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Left-wing pro-independence ERC is one of the two main parties that form pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, together with liberal Convergència (CDC). Despite winning the 27-S Catalan elections with this alliance, ERC will run for the Spanish Elections on their own, as they did on the 20^th of December. Indeed, they obtained then 9 MPs in the 350-seat Spanish Parliament, their best result ever. ERC candidate for the Spanish Elections, Gabriel Rufián, has insisted on the party’s reliability in comparison with other left parties, such as radical pro-independence CUP, which has opted not to run for the Spanish Elections, and alternative left alliance ‘En Comú Podem’, whose position regarding Catalonia’s push for independence has been repeatedly accused of being “too ambiguous”. “We know we have kept our promises”, Rufián said to CNA.

Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ obtained 40 MPs in the last Spanish Elections, held in December 2015. This was the highest figure ever achieved by a Catalan party. Indeed, besides being one of the most fierce opponents to Catalonia’s push for independence and having denied Catalonia’s right for self-determination, this young party was born and raised in Catalonia and has a Catalan candidate running for Spanish President, Albert Rivera - two aspects which have been emphasised by the party during this recently started electoral campaign. In a press conference at CNA headquarters,‘Ciutadans’ candidate for Barcelona, Juan Carlos Girauta, also defended his condition of being Catalan and called for those “pro-independence supporters” who chose this option because they were “upset” with Spain, to vote for ‘Ciutadans’. “We want to explain to them the advantages of our project”, he said, which is “building a Spain which is worth it”. 

The Catalan branch of the conservative People’s Party (PP), which has ruled the Spanish Government since 2011, has opted again for Jorge Fernández Díaz, currently the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, to run for the Spanish Elections in Barcelona province.Fernández Díaz assured that “some messages in Catalonia incite hatred” especially against PP, who is usually “demonised”. He also accused those parties who defend holding a unilateral referendum on independence in Catalonia of being “a problem for coexistence” and assured that “the world has already enough problems without politicians inventing new ones”. Focusing on the lack of agreement amongst the main Spanish parties after the elections, which led to the calling of new elections, PPC urges voters to avoid experiments and trust “those who were most responsible for taking this country out of the crisis”.

Catalan independence, and how to achieve it or stop it, was one of the main topics on the Spanish general electoral campaign trail on Friday in Catalonia. The candidates of the two parties of the governing ‘Junts pel Sí’ coalition, liberal Convergència (CDC) and left-wing Esquerra (ERC), presented different views on the idea of a unilateral referendum on independence, while ‘En Comú Podem’, the Catalan branch of ‘Unidos Podemos’, warned against organising, again, a non-consented consultation such as the one on the 9th of November 2014. “It wouldn’t be useful to call a unilateral referendum on independence if ‘no’ voters decide to boycott it”, said CDC candidate Francesc Homs, who is actually facing trial for helping to organise the 2014 consultation. Such a vote would be “worrying”, said Xavier Domènech, from ‘En Comú Podem’, who has always pointed out that his party, if victorious in the election, would call an official referendum. The candidate from ERC, Gabriel Rufián, stressed that they “will always support initiatives that give a voice to the citizens”.

The conservative People’s Party (PP) will win the Spanish elections but ‘Unidos Podemos’, the coalition between Podemos and Izquierda Unida (IU), will come second and oust the Socialist Party (PSOE), which would become the third party, according to a poll published on Thursday just hours before the Spanish electoral campaign kicks off. ‘Unidos Podemos’, which is the only Spanish political force that supports the celebration of a Catalan referendum on independence, would be the most voted political option in Catalonia, achieving between 14 and 15 seats, followed by the left-wing pro-independence party Esquerra Republicana (ERC), which would come second with between 8 and 9 deputies. The Catalan Socialists would be third, with 8, and the liberal and pro-independence Convergència Democràtica (CDC) would come fourth and get between 6 and 7 members of parliament. The Spanish Congress, however, would continue to be deeply fragmented and the balance of power could, once again, fall into the hands of the Catalan parties, as no major party would have the numbers to form a majority government.

Spain’s Constitutional Court (TC) has approved the appeals presented by Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the Conservative Catalan People’s Party (PPC) in November in relation to the pro-independence declaration approved by the Parliament. The three parties presented writs of protection and considered that the pro-independence forces’ agreed declaration to start building a new country violated citizens’ right of participation and that of the parliamentary representatives, as the Spokesperson Bureau was convened before PPC constituted themselves as a parliamentary group. This Tuesday, the magistrates in the TC partially upheld the appeals. The content of the pro-independence forces’ agreed declaration was already suspended by the TC in December, and declared it unconstitutional and, therefore, invalid. 

The appeal presented in April by Spain’s executive calling for the suspension of some articles of the Catalan law against energy poverty has been accepted by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). In particular, the magistrates have cautionarily suspended 8 articles mainly oriented toward avoiding evictions. According to the TC, the suspension is automatic and therefore the magistrates “couldn’t do anything” but accept the Spanish government’s appeal. The Catalan Government’s Spokeswoman, Neus Munté, stated that this suspension was “to be expected”. The TC’s decision comes two days after thousands of people rallied in Barcelona to protest over the Spanish court’s measures against numerous laws passed by the Catalan Parliament. 

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. 

Marina Kaljurand said in an interview with CNA that the potential independence of Catalonia does “not really concern” Estonia, a country with no separatist movements. Kaljurand, a former diplomat, argued that any solution to the Catalan case “could be reached only by taking into account the existing laws and regulations and constitutions”, both nationally and internationally. “We have international law, the constitution and laws of each and every nation that have to be respected”, she stated. The minister said she has never received “pressure” or been “lobbied” by Spain or Catalonia and defined the Western position on the issue as “very clear, reasonable and balanced” as it supports “the present legal order”.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, regretted in a speech on Friday in Madrid that so far the Spanish political class has behaved as if it was “not concerned” by the pro-independence movement going on in Catalonia. Puigdemont urged the politicians that will need to form a new government in Spain to have “courage” in order to negotiate a referendum. According to him, “Catalans’ patience is not infinite”. “We won’t sit still with folded arms eternally”, he warned, asking Madrid to engage in “dialogue” with the Catalan administration. In another event, on Thursday in front of members of the business community, Puigdemont said that his government will never disobey the law while following the path towards independence. “I know that some people use the word ‘disobedience’. I won’t use it nor will my government”, said the Catalan President.

Michael Keating, Director of the Edinburgh-based Centre on Constitutional Change, said in an interview with CNA that “Catalans need Scotland more than Scotland needs Catalonia”, because the Scots “have in recent years been doing much better than the Catalan independence people: they got a referendum, they got the right to self-determination and they got more powers”. The President of the SNP-Friends of Catalonia group, David McDonald, said that he sees similarities between Catalonia and Scotland but warned that the Scottish people “wouldn’t have accepted the kind of censorship or approach” from the UK that Spain takes with Catalonia.

The Catalan President Carles Puigdemont announced that the Government will prepare new legislation to protect the core policies of the social emergency law suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). The new law will include “practical tools with legal security” that will “reformulate” the suspended articles of the legislation but “keep its spirit”. Drafting a new law was the main compromise of the social emergency summit organised on Tuesday by the Catalan Government, the local authorities and the main political parties in Catalonia following the Spanish Government’s legal challenge against the social emergency law. Puigdemont described the negotiations as “long, intense and very useful” and said that the new law is needed “to restore everything the Constitutional Court has suspended”. The meeting, he said, “wasn’t about political discrepancies but about showing that this issue concerns us all”.

The Spanish King has signed this Tuesday the decree calling an early election in Spain. The main political parties have been unable to reach an agreement to form a stable government and so for the first time since the restoration of democracy, the Spanish Congress will be dissolved only five months after a general election. The calling of early elections has been an open secret since last week, when the King already said that he was not going to offer the leader of any political party the task of trying to form a government. Neither conservative Mariano Rajoy nor socialist Pedro Sánchez have the necessary support to win an investiture debate. Sánchez tried to achieve the support of Congress for a government led by him and C’s but was defeated. Rajoy, the current president, did not even try.

Less than 24 hours after meeting with her Catalan counterpart, current Spanish Vice President Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría announced that some articles of the Catalan law against energy poverty will be taken before the Constitutional Court (TC). Thus, Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras’ demands for the Spanish executive to “reconsider” this procedure haven’t been listened to. However, Santamaría nuanced that those precepts which are in relation to guaranteeing the energy supply to those who may be at social risk are not affected by the suspension. On the other hand, some measures oriented toward avoiding evictions have been suspended. Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, responded by saying that this measure leaves “in the open” the most vulnerable families.  

The creation of a joint pro-independence candidature in Catalonia to run for the upcoming Spanish elections on the 26^th of June would show that “sovereignism has won in the world’s eyes”. This is what former Catalan President, Artur Mas, stated in an interview with 8TV. He also admitted to being “willing” to do “whatever it takes” including leading this potential list, as “an act of service”. However, the Catalan pro-independence parties in the Spanish Parliament have different opinions regarding the possibility of running together on the 26-J. While former CDC ‘Democràcia i Llibertat’ consider the joint candidature as “the best formula”, left wing pro-independence ERC have insisted that “ideological diversity gets better results”.