know-how in terms of organising referendums” and assured that Catalonia would like to conduct its pro-independence process “in the Scottish way” but lamented that Spain “is not the United Kingdom” and therefore “it is hard to negotiate if there is no one at the other end of the table”. For his part, Salmond insisted that “it is not for Scotland to instruct Catalonia on the specific techniques to follow” in order to achieve their purposes but emphasised that “ballot boxes and democracy will prevail” and “the opportunity shall arise”. This was Puigdemont’s first event in London, where he will be on an official trip until Friday.

The Catalan President said that liberal party Convergència Democràtica (CDC) needs to be “renewed” and members should not be afraid of forming a new one, even under a “new name”. “We need new leadership, a new language, new priorities, new ways of governing and to offer new messages to the citizens”, he said in an interview with CNA. The CDC party is celebrating an internal consultation on the 21st of May to decide its own future. Former president Artur Mas and president of CDC said this week that he aims to create a new party, in comments now echoed by his successor in the Government, Carles Puigdemont.

Michael Keating, Director of the Edinburgh-based Centre on Constitutional Change, said in an interview with CNA that “Catalans need Scotland more than Scotland needs Catalonia”, because the Scots “have in recent years been doing much better than the Catalan independence people: they got a referendum, they got the right to self-determination and they got more powers”. The President of the SNP-Friends of Catalonia group, David McDonald, said that he sees similarities between Catalonia and Scotland but warned that the Scottish people “wouldn’t have accepted the kind of censorship or approach” from the UK that Spain takes with Catalonia.

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 former Catalan President will give a public lecture at the prestigious French business school École des Hautes Études Commercials on the 26th of April. Artur Mas will defend that the process towards independence is not harming investment in Catalonia in a talk titled ‘Foreign Investment during Political Crisis: the Catalan Case’. His successor as Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, have asked Mas to help them promote Catalonia abroad. Mas is considered an asset for Catalonia, given his broad international experience and his “status” as former President.

Spain’s justice has “room for improvement” especially regarding the “number of administrative cases pending” and the “clearance rate” for civil and commercial litigation. This is what the EU’s Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourova, stated this Monday at the presentation of the 2016 EU Justice Scoreboard, a document which gives a comparative overview of the efficiency, quality and independence of justice systems in the EU Member States. “Perceived judicial independence” of Spain’s courts and its magistrates is the sixth lowest of the 28 Member States and 56% of the citizens and companies surveyed considered it “fairly bad” or “very bad”. Only Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Bulgaria and Slovakia got worse marks. “Interference or pressure from government and politicians” is the main cause of this bad perception of judicial independence.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, and Spanish alternative left ‘Podemos’Secretary General, Pablo Iglesias, met this Friday at Palau de la Generalitat. Iglesias assured before the media that he transmitted to Puigdemont his “compromise regarding the celebration of a referendum in Catalonia” which is “the best solution to the current deadlock”. “Catalan society has to decide and the vast majority of Catalans want to do so”, he stated. The Catalan government’s spokeswoman, Neus Munté, explained the content of the meeting to the media and emphasised “Puigdemont’s intention to keep the roadmap”towards independence “which will continue to be developed”regardless of the negotiations to form a new government in Spain. The meeting comes one day after the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’and Podemos met to discuss a possible triple agreement to form an alternative government to that currently ruling in Spain, composed by the conservative People’s Party (PP). 

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”.

Pro-independence radical left CUP presented a document analysing the recent political strategy regarding Catalonia’s push for independence and the steps to be taken in the near future. The document sets an ultimatum to Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his government to keep the commitment in relation to the agreed roadmap towards independence. CUP urge pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’to make a clear step “on the way towards the rupture”by the 10^th of January, when the government will celebrate its first year in office. Otherwise, CUP will consider these 12 months “a fraud”and will therefore promote “a change of paradigm”. The document also nuances that this step has to “turn”the “contention”expressed so far in the government’s political and public discourse.

Spain’s executive position in relation to Catalonia’s push for independence and its “refusal to budge” concerns the international community. Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, former MEP Raül Romeva, explained this Friday that none of the diplomats he has talked to so far understand why “there is no one at the other end of the table”to discuss the situation in Catalonia. According to him, the international community rejects Spain’s executive campaign to confront both “politically and judicially”and tackle the situation in Catalonia through the court. Romeva also added that the perception that Catalonia’s push for independence and its future relationship with Spain is an internal matter is changing, and the international community is becoming aware that it is a topic which may also affect them.

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 leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and Spanish president hopeful Pedro Sánchez asked the Catalan President to meet in Barcelona to discuss his investiture. The talks will include issues such as the Catalan and the Spanish political situation, a source from the Catalan Government has revealed to CNA. The Socialist leader, who was twice defeated in Congress, wants to present to Puigdemont his government proposal, which includes an agreement with unionist Ciutadans. The Catalan President will defend during the meeting the belief that allowing a referendum in Catalonia is essential to passing the investiture vote. Ciutadans has already warned Sánchez that they will walk away if he grants a referendum to Catalonia.

The suspension of the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs is “going to work against the aim of the Madrid government” and boost independence support, according to some foreign MEPs that have been following the political process in Catalonia. “It was just a kind of name change, not a legal change, but it has big emotional meaning for both sides”, said former Foreign Affairs Minister of Lithuania and now MEP Algirdas Saudargas. The President of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and also MEP Ian Hudghton said Scots are “fortunate” not to have “been treated in the way that Madrid seeks to treat Catalonia”. Flemish MEP Mark Demesmaeker argued that there is a “big contrast” between Spain and Belgium, while the Swedish Green MEP Bodil Valero defined as “very strange” the decision by the Spanish Constitutional Court to suspend the Catalan ministry.

The Catalan government has decided to recognise Muriel Casals, one of the Catalan pro-independence movement’s central figures, who died last Sunday, with the Gold Medal of the Generalitat. The award is the highest prize given to those individuals or institutions whose work in the political, social, economic, cultural or scientific field has been outstanding. President of the civil society association Òmnium Cultural between 2010 and 2015, Casals was responsible for the massive pro-independence rallies which have taken to the streets of Barcelona for the past six years. In 2015, she joined pro-independence cross-party list 'Junts Pel Sí' and ran for the 27-S Catalan Elections. Recently, she was named president of the Study Committee for the Constitutive Process, responsible for setting the basis for Catalonia's roadmap towards independence.