Politics

The arrest of Berga’s Mayor and pro-independence radical left CUP member, Montse Venturós, for refusing to take down a pro-independence flag from the town hall building has strained the relationships between the Catalan Government and its partner CUP. Hence, the Catalan Executive’s Spokeswoman, Neus Munté urged CUP “not to fall into the trap” and keep “unity unflawed” amongst pro-independence forces. Munté’s statements especially referred to CUP MP Eulàlia Reguant’s comments which suggested that the relationship between CUP and the Government “could face some difficulties” after Venturós’ arrest. In a similar vein, CUP MP and Venturós’ lawyer, Benet Salellas, accused the Catalan Ministry for Home Affairs, which is responsible for the police, of obeying an order from the Spanish justice which “is against Catalonia’s pro-independence process”.

The Catalan Government Spokeswoman, Neus Munté, expressed this Friday the Catalan Executive’s disapproval of the arrest of the Mayor of Berga, Montse Venturós, for refusing to take down a pro-independence flag from the town hall building. Munté considered it not only “outrageous” but “an aberration both from a political and democratic perspective”. However, the case showed the different in criteria between the Catalan and Spanish institutions. While Munté lamented Spain’s “prosecution” of elected representatives and the “judicialisation of politics”, the Spanish Executive assessed the arrest as “only normal”. In his first appearance as Spanish Government spokesman, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo warned that “whoever fails to adhere to the rules has to accept the consequences”. 

Montse Venturós testified before a judge on Friday morning for not taking down an independence flag from the town hall building. The Mayor of Berga was arrested by police and taken to court after failing to attend voluntarily on two occasions. She is accused of an electoral crime and disobedience for ignoring the Electoral Roll Office’s requests to take down the flag from the façade of the Town Hall on two election days: the 27th of September Catalan election and the 20th of December Spanish general election. Her arrest caused an outcry amongst pro-independence parties and also those in favour of the right of Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence. Talking to journalists after testifying before the judge, Venturós confirmed her commitment to the “popular mandate” towards independence and said that her arrest was “a new attack on the Catalan people” by “an absolutely anti-democratic” Spanish state. The Catalan Government has described the arrest as “outrageous”.

Pro-independence radical left CUP’s Montse Venturós, Mayor of Berga, a small village 80 kilometres from Barcelona, has been arrested this Friday by the Catalan Police, the Mossos d’Esquadra. Venturós will now have to testify before the judge over an alleged electoral crime for refusing to take down pro-independence flags from the façade of the Town Hall on the 27th of September, the day of the Catalan Elections, and on the 20th of December, that of the Spanish Elections. Indeed, Venturós has twice refused to testify before the judge for the same case. CUP have already expressed their disapproval of the arrest and have called on members to demonstrate before Berga’s court in support of Venturós. Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, who has been lately accused of ‘disobedience’ for allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote in the Catalan Chamber, has also expressed her support for Venturós, via Twitter. “Neither the judicialisation of politics nor the court will impede that Catalans decide their future”, she said. For his part, the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, stressed that “freedom of speech is not a crime”.

Re-elected Spanish President, the conservative People’s Party (PP) Mariano Rajoy unveiled this Thursday the names in his new cabinet. Catalan MP Dolors Montserrat has been designated Spanish Minister for Health, Social Services and Equality. Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría will keep her role and assume the Territorial Administrations portfolio, which was previously part of the Spanish Finance Ministry. Two of the most controversial and belligerent ministers regarding Catalonia’s pro-independence aspirations, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo and the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Diaz, will no longer be in Rajoy’s cabinet.

The reform for the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) to be able to “suspend from office those public servants, politicians and authorities who don’t comply with its rulings” has been ultimately accepted by 8 of the 11 magistrates in the Court. The reform proposal was announced in September 2015 by the governing People's Party (PP) leader in Catalonia, Xavier García Albiol, and was approved as a matter of urgency with only the PP’s support. Albiol stated then that this amendment to the Constitutional Law would work as a barrier to dissuade “anybody from declaring Catalonia’s independence”. The reform foreseesfines for not adhering to the TC’s rulings that range from 3,000 to 30,000 euros and could ultimately lead to “suspension from office during the period of time required by the TC”.

Tensions between the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) over the Spanish investiture will not break their relationship, according to both parties. Seven Catalan Socialist MPs voted last Saturday against Rajoy’s reelection, breaking ranks with the main Spanish party, which abstained, and prompting sanctions against them. However, the PSOE interim leadership expressed on Wednesday its commitment to a “balanced and symmetrical” relation with the Catalan Socialists. The PSC leader, Àngel Ros, stated in similar terms that his party does not plan to change its relationship with the PSOE despite the disciplinary proceedings against the MPs that decided not to abstain. The Catalan Socialist MPs have always argued that they voted ‘no’ to Rajoy “according to their conscience”.

This Friday’s plenary session at Barcelona City Hall resulted in the reprobation of Mayor Ada Colau. All the parties in the Chamber except from the governing alternative left alliance ‘Barcelona en Comú’ and radical left pro-independence CUP criticised Colau’s “politics of gesture”. “Today your government was defeated, the majority in the chamber censors your way of governing and is telling you that we can’t continue like this”, stated liberal CiU’s spokesman in Barcelona City Hall, Joaquim Forn. Moreover, Forn committed to discussing with all the groups in the Chamber how “to build an alternative majority to the current government”. Colau, a former activist especially committed to fighting evictions, won the local elections in May last year. However, she only obtained 11 seats, just one more than the second most voted list, CiU.

Catalan Minister for Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, explained this Friday that the Government has presented an appeal before Spain’s High Court, the ‘Audiencia Nacional’, denouncing Adif’s lack of investment in the short and medium railway network in Catalonia. Rull accuses the Spanish public body in charge of railway infrastructure and the Spanish Ministry for Infrastructure of not complying with the agreed investment. “We open the judicial way because the political one between both governments has proved to be broken”, he stated. Rull pointed out that Adif committed to investing 306 million euros in Catalonia’s railway network and only so far only 4.2% of this has been carried out. “Therefore, there is a flagrant failure to fulfil”, he insisted. Current Spanish Vice-president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, responded to the Government’s action and stated that “this proves that those who think they are right turn to the legal mechanisms available”.

The possibility that bullfighting could return to Catalonia by imposition of the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) has outraged 37 MEPs from five different parties. The signatories of a joint declaration, promoted by Catalan Eco-Socialist ICV MEP, Ernest Urtasun, point out that “animal torture can’t be considered as a cultural expression” and describe bullfighting as “an unfair activity, which is sadistic and despicable”. The initiative is supported by MEPs from Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Holland, Austria and the Catalan MEPs Josep Maria Terricabras (ERC), Ernest Maragall (ERC), Ramon Tremosa (PDC), Javi López (PSC) and Francesc Gambús (Independent). On the 20^th of October, the TC annulled the prohibition to host bullfighting in Catalonia after considering that the Parliament “exceeded its competences” and “restricted the citizens’ rights and freedoms” when banning bullfighting in 2010.

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. 

Finnish MPs from different parties have created a friendship group with Catalonia and to officially present it, the Parliament invited last Wednesday the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, to Helsinki. The event, organised in collaboration with the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) included the presence of representatives from 7 of the 9 political parties composing the Finnish Chamber; a plurality which, according to Romeva, “gives legitimacy” to the friendship group and shows that “interest in the Catalan process goes beyond ideologies”. During the event, Romeva explained that “the Spanish Constitution doesn’t impede holding a referendum” in Catalonia and therefore Spain’s refusal to allow Catalans to vote on independence “is not a legal problem but a political one”. “Everything we aim to do is going to be legal; if Catalonia can’t vote within the current legal framework, then we will create a new one”, he stated.

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.   

Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) has admitted the complaint for charges of perversion of justice and disobedience filed by Catalonia’s Public Prosecutor, José María Romero de Tejada, against the President of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell. In the lawsuit presented last Wednesday, de Tejada stated that Forcadell “despised and opposed the Spanish Constitution” by allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote last July and that she “openly disobeyed the authority” by ignoring the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) warnings. An official has delivered this Tuesday the notification to Forcadell. The President of the Catalan Parliament has now three days to appeal.

British Member of the European Parliament and leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, Syed Kamall, stated that a referendum on independence is “a good way” to resolve the situation in Catalonia. Furthermore, the politician believes that without it “problems will continue and never really be solved". In an interview with the Catalan News Agency, the politician said that “democracy is a good way of resolving these issues" and stressed that the right to decide is “a very good principle”. "I believe in self-determination and I was very proud when David Cameron offered the people of Scotland a referendumto vote on whether they wanted to be an independent nation or remain part of the United Kingdom”, the MEP stressed.