president

The so-called Mediterranean Railway Corridor, a long-awaited piece of infrastructure which is set to transport freight and passengers non-stop from Gibraltar to Central Europe along the Mediterranean coastline, is one of the most representative examples of Spain’s lack of investment in Catalonia. Despite being essential not only for the Spanish economy but for the entire European economy as well, its construction has been repeatedly delayed. Even the European Commission has called for “cooperation between administrations” to implement the Corridor, which is regarded as a key infrastructure for Europe. Moreover, the delays in the construction of the Corridor are affecting private investment, the Catalan Government has warned. According to Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, the pending business investments are worth €300 million, of which €20 million corresponds to an investment from the German multinational Basf, which announced it will expand one of its plants in Tarragona.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont will travel to Boston, Washington DC, and New York to explain Catalonia’s pro-independence movement. On Monday evening, he will address the Center for European Studies (CES) at the Harvard Kennedy School and give the conference ‘Catalonia, Today and Tomorrow’, his analysis of Catalonia’s current political situation and its place within the EU. Together with Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva and the Delegate of the Catalan Government to the United States, Andrew Davis, Puigdemont will also visit the Cambridge Innovation Centre (CIC) and the Massachusetts Institute of Tecnhnology (MIT) and will take part in a meeting with entrepreneurs. He is also expected to meet with several think tanks throughout the week, including the Wilson Center and the American Enterprise Institute, and will visit the new factory of Catalan company, Europastry.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, responded angrily to the confirmation from former Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García Margallo that the Spanish Government had pressured other governments to give statements against Catalonia’s pro-independence process. “It’s unacceptable,” he said and called for Margallo to explain which commitments he made, under whose authority and “what favors Spain owes” in exchange for these position statements. According to Puigdemont, Margallo’s confession proves the Catalan Government’s claims that the Spanish State “is doing everything in its power” so that Catalan representatives “are not received, listened to, or taken into account”. “I hope that the Spanish political system is democratically mature enough to demand an explanation from Mr. Margallo in Parliamentary session,” he added.

‘Let dialogue win, let the ballot boxes decide,’ reas the title of the joint editorial this Sunday in Spain’s principal daily, El País, written by Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, and Catalan Vice President, Oriol Junqueras. The Catalan leaders lamented Madrid’s “direct opposition” to putting out the ballot boxes and warned Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, that the referendum will take place in 2017 no matter what. “We won’t give up on this right. We will do whatever it takes to allow the Catalans to vote on a referendum this year,” they state. “We are already at the negotiating table. Is anybody else coming?” they asked rhetorically. Puigdemont and Junqueras also invited the Spanish Government to learn from the United Kingdom’s example and praised its attitude towards the Scottish demand to hold a referendum.

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) one of the legal bodies responsible for suspending the most initiatives aimed at executing Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap in the last few years, replaced its president this Wednesday. Francisco Pérez de los Cobos stepped down after nearly four years in office and took the opportunity to call for “political dialogue” . He defended Spain’s unity but admitted that the Spanish Constitution “can’t tackle all the problems derived from the constitutional order, especially those which emerge from the desire of one part of the state to alter its legal status”.  In the presence of the Spanish Minister for Justice, Rafael Català and the four magistrates which took office this Wednesday, Pérez de los Cobos emphasized that dialogue is an “urgent and unavoidable necessity”.

Catalan MEPs from left wing pro-independence party ERC Josep Maria Terricabras and Jordi Solé, and Ramon Tremosa, representing the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) sent a letter to the 751 members of the European Parliament condemning Monday’s sentence against former Catalan government figures over the 9-N symbolic vote on independence, which took place in Catalonia in 2014. They consider “disgraceful and anti-democratic” the sentencing to a two year-ban from holding public office for former Catalan President, Artur Mas and the 21-month and 18-month bans for former vice president Joana Ortega and former Catalan Minister for Education Irene Rigau for allowing the non-binding referendum to take place. The Catalan MEPs assured in their joint letter that the court’s decision “will not deter the Catalans' will to express their views at the ballot box”.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, commented on the Council of Statutory Guarantees’ resolution which approved the allocation to call a referendum this September but denied the Government’s competence on this matter. “The allocation has been absolutely backed and the referendum will be carried out”, he said and guaranteed that city halls throughout Catalonia “are ready”. However, he refused to comment on the 31^st additional provision of the budget, which establishes that the Government is responsible for guaranteeing this allocation and therefore calling the referendum. Indeed, this section has been considered unconstitutional by the Council. According to the body, calling a referendum is not an attributed competence of the Government and therefore this authorisation can’t be foreseen in the budget.

Catalonia’s Public Prosecutor presented this Thursday a new lawsuit against Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and the three members of the Parliament’s Bureau which belong to governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, that is to say Anna Simó, Lluis Corominas and Ramona Barrufet. They are accused of disobedience and perversion of justice for allowing the Chamber to vote on the proposal for a referendum. However, the Public Prosecutor didn’t bring any action against Joan Josep Nuet, also a member of the Parliament’s Bureau, after considering that he didn’t aim to launch any “political project which disrespects the Constitution of 1978”. This is the second lawsuit against Forcadell presented by the Public Prosecutor and is expected to be added to her prosecution for having allowed a democratic debate on Catalonia’s independence in the Catalan Chamber on the 27th of July.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, responded to the report published this Wednesday by the newspaper ‘La Vanguardia’ revealing that Puigdemont and Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, met secretly on the 11th of January. “There are no negotiations and they are not expected either”, he stated during the plenary session. The Catalan President added that “as soon as such negotiations happen to take place” the Parliament “will have all the information required”. Rajoy has neither confirmed nor denied that such a secret meeting between the two representatives took place. The report came after the delegate of the Spanish Government in Catalonia, Enric Millo, unleashed the controversy by assuring that the Spanish and the Catalan governments have held meetings “at all levels” and that some of them “were not made public”.

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont called once again for the Spanish Government to lay their proposal for Catalonia on the table, in the case that they have one. “We do have a concrete proposal, which is clear and has been endorsed by the citizens”, he said this Monday in Toulouse, after meeting with the MEDEF Occitanie, a French businessmen’s association. “If the Spanish State has any proposal which we are not aware of, we call them to put it on the table”, he added and emphasised that Catalonia has long been willing to negotiate. The “problem”, he lamented, is that there is no one to negotiate with. Puigdemont’s statements came after the delegate of the Spanish Government in Catalonia, Enric Millo, assured that the dialogue between both governments “exists at all levels” and that the Government in Madrid “is working to find a way out” of the political situation in Catalonia.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, opened this Wednesday’s plenary session in the Parliament and commented on the trial over the 9-N symbolic vote on independence, which is taking place this week. “Spanish democracy has gotten sick” he said and accused the Spanish State of taking former Catalan President, Artur Mas and former Catalan Minsters, Irene Rigau and Joana Ortega before the court “without blushing” in what he considered “a political trial”. According to Puigdemont, Mas, Rigau and Ortega “are guilty of believing in the Parliament and listening to the citizens” and compared the trial with the “impunity” with which recent events such as former Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Diaz’s smear conspiracy against pro-independence parties seem to be tolerated. Puigdemont also criticised Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy’s willingness to dialogue with US President, Donald Trump and other leaders in Europe and Latin America but not with Catalonia.

Former Catalan President, Artur Mas, will have to testify before Barcelona’s High Court on Monday along with former vice-president Joana Ortega and former education minister Irene Rigau for allowing the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. In several appearances before the press this past Sunday, Mas insisted that he has “nothing to apologise for” and that the three whom have been summonsed face the trial “calmly and in good spirit” but also “moved and grateful for the people’s support”. “They wanted us on our knees, but they will find us standing”, he said. “It is a shameful trial, it is absolutely against democracy”, he said and pointed out that the “success of the 9-N and its high turnout” is what drove the case to the court. Mas, Ortega and Rigau are accused of criminal disobedience and breach of trust for holding the non-binding referendum and could receive a 10-year ban on holding public office if convicted.

The main pro-independence civil society organisations in Catalonia, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural, the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) and the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM) have called for mobilisation once again. Under the motto ‘Love Democracy’ the associations aim to show the citizens’ support for former Catalan President, Artur Mas, who faces trial next Monday for allowing the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014, together with former Catalan Ministers Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau. So far, nearly 30,000 people have joined the initiative and are expected to fill Barcelona’s Lluís Companys Avenue, where Catalonia’s Supreme Court is located and where the summonsed will have to testify for alleged disobedience and perversion of justice. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, officially announced the referendum to the consuls in Barcelona. Before 60 international representatives based in the Catalan capital, Puigdemont emphasised this Wednesday the Government’s “determination” to hold the referendum and assured that “the threats” of the Spanish State won’t change its will. According to Puigdemont, the referendum will take place “in September at the latest” and it will have all the “democratic and legal guarantees”. Joined by the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, and the chairwoman of the consular corps in Barcelona, Peru’s consul Franca Lorella, Puigdemont insisted that the Government “will always bid for reaching an agreement with the Spanish State” to hold the referendum and emphasised its will for “permanent dialogue”. 

“2017 represents the end of the pro-independence process and will mark the start of a new era for Catalonia”. This is what Carles Puigdemont proclaimed on Monday during a conference held a year after being instated as Catalan President. Puigdemont also insisted that the referendum on independence will take place and that it “will be binding because the people will participate and make it their own”. He also called on the Spanish Government “to accept the democratic mandate” and allow the referendum and warned that a ‘no’ “won’t be enough” to prevent the vote from happening. “I won’t accept a simple ‘no’, they’ll have to explain why Catalonia can’t hold a referendum as other countries do”, he stated.