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The so-called ‘operation dialogue’ launched by the Spanish executive aims for Spain’s executive to have a greater presence in Catalonia. In line with this purpose, Spanish Vice President and recently named Minister for Territorial Administrations, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, travelled to Barcelona this Wednesday. However, despite having committed to holding a meeting with her Catalan counterpart, Oriol Junqueras, Sáenz de Santamaría hasn’t even made a date for such a meeting. On the other hand, she met first with the opposition’s leader, Inés Arrimadas and with the Catalan Socialists’ leader, Miquel Iceta. The Catalan Government’s spokeswoman, Neus Munté, considered it “surprising” but “congratulated” Saénz de Santamaría for her “initiative” especially after the Spanish executive’s “enormous absence” in this sense. “Confrontation and using the courts have been the only answers so far”, lamented Munté.

The cross-party coalition 'Junts pel Sí' (JxSí) and the pro-independence radical-left CUP entered in the Catalan Parliament’s register a motion to defend the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell. The representative is facing criminal liability for allegedly disobeying Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) rulings and allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote on the 27th of July. According to the text presented by the pro-independence parties, the prosecution of Forcadell “for any parliamentary action flagrantly infringes upon parliamentary inviolability”. Furthermore, the proposal highlights that the criminalisation of parliamentary activity “poses a serious threat to democracy”. The motion was entered into the Parliament’s register on Monday as an urgent extraordinary request and with the express request to debate it in a plenary session. The text also aims at defending “the freedom of expression and the right of initiative of the members of the Catalan Parliament”.

The Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, voted against the new regional deficit target of 0.6% of GDP agreed between the Conservative People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialists (PSOE). During the Council on Fiscal and Financial Policies (CPFF, going by its Catalan initials) on Thursday evening, Junqueras said that the target is “absolutely far from what citizens need and deserve”. The Catalan Government had asked for a 1.18% deficit target for 2017, but the Autonomous Communities’ limits were set instead at 0.6% for next year, 0.3% for 2018 and 0% of GDP for 2019. They were accepted despite the opposition of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. The communities led by the PSOE abstained. The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, celebrated the fact that only three territories voted against the measure, saying there was a “good atmosphere” at the meeting.

The Spanish Government is willing to “dialogue” with the Catalan Government, but has closed the door to a self-determination referendum, because it “liquidates the essence of the [Spanish] nation”, said the Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, this Wednesday. Requested by the Catalan Socialist MP Meritxell Batet and the spokesman of the Spanish alternative left party Podemos, Iñigo Errejón, to permit reform of the Constitution in order to respond to Catalonia’s independence movement, the politician stated that to do so “requires consensus on the point of departure and arrival”. Furthermore, she stressed the necessity to achieve “an agreement on the diagnosis of the problems and the solutions”, a goal that currently is not possible given the disagreement seen in the Spanish Parliament, she added.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, is suspicious regarding Spain’s executive willingness to dialogue. During this Wednesday’s session of control in the Parliament, Puigdemont stated that Catalonia deserves a bilateral negotiation with the Government in Madrid and that he considers anything other than this a way to “dilute and disguise what is really going on” in Catalonia and therefore “confuse public opinion”. Pro-independence radical left CUP MP, Mireia Boya, went a bit further and urged Puigdemont not to go along with Spain’s “siren calls” in relation to its supposed openness to dialogue. On the other hand, Xavier García Albiol, the leader of the Catalan branch of Spain’s governing party PP, called for Puigdemont not to be like “a statue” before the “signals” sent by the Spanish Government. 

The Government’s draft for the 2017 budget was published in the Parliament’s Official Journal this Tuesday. On Wednesday, the different groups in the Catalan Chamber will be able to present appeals and the whole bill will be discussed on the 20th of December. “This is the best budget possible”, Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, stated right after presenting the draft. “The time of cutbacks is over”, he assured and emphasised that the budget for 2017 has been enhanced in comparison to the previous one “both as a whole and in each department”. Indeed, the budget for 2017 allocates €1.1 billion more to social expenditure than the bill for 2015 – which was extended for 2016. The Health System with €8.7 billion and Education and Universities with €5.5 billion are the areas with the highest amounts allocated.

Catalonia and Japan have renewed their business, cultural, touristic and research ties for the next three years, through the so-called ‘Japan Plan 2016-2019’. The Government presented the agreement, approved last 25^th of October, on Monday and explained that it aims at boosting business promotion, investment attraction, tourism cooperation, student mobility and cultural and gastronomic exchange. While the presentation of the Plan was taking place on Monday morning in Barcelona, a mission organised by the Port of Barcelona and Acció, the Catalan Public competitiveness and internationalisation agency, was in Panama trying to improve the trade relationship with the Central America region. The Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, and the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, accompanied fifty Catalan companies on their visit to Panama and Cuba, where they held 300 meetings with local businesses.  

A total of 2.7 million cruise travellers will have passed through the Port of Barcelona by the end of 2016, a figure that represents an increase of about 9-10% over 2015 and marks a new record. This was announced on Monday by the president of the Port of Barcelona, ??Sixte Cambra, who explained that until now the record stood at 2.6 million cruise passengers and was achieved in 2011. It is estimated that cruises this year will generate a turnover of almost €1,000 million, while the contribution to the Catalan GDP could reach €500 million. According to Cambra, these good results are primarily due “to the boost of activity as a home port, which grew 10% compared to last year”. 

Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) has called the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, to testify before the court on Friday the 16th of December. She is accused of “disobeying” a Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) ruling when allowing the conclusions of the committee to study the constitutive process to be assessed in the Parliament. The Court also requests testimony from the second Vice-president of the Parliament’s Bureau, José María Espejo, from Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, the Bureau’s second secretary, David Pérez, from the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the Bureau’s third secretary, Joan Josep Nuet, from alternative left alliance ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’. The Court ordered them to testify as witnesses over the pro-independence roadmap, which was put to vote in the Catalan Chamber on the 27th of July.

The new delegate of the Spanish executive in Catalonia, former MP Enric Millo, took office this Monday. The representative from the Catalan branch of the conservative People’s Party (PPC) assured that he is “willing to dialogue” and emphasised his predisposition to “reduce the distances” between the Spanish and Catalan institutions. He also insisted on the need to respect the Spanish Constitution, adding that it can be “modernised” but “through dialogue and consensus rather than through imposition”. The Catalan Government’s spokeswoman, Neus Munté, described Millo as a person “who is well aware of the Catalan reality” and admitted that “it wouldn’t be difficult” to find changes compared to Millo’s predecessor, María de los Llanos de Luna, regarding the predisposition to dialogue.

“For the last few years, especially since Catalonia passed the new Statute of Autonomy in 2010, Spain has neglected its duties towards Catalonia”, stated on Thursday Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont. In front of an auditorium full of businessmen and with Spain’s King, Philip VI and Spanish Vice President and Minister for Territorial Administrations, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, also present, Puigdemont emphasised Catalonia’s leading role in terms of business and praised its economic strength. During the ‘Ferrer Salat’ awards, given by Catalonia’s largest employers’ associations in recognition of the most outstanding businesses, Puigdemont lamented the Spanish Government’s attitude and accused it of refusing to listen to the citizens’ demands, which is an “indispensable condition” for having “the productive dialogue we all hope for” and which is the legal basis of a democracy. 

The case against Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allegedly disobeying and perverting the course of justice by allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote on the 27th of July will proceed. Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) refused this Wednesday the appeal presented by the Parliament and emphasised that the crimes Forcadell are accused of are not related to “the public expression of thoughts or ideas” but to “disobeying” a ruling from the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC), which it defined as “a key piece in the architecture of democratic and advanced states”. The document, written by Judge Maria Eugènia Alegret, also urges the Parliament to present documentation to the inquiry in order to “prove that the facts described in the lawsuit constitute a crime” and also to help “the defence of the accused”. 

Many representatives from the Catalan Government attended on Sunday the demonstration in Barcelona to defend the Catalan institutions from Spain’s legal attacks. “The rally empowers the institutions to continue the process towards independence”, Catalan Government Spokeswoman Neus Munté stated. The politician referred to the demonstration as “the best contrast between the decay of a political system, the Spanish one, which persecutes democracy, and one nation and the Catalan institutions that stand up for it and which will continue to do so”. “Any true democrat should feel challenged by what is happening”, she added. Several Catalan Government representatives are facing court cases sought by the Spanish Government for having staged the 9-N vote in 2014.  Those politicians summonsed include Catalonia's former President, Artur Mas, the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and former Catalan Ministers, Joana Ortega, Francesc Homs and Irene Rigau. All of them attended the protest. 

Catalonia’s demand to hold a referendum and the imputation of several Catalan representatives were two common issues during the last part of the second day of the debate to elect a new Spanish premier. The divergence of opinions between the Catalan pro-independence forces and the Conservative People’s Party were once again evident. While the current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, denied the judicialisation of the Catalan politics and expressed his “willingness to dialogue”, despite the Catalan Government policy of “all or nothing”, the spokesman of the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDECat), Francesc Homs, accused PP of being “the motor of the Catalan disconnection”. Mariano will have to face two more days of debate to be invested as President, as the politician will predictably lose the vote taking place this evening.