participation

On November 9, the Spanish Government has once again downplayed the participatory process on independence held in Catalonia. And it did so on the day it took place and just when it finished, after more than 2 million people had peacefully cast their ballot in a non-binding citizen participation process that was organised as a light alternative of the original consultation vote, that had been banned by the Spanish authorities. On Sunday evening, after the polls had closed, the Spanish Justice Minister, Rafael Català, defined the vote as "a useless and sterile simulation" and "a pure act of propaganda", which does not have any democratic validity. In addition, the process was an attempt "to hide the personal failure" of the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, "for not having been able to organise the illegal consultation vote announced in December 2013", which was blocked by the Spanish Executive. In addition, he recalled that the Public Prosecution Office is "gathering data" in order to launch "the required penal actions".

At 6pm, 2 hours before polling stations closed their doors, 1,977,531 people had peacefully cast their vote in the non-binding participatory process on independence, which was carried out with no remarkable incidents. Therefore it is very likely that the vote will go beyond the barrier of 2 million participants, which had been informally considered a few days ago the target figure for considering the vote to be a success. The census of Catalans aged 16 or older represents around 5.4 million people, but this participatory process is not a regular election, it has no legal effects, it is being run by volunteers and the Spanish Government has put manifold obstacles in its path , including last-minute pressures and veiled threats. In addition, a figure exceeding 2 million people already represents more participants than the massive pro-independence demonstration of the last Catalan National Day, when 1.8 million people formed an 11-km-long mosaic.

The President of the civil society association Òmnium Cultural, Muriel Casals, stated that "the mere fact of going with a ballot to the polling station" is "already a success" and will show that "the Catalans' tenacity is stronger that the Spanish State's repression". In an interview with the CNA, Casals stated that "the Spanish democracy has an important failure" as it does not allow "Catalans to vote on our future". Therefore November 9's citizen participation process "is a first step towards using freedom of expression […] to say what we are saying: we are looking for a new relationship" with Spain. The President of one of the grass-roots associations that organised the 3 massive pro-independence demonstrations in 2012, 2013 and 2014 complained that Catalans "have not been recognised as a people with our own culture, with our own language, with our own economic needs, by the different Spanish Governments". Therefore "the best thing" is "to become a new state in Europe", she concluded.

The Spanish Supreme Court has decided to reject the Catalan Government's complaint, filed on Tuesday, against the Spanish Government's appeal of the citizen participation process on independence, scheduled for the 9^th of November. Therefore, the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension of such a non-binding consultation is still valid. The Catalan Government considered that the appeal filed by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, went against Catalans' fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression, the freedom of ideology and the right to political participation. However, the Supreme Court's Administrative Law Division decided on Thursday not to accept the Catalan Government's complaint and stated that it should have been filed to the Constitutional Court. The Catalan Government used the Supreme Court path because it was the only possible way to cancel the suspension before Sunday.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, announced on Wednesday that next Monday he will send a letter to the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, to assess November 9's participatory process and to offer a negotiation for organising a definitive referendum on independence. Mas made such an announcement the day after the Constitutional Court suspended November 9's vote and after the Catalan Government confirmed that the participatory process will still take place on Sunday. The Catalan President emphasised that November 9's vote "is not a referendum to declare independence" and he said that those making these declarations "are lying". Mas emphasised he has respected the suspension of the original consultation vote, launching a citizen participation process instead. "If such a process cannot be carried out in a normal way, then Spanish citizens should think about Spain's democratic quality", he concluded.

On Tuesday, Spain’s Constitutional Court accepted to take into consideration the Spanish Government’s appeal against Catalonia’s participatory process about independence, which has been organised by the Catalan Executive as an alternative to the original consultation vote that was banned by the Spanish authorities five weeks ago. The Constitutional Court has unanimously accepted the Spanish Prime Minister’s new appeal, which brings the automatic and temporary suspension of the object appealed against until a definitive decision is reached. However, the Catalan Government emphasised that the participatory process is still in place, since it is different to the original consultation vote. In addition, it will file a complaint to the Supreme Court against the Spanish Government for not respecting Catalans’ basic rights and freedoms.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, reacted on Friday evening to the Spanish Executive's appeal against November 9's alternative consultation vote on independence. Mas guaranteed that the vote will take place because "it cannot be stopped" as it is run by volunteers. In addition, he has accused the Spanish Government of "abuse of power and abuse of legal process", since "it is using the Constitutional Court to solve its problems" and is using "the appeal to hide its lack of political capacity". Furthermore, he emphasised that the Spanish Executive had at first been "downplaying" and "mocking about" the alternative vote, but "two weeks later" it considers it to be a great threat to democracy and it appeals against it. By doing this, the Spanish Government "has crossed the line of becoming ridiculous", he added.

The Spanish Government, chaired by Mariano Rajoy, has activated the machinery to suspend the alternative non-binding participatory process that the Catalan Executive is organising on the 9^th of November, which replaces the original consultation vote. On Monday evening, Rajoy asked the State Council – his main advisory body – for a non-binding report on the Catalonia's new vote; it did so on the same day that a broad network of corruption, mainly involving Rajoy's People's Party (PP), was revealed. On Tuesday, the Catalan Government replied that its will is to put out ballot boxes, since it does not believe the Constitutional Court will suspend such a participatory process. Left-wing parties backing a self-determination consultation asked the Catalan Government to keep the vote no matter what. Now that the unity of action among pro-self-determination forces has been restored, the PP is calling the vote a "referendum", after downplaying it for two weeks.

The Spanish Government announced on Friday that it has asked its legal services to analyse all the aspects of Catalonia's alternative vote of the 9^th of November, which is replacing the original consultation vote that has already been banned by the Spanish authorities. 16 days before the consultation vote has to take place and 10 days after it was announced by the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, the Spanish Executive is starting to pave the way for appealing against this new participatory process that asks Catalans their opinion about independence from Spain. On Friday, the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, stated that Mas is pretending to replace "an illegal process for one that is even more antidemocratic". Therefore, it seems that after a few days hesitating whether or not to ban the new vote, the Spanish Government will probably appeal against it and make the Constitutional Court temporarily suspend it. In the last few days, Catalan political parties and civil society organisations have rebuilt their unity of action, which seemed broken during the time the Spanish Government was hesitating.

Catalonia's National Alliance for Self-Determination, which brings together more than 3,000 civil society, business, cultural, sports and political organisations, pledged to make sure that the alternative participatory process scheduled on the 9^th of November will be a success, in terms of voter turnout and of other "great mobilisations". Despite the acknowledged limitations of this alternative vote that replaces the original consultation vote scheduled on the same day, the National Alliance has agreed to focus its collective efforts on this day's success, also backing "other forms of mobilisation that will strengthen citizen participation" in the self-determination process. Furthermore, the Alliance Coordinator, the veteran Christian-Democrat politician Joan Rigol, stressed that political parties will also focus on this day and will increase "coordination" to overcome recent tensions among them. The National Alliance will meet again after November 9 to discuss the next steps.

The President of the Catalan Government and leader of the centre-right pro-Catalan State CiU, Artur Mas, and the President of the left-wing Catalan independence party ERC, Oriol Junqueras, met on Wednesday, after days of tensions among the parties supporting self-determination. The tensions have been mainly about how to raise the legal profile of the alternative participatory process scheduled on the 9^th of November, which replaces the original consultation vote, and about a common platform to run in early elections transformed into a 'de facto' referendum on independence. According to Junqueras, the two leaders decided to work on making sure that the alternative consultation vote is "a success". In addition, he said that Mas had requested that he leave the debate about the early elections for the days after the 9^th of November's vote, despite Junqueras insisting on an immediate electoral call.

938 of the 947 existing municipalities in Catalonia will host polling stations for the alternative consultation vote on independence scheduled for the 9^th of November, which replaces the original non-binding referendum. According to the Catalan Government, this represents 99.9% of Catalans being able to vote in their own neighbourhood, town or village, without having to go to a nearby municipality. The Catalan Government will be using its own venues to host the polling stations (mainly high-schools), but it lacks them in small towns. For this reason it requested that town halls cooperate and make municipal venues available for voting. 4 additional municipalities could be added to the final list. In addition, civil societies and parties will be able to campaign in 305 Catalan Government's venues between the 30^th of October and the 8^th of November.

The Catalan Government is disclosing further organisation details of the alternative participatory process that will take place on the 9^th of November, which is replacing the original consultation vote that was banned by Spanish authorities. The Catalan Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, announced that 26,372 volunteers had already signed up on Monday afternoon to help in the organisation of the 9^th of November's vote. 20,000 were initially required, but Homs announced that registration would remain open because "the greater amount of resources we have, the better". In addition, high-schools will be the 700 Catalan Government's venues that will host the 6,000 voting booths. In the small rural towns and villages without high-schools, the Catalan Government is talking with municipalities to find alternatives.

The Catalan Government is gradually disclosing details and starting preparations for the alternative consultation process on independence that will take place on the 9^th of November, which replaces the consultation vote also scheduled on that day. Meanwhile, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, celebrates "the excellent news" about the Catalan Government abandoning the previous consultation vote, which had been temporarily suspended by the Constitutional Court. The Spanish Government and the People's Party (PP), chaired by Rajoy, would not want to raise the profile of the minor new vote by acting strongly against it. It seems they are hesitating whether to appeal against it or to tolerate it, in spite of Catalans still being called to cast a ballot about independence from Spain in a non-binding participatory process.

The new self-determination process announced this Monday by the Catalan President is not shared by the majority of parties supporting the previous consultation vote, although they also said they will not boycott it. The left-wing parties supporting the previous vote are hoping that the Catalan Government will reconsider its new proposal and "come back to the consensus" around the initial plans. In Madrid, the Spanish Government will wait to see the "black and white" of the new proposal in order to decide whether to appeal against it or not. However, the Spanish Justice Minister warned that if the alternative vote is also about independence, "it would have the same vices of unconstitutionality" and would be taken to the Constitutional Court for its suspension. After hearing Mas' new proposal, the People's Party (PP) affirmed that Catalonia's "independence process has ended". Furthermore, Spanish nationalist parties asked for Mas' resignation and early elections.