cross-party

Ireland’s ‘Houses of the Oireachtas’ will create a friendship group on Catalonia in order to get a deeper understanding of its political situation, as well as enhancing trade relationships and promoting cultural exchange. The initiative gathers together members of the Irish Assembly and the Senate representing Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Sinn Féin, the main parties in the bicameral parliament. Thus, Ireland is following the example of other countries such as the United Kingdom, Finland, Switzerland, and Estonia, who also have discussion groups on Catalonia. Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, will travel to Dublin on Wednesday to attend the presentation of the cross-party group and explain Catalonia’s referendum roadmap to the participants.

The National Pact for a Referendum (PNR) has gathered 500,000 signatures from institutions, organizations, elected representatives, and private individuals, both within and outside of the country, in coming to agreement with the Spanish Government over holding a referendum on Catalonia’s independence. The PNR spokesman, Joan Ignasi Elena, described this “substantial” support as a “democratic revolution” which proves that also “those who want to vote ‘no’ to Catalonia’s independence” are urging the Spanish executive to negotiate and hold the vote. In this vein, he called for the Spanish government “to open a dialogue” because “being in denial doesn’t change the reality”; on the contrary, it puts them in a “ridiculous” position.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, called all members of the National Alliance for the Right to Self-Determination to a summit this Friday in order to find political and social consensus around the organisation of the referendum on independence to be held next September 2017. To achieve this, the National Alliance for the Referendum has been created, presided over by former Catalan Socialist, Joan Ignasi Lena. Representatives from all those political parties which support Catalonia’s right to decide, together with more than 3,000 civil society, business, cultural, sports and political organisations committed to launch a campaign to promote an agreed referendum with the Spanish State, specially oriented toward the international audience. Puigdemont called the meeting after finding that the Spanish Government’s repeated calls for dialogue have not resulted in any material actions. On the contrary, all the steps towards launching the pro-independence roadmap have been suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court.