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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. 

The number of unemployed people in Catalonia dropped to 552,500 people in the third quarter of 2016, representing a decrease of 51,100 people in relation to the second quarter, according to the latest Active Population Survey (EPA). The unemployment rate fell to 14.63%, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2008. The environment of economic recovery, with record numbers in the tourism sector, led to the creation of about 42,700 new jobs, the largest number ever recorded in any of the seventeen regions of Spain. Catalonia closed the third quarter with 3.2 million employed people, a 3.64% increase over the previous year, and was the community with the highest number of people employed, ahead of Madrid (with 2.8 million).

Current Spanish President and Conservative People’s Party (PP) leader, Mariano Rajoy, will be reinvested as President of the Spanish Government next Saturday. Although the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) has announced that it is going to vote ‘no’ in the first round of the debate on investiture, this Wednesday afternoon, the party explained on the 23^rd of October, after its federal committee, that it will abstain and facilitate the PP to form government in the second round. Currently the PSOE has faced tensions with the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), which on Tuesday approved a resolution to say ‘no’ to Rajoy’s investiture in the second vote. Despite the Catalan Socialists’ opposition and the opposition of some other independent MPs and the former PSOE leader, Pedro Sánchez, Mariano Rajoy is likely to be sworn in on Saturday, putting an end to 10 months of political blockade in Spain.   

“We will disobey and we are willing to face the consequences”, stated this Monday Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) leader, Miquel Iceta. He was referring to the PSC’s will to say ‘no’to the reinvestiture of current Spanish President Mariano Rajoy, in opposition to the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) position, who agreed in its federal committee this Sunday to abstain and facilitate the Conservative People’s Party (PP) to form government. “We will vote the same way as the other Socialists in the first round, but in the second one we will vote ‘no’, regardless of how the othersvote”, he assured in an interview with Catalan radio Rac1. Iceta also referred to the current relationship between PSOE and the Catalan Socialists. Although he believes that keeping the current scenario is “the best”solution, he admitted that PSOE “has the right”to reconsider the relationship with PSC.  

The Catalan Minister for Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, assured that the Government will do everything in its power to keep the ban on bullfighting in Catalonia, which has been reversed this Thursday by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). Rull insisted that the executive’s will is to have “a country in which those shows which imply death and animal torture will not be allowed”. The civic platform 'Prou!' (“Enough!” in Catalan), which presented the Popular Legislative Initiative to the Parliament that led to the prohibition of bullfighting in Catalonia, also reacted to the TC’s decision. The platform considered it “a shameful return to the past” and described it as a “political decision”. The TC considered the Parliament to have “exceeded its competences” and “restricted the citizens’ rights and freedoms” when banning bullfighting in 2010 and defines bullfighting as an “intangible cultural heritage”.

The ban on bullfighting in Catalonia, approved by the Parliament in 2010 and effective since 2012, has been suspended this Thursday by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). Eight of the eleven magistrates in the court considered that the prohibition to host bullfighting in Catalonia “restricted the citizens’erights and freedoms”. Moreover, the TC emphasised that it is for the Spanish state to regulate this “intangible cultural heritage”nand “guarantee its preservation”. Catalan Minister for Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, insisted on the executive’s commitment to preventing “shows which imply animal suffering”hfrom taking place in Catalonia and assured that bullfighting won’t return to Catalonia. Bullfighting has been, for centuries, presented by Spanish nationalism as ‘the national fiesta’, the utmost celebration of Spanish pride. In other Autonomous Communities, such as the Canary Islands, bullfighting has been banned for decades.

The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) and the ‘Institut de Ciénces Politiques Louvain-Europe’ (ISPOLE), organised this Tuesday an event entitled “Catalonia: A New State in Europe?” at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) located about 50 kilometres east of Brussels. The conference included the presence of Amadeu Altafaj, Representative of the Catalan Government to the EU, Michel Liégeois, President of ISPOLE and Michael Keating, Professor of Political Science at the University of Aberdeen and Director of the ESRC Centre on Constitutional Change, amongst other experts. However, all the attention turned to the public when a supposed student claimed to represent Spaniards and Catalans which were absent and questioned the objectivity of the event. Later on, Laura Martínez Bocos admitted to speaking on behalf of the Spanish Embassy in Belgium, where she holds the rank of Counsellor.

Current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, has been reproved by the Spanish Parliament. All the parties in the Spanish Chamber, except from the currently governing People’s Party (PP) voted in favour of the bill presented by the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDECat) which called for Fernández Díaz’s immediate resignation. The current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs was recently in the spotlight after several tapes revealed his implication in a smear scandal to discredit Catalonia’s main pro-independence parties, ‘Convergència’ (now renamed PDECat) and left wing pro-independence ERC. The recordings, which were made in 2014, revealed a conversation between Fernández Díaz, and the Director of Catalonia's Anti-fraud Office Daniel de Alfonso Laso, who was dismissed soon after the tapes were made public.

Spain’s Public Prosecutor, Consuelo Madrigal, urged Catalonia’s Supreme Prosecutor, José María Romero de Tejada, to file a complaint against Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell. Madrigal accused Forcadell of alleged perversion of justice and disobedience for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote in July. However, she dismissed the misappropriation of public funds, which dispels the possibility of applying criminal charges. Thus, the Catalan Supreme Court (TSJC) will be in charge of these proceedings, together with those for the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014, which have to resolve whether former Catalan President, Artur Mas and former ministers Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau are liable for ignoring the TC’s resolutions and allowing the 9-N to take place.

The Spanish Council of Ministers approved this Friday to submit a complaint against the bill proposing a Catalan referendum on independence in 2017 to the Constitutional Court (TC). The Spanish executive requests the TC to declare null the proposal passed by the Catalan Parliament on the 6^th of October last during the General Policy Debate and to temporarily suspend it. Furthermore, in its report the executive also urges the magistrates to transfer the case to the Prosecution Office so that criminal proceedings against the President of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, can be opened. The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, reacted to the measure and stated that the Spanish reaction was “predictable” and did not come as a surprise. In a press conference held in Madrid on Monday, the politician asked once again for dialogue. Puigdemont also said this Friday with regret that the Spanish Government response is always “a string of contestations".

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont and the Parliament’s, Carme Forcadell, received this Tuesday the notice issued by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) which suspends the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process. Four deputy clerks delivered the documents which warn that if the Parliament and the members of the Parliament’s Bureau ignore the resolution they “will be liable for responsibility, including criminal charges”. The TC also urges the Public Prosecutor to proceed with the corresponding actions against Forcadell. Last August, the TC suspended Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap, ratified by the majority of the Parliament, claiming that the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process, the group responsible for designing Catalonia’s strategy towards independence, violated the Spanish Constitution. 

The Catalan Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, may face criminal proceedings. The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) has this Thursday upheld the complaint issued by the Spanish Government and has urged the Public Prosecutor’s Office to determine whether Forcadell committed a penal crime when disobeying the TC’s rulings and allowing the pro-independence roadmap vote last July. The resolution of the TC, approved by unanimity, asks to open criminal proceedings but does not contemplate the dismissal of Forcadell, a measure the TC could apply after a People’s Party (PP) reform in 2015 gave it the power to do so.  

The Catalan bill oriented toward avoiding evictions and facilitating mediation when the families involved are at social risk has been modified in order to dodge the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) suspension. The Catalan Government passed a new draft this Tuesday which aims to put to use the stockpile of empty apartments and guarantee the relocation of those families who can’t pay the rent. “The present text is legally impeccable” stated Catalan Minister for Public Administration and Housing, Meritxell Borràs. However, she admitted that the “Spanish Government is likely to put a spoke in our wheels”. The Government aims for the Parliament to pass the draft immediately, so that it can come into force this October. 

The PSC, the Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist Party have insisted on their ‘no’ to reinstating current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy. “We can’t betray our principles”, stated this Monday one of the candidates to lead PSC in the upcoming primary elections, Núria Parlon. In a clear move to differentiate themselves from the overall Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) position, which is to abstain in the upcoming investiture debate and allow the formation of a government in Spain, the PSC emphasised their “commitment to the citizens’ mandate” and their predisposition to offer “an alternative government to that of the Conservative People’s Party (PP)”. The Catalan Socialists expressed their position after the resignation of PSOE’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, who stepped down on Saturday after a week of turmoil within the Spanish Socialist Party.

Current Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, responded this Friday to Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont’s request to hold a binding referendum on independence in Catalonia. “National sovereignty doesn’t accept neither comas nor conditions”, she stated. “What Mr Puigdemont is asking for can’t be negotiated, neither by us, the Spanish Congress nor the Senate, because it is not ours but belongs to the 47 million Spaniard”she added, referring to Spain’s sovereignty. Sáenz de Santamaría warned Puigdemont that “he is subject to the law”and that going “further”from his functions “disrespects the national sovereignty”. Thus, Spain’s Vice President closed to the door on the possibility of agreeing a referendum in order to overcome the deadlock in Catalonia, as Puigdemont suggested during his vote of confidence speech.