spanish constitution

The Catalan Government Spokeswoman, Neus Munté warned this Tuesday that the “Spanish Constitution can’t be understood as a Criminal Code” and insisted on the Government’s commitment to “obey the democratic mandate of the 27-S Elections” and launch the pro-independence roadmap. She made these statements one day after the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) decided to suspend Catalonia’s plan to disconnect from Spain and opened the door to applying criminal charges to the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allowing the approval of the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process. According to Munté, the TC should be “a referee” in charge of settling “the constitutionality of the laws” rather than “an executor court”.

PSOE’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, proposed a “political agreement with Catalonia” which would be bilateral and in the context of the reform of the Spanish Constitution foreseen by the Spanish Socialists. According to PSOE’s candidate for Spanish President, this agreement would “recognise” Catalonia’s “singularity” and “improve its self-government” while always “respecting the implications of the principle of equality”. However, Sánchez didn’t specify whether this agreement would imply a new Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia. This bilateral agreement is one of the proposals in the document “Commitments for a ‘yes’ to the government of change” which PSOE presented this Monday. Another one is a possible reform of the funding scheme of the Autonomous Communities which would start in the next two months. 

Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and anti-Catalan nationalism ‘Ciutadans’ have agreed to form “a reformist and progressive” government. The 66-page document, which both parties signed this Wednesday, includes the commitment to oppose “any attempt to hold a referendum with the objective of launching the auto-determination of any territory in Spain”, in clear reference to Catalonia’s push for independence. The document also aims to launch, during the first month of the term of office, an ‘express reform’ of the Spanish Constitution and start writing a new project at the beginning of 2017. Thus, ‘Ciutadans’ will support PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez’s investiture in the upcoming debate, which will take place on the 1^st of March. However, together both parties have only 130 seats, far from the 176 required to invest Sánchez in the first round.

The current Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, announced that the processing of the three laws which would prepare Catalonia for its disconnection process from Spain may be taken before the court. According to Rajoy, Spain’s legal services will analyse these laws and if evidence that they “could contradict what it is said in the Constitution” is found “the Spanish government will act as is has done up to now”. “The government is temporary, but the State, the Constitution and the laws are still in force” he warned. Rajoy also announced that the executive will approve this Friday a conflict of jurisdiction to be presented to the Spanish Constitutional Court regarding the creation of the new Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 

The Spanish Socialist Party, PSOE, will “tackle its legitimate responsibility” to offer an alternative government to the ruling People’s Party but not “at any price”. “We won’t dialogue on questions such as territorial integrity” warned PSOE’s leader Pedro Sánchez. “The coexistence crisis in Catalonia will only be solved with a constitutional reform and not with a referendum on breaking Spain apart” as this would be “the start of new breakdowns”, he stated. In relation to this, Sánchez assured that PSOE won’t reach any agreement with any party which supports a referendum, referring to alternative left Podemos. “We are for the right to decide but for all Spanish citizens”, he stated and assured that the “brightest pages in Spain’s history” have been written through dialogue. 

PPC, the Catalan branch of the conservative People’s Party aims to return the trust of all those citizens who supported the party in 2011 when the PP obtained an absolute majority. “We still have time” stated PPC’s candidate for the Spanish Elections in Barcelona province, Jorge Fernández Díaz who is currently Spanish Minister for Home Affairs. He urged Catalans to “fill the ballot boxes with national pride, seriousness, rigour and hope” and accused the pro-independence forces of being “traitors” for “breaking the constitutional agreement” and assured that “nobody has ever dared to go this far”. According to Fernández Díaz, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is the only guarantee “to get rid of the toxic process which is dividing Catalans” and assured that Spain “is not for sale, nor likely to be broken”.   

Catalonia "won't get anything" from a reform of the Spanish Constitution, on the contrary, "it will lead to frustration" assured current Catalan President, Artur Mas. "It is nonsense to suggest that Catalonia burns itself to flames by promoting a reform of the Spanish Constitution" as it will lead "to a dead end once again", assured Mas. He made these statements in response to the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) President, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, who urged the Parliament to propose concrete modifications of the Spanish Constitution in order to launch their demands rather than doing so by breaking the law. "We know that the Parliament has the right to propose constitutional reforms" stated Mas "but now it is not about rights, it is about politics, real politics" he assured. Mas made these declarations in Paris, where he was attending the Paris Climate Change Conference.

The magistrates of the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) have unanimously declared the Parliament's declaration of independence unconstitutional and, therefore, invalid. The TC has considered that the agreed pro-independence proposal approved by the Parliament on the 9^th of November violates core articles of the Spanish Constitution, such as "the indivisible unity of Spain" and "the subjection of the public powers to the law" and also "attacks the Rule of Law". The TC has made its decision only 22 days after the appeal presented by the Spanish executive was accepted, which makes this resolution the fastest in the TC's history. On the other hand, the appeals against Spanish Government's abortion reform, led by People's Party (PP), are waiting for a resolution since 2010.  

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) unanimously approved the appeal presented by the Spanish Government to suspend the Parliament's declaration of independence. The TC will now apply article 161.2 of the Spanish Constitution, which establishes the automatic suspension of any resolution appealed by the Spanish Government, and suspend the declaration, initially for five months. The approved appeal also warns Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, current President Artur Mas and all the members of the executive and Parliament's Bureau that those who won't adhere to the TC's resolutions could be fined or suspended. In this vein, Spain's public prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday that all the police bodies in Spain, including the Catalan Police, had been urged to investigate and denounce the possible "sedition crimes" committed in Catalonia.

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation José Manuel García-Margallo stated this Wednesday that Catalans would not be able to maintain their Spanish nationality or European citizenship in the case of independence. “Catalan people cannot expect to maintain certain attributes and not others” he insisted. Margallo called the Catalans’ idea some sort of “joke” and cited Latin American countries’ independence from Spain and Algeria’s independence as examples. He made such statement after Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, failed to defend the idea that Catalans will lose Spanish nationality (because the Spanish Constitution allows them to keep it as they are Spanish by origin). Referring to this, Catalan President Artur Mas stated that “Spain’s threats turn against them like a boomerang”.

The Spanish Defence Minister, Pedro Morenés, warned that the army won’t intervene in Catalonia during the 27-S upcoming elections as long as “everybody fulfils their duty”. Morenés said this referring to a possible unilateral declaration of independence, in the event that pro-independence forces win the Catalan elections. In an interview on Spanish National Radio (RNE) he underlined that the army “is an absolutely and perfectly democratic” institution and its members “will strictly obey the law”. The Minister also spoke in support of the application of Article 115 of the Spanish Constitution, which allows the central government to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy if the “rules aren’t adhered to”.

The Catalan Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, has stated that they are "sceptical" about the constitutional reform that the Spanish Prime Minister and leader of the People's Party (PP), Mariano Rajoy, is starting to consider. The Spanish Justice Minister, Rafael Català, said 10 days ago that his department would "study a constitutional reform" which would not make any concession to Catalonia's demands. For the last 3 years, Rajoy and the PP have been unilaterally blocking any attempt to launch a constitutional reform debate. Now, with Catalonia's independence being a distinct possibility if pro-independence parties win the forthcoming 'de facto' referendum scheduled for 27 September, the Spanish Government has started to say it would consider a limited reform, particularly to strengthen its own powers. This Monday, the Catalan President's 'right-hand man', Frances Homs, said that they will not even consider such a constitutional reform if it does not include Catalonia's right to self-determination.

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) closed the door Monday on supporting a hypothetical specific economic agreement between Catalonia and Spain, similar to the specific fiscal pact already in existence for the Basque Country, which would recognise Catalonia’s “specificities”, strengthen its self-rule and better fund its institutions, public services and infrastructure. However, the PSOE did urge the Spanish Government “to update” the current inter-territorial fiscal scheme in order to improve the funding of Autonomous Communities such as Catalonia, calling for “a fairer and more equitable model”. A majority of Catalan society has been asking for such a fiscal agreement for many years, which would help reduce the chronic fiscal deficit while keeping solidarity with poorer regions.

The Spanish Minister of Justice, Rafael Català, proposed this week "to study a constitutional reform" that is very far from making any concession to Catalan claims and meet them halfway. In fact, it seems that the Spanish Government's real intentions are to consolidate the recentralisation of powers and cultural homogenisation undertaken in the last few years that have trimmed Catalonia's self-rule and attacked Catalan culture and language. The Spanish Justice Minister stated this week that he is ready to discuss a limited reform of Spain's Constitution that would not affect its core aspects – such as Spain's territorial model – and which would apparently only address secondary matters, such as the prevalence of men over women in the Crown's succession or the definition of the Spanish Government's exclusive powers. However, the aim is to put an end to the decentralisation trend that started in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has stated that the independence process will be officially launched if pro-independence parties obtain an absolute majority of the MPs elected in the forthcoming Catalan Parliament elections, to be transformed into a ‘de facto’ plebiscite on independence from Spain. Mas emphasised that during the last 3 years, Catalan parties have been trying to organise a legal and mutually-agreed vote but that the Spanish Government has not wanted to talk even about it, despite more than 1.5 million citizens demonstrating each year on the streets and the results of the previous Catalan elections of November 2012. However, Mas stated he would still “exchange the forthcoming elections for a mutually-agreed referendum”, but highlighted that the Spanish Government has only left the transformation of regular elections into a plebiscite for Catalans to freely and democratically vote on their future as a country, an option that Mas already identified as the last resort in 2013. Therefore, according to him, “in elections, MPs are counted”, “if we were having a referendum we would be counting votes, but this is not the case”, he stressed.