referendum allocation

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) accepted this Tuesday the suit presented by the Spanish Government which claimed that those line items in the 2017 Catalan budget oriented toward calling a referendum this September were illegal. The magistrates, which met in an extraordinary session to address only this matter, unanimously agreed to suspend these budget items for a period of 5 months, which could be extended if necessary. Rajoy’s Executive also wants Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, and the other members of the Catalan Government to be personally notified of the suspension as well as the penal consequences of ignoring it. In particular, the TC suspended two line items: one establishes €5 million for electoral processes and €0.8 million for participation and the other refers to the possibility of calling a referendum with or without the Spanish State's permission.

The Catalan budget for 2017, which includes an allocation of €5.8 million to carry out the referendum on independence which the Government committed to call next September, has been taken before the court. The Parliament’s legal services already warned on the day the bill was passed that by doing so the chamber could be ignoring the TC. Indeed, the Spanish body called to impede or block any initiative emerged from the pro-independence declaration of the 9-N, which was already suspended.  The pro-independence parties in the Parliament, governing cross-party ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP backed the bill, which besides considering the referendum, it allocates €17.8 billion to social expenditure. The main parties in the opposition, Spanish Unionist Ciutadans, Catalan People’s Party (PP) and Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) announced this Friday that they will join the Spanish Government’s initiative and present an appeal to the bill.

The pro-independence parties in the Catalan Chamber, governing cross-party ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP have passed the 2017 budget. The bill has been described as the last budget of the autonomic period, since it foresees calling a referendum on independence next September. Last June, CUP refused to pass the bill for 2016 which led to the vote of confidence promoted by Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont. They considered the numbers presented then to be “too autonomic” rather than responding to the pro-independence aspirations of Catalonia. After a new draft was presented last November, increasing the social expenditure and reinforcing the government’s commitment to call a referendum, CUP have accepted the bill. However, they have urged the Catalan Government to announce the date and the question of the referendum as quick as possible.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, commented on the Council of Statutory Guarantees’ resolution which approved the allocation to call a referendum this September but denied the Government’s competence on this matter. “The allocation has been absolutely backed and the referendum will be carried out”, he said and guaranteed that city halls throughout Catalonia “are ready”. However, he refused to comment on the 31^st additional provision of the budget, which establishes that the Government is responsible for guaranteeing this allocation and therefore calling the referendum. Indeed, this section has been considered unconstitutional by the Council. According to the body, calling a referendum is not an attributed competence of the Government and therefore this authorisation can’t be foreseen in the budget.

The Council for Statutory Guarantees, the body responsible for checking whether the Catalan Government’s regulations comply with the Catalan Statute of Autonomy and the Spanish Constitution, approved the additional allocation included in the budget for 2017 in order to call a referendum on independence in September. In particular, the bill establishes €5 million for electoral processes and €0.8 million for participation. However, it has found unconstitutional the 31^st additional provision of the draft, which establishes that the Government has to allocate the spending to carry out the vote. Despite being unanimous, the resolution of the Council for Statutory Guarantees is not binding, since it is an advisory body. However it has already postponed the passing of the bill, which was due to be put to vote last February.

The Government’s draft budget for 2017 presented to the Parliament's President, Carme Forcadell, this Tuesday includes an allocation of €5.8 million to guarantee that the pro-independence referendum scheduled for September will be carried out. In particular, the bill establishes €5 million for electoral processes and €0.8 million for participation. Moreover, the budget also includes hidden allocations which would allow the referendum to take place despite the inevitable suspension of the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). In 2014, the budget also allocated €6 million oriented toward holding the 9-N symbolic vote in independence. At that time, the allocation was included within the Public Administrations department. However, this time the allocation would be an explicit competence of the Catalan Ministry for Economy and Tax Office.