Politics

The Spanish government will offer a better fiscal arrangement for Catalonia but will refuse to authorise a referendum on independence. The Spanish parties are going to reject the Catalan government petition for a consultation during a debate on the 8th of April in the Spanish Congress. But the conservative PP will try to engage in conversations with the Catalan government about a new fiscal pact, hoping this offer could stop the “crazy environment” of tensions between Catalonia and Spain, PP sources confirmed to the CNA. The Catalan Government spokesman, Francesc Homs, said the referendum “cannot be swapped” for money and urged the Spanish government to put any offer to a ballot box test.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, stated on Wednesday that the self-determination process will go on despite the Constitutional Court’s ruling against the 'Declaration of Sovereignty' the day before. Mas insisted that the process "continues", since it is based on its democratic legitimacy, it adheres to its peaceful nature and will use all the existing legal frameworks. On the same day, the Catalan Vice President, Joana Ortega, sent a letter to all the Mayors in Catalonia to ask for their "compromise and co-operation" in organising a self-determination vote. Besides, the Catalan Parliament has elected the 3 MPs who will go to Madrid and ask for the transfer of referendum powers using Article 150.2 of the Constitution.

Spain's Constitutional Court has reached a unanimous decision against the Catalan Parliament's 'Declaration of Sovereignty', approved in January 2013 and appealed by the Spanish Government. In May 2013 the Constitutional Court put the Declaration on hold, temporarily stopping its implementation while it was reaching a definitive decision, which has happened this Tuesday evening. In the end the Court has declared the first part of the text, which stated that "the people of Catalonia is, for reasons of democratic legitimacy, a sovereign political and legal subject", "unconstitutional and void". However, it adds that the people of Catalonia have "the right to decide" but not "to self-determination", and it points out that the Constitution can be reformed. After months of internal debate and previous failed attempts to reach a consensus, the decision arrived a few hours after the Catalan Parliament had approved a motion to disqualify 3 of the 12 members of the Constitutional Court of not being impartial on this issue.

The far right trade union Manos Limpias has filed a complaint against the citizen association that organised the two massive independence demonstrations on the 11^th September 2012 and 2013: the National Assembly of Catalonia (ANC). On Monday evening the Spanish nationalist organisation accused the ANC of fostering "insurrection" for having issued a road map proposing to declare independence on the 23^rd April 2015 if the Spanish Government did not allow a self-determination vote. Furthermore, in February the extreme-right group had filed a first complaint against the Catalan President, Artur Mas, for "sedition" and "rebellion". On Tuesday, after a preliminary analysis, Catalonia's Supreme Court (TSJC) dismissed the complaint, emphasising the political nature of Mas' statements and actions. Manos Limpias announced that it will appeal the decision, saying that the TSJC is "contaminated" by Catalan nationalism.

All the political reactions to the death of former Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez highlight his crucial role leading Spain from Franco’s Dictatorship to Democracy, as well as his capacity to build consensus. However, Madrid-based politicians are stressing how he worked for the  unity of Spain and conviviality among its citizens. Meanwhile, Catalan parties are emphasising Suárez's courage in ending Franco's laws and how he worked to institutionalise what was already normal at street level. For instance, the Catalan President, Artur Mas, pointed out how Suárez restored Catalonia's autonomy in September 1977 before the approval of the Constitution in December 1978. Suárez, who had reached top positions within Franco's Regime, was appointed Prime Minister by King Juan Carlos in June 1976, seven months after the dictator's death.

The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, announced on Friday that the publication of the so-called fiscal balances will be delayed until June, after he had promised to issue them by last December and by the current month of March. Montoro changed the calculation method in January, as the figures were used to support Catalonia's independence from Spain. Now, the new delay is "to improve" the report. This document shows how much money Catalan citizens and companies pay to the public authorities and how much returns to them through services, infrastructure and funds. A wide majority of the Catalan society has been complaining for decades that their contribution to finance services, infrastructure and funds in other parts of Spain is too excessive and they have asked for reducing such inter-territorial money transfers. Studies show that Catalans have been paying each year an average of 8% of Catalonia's GDP between 1986 and 2010, which represents 200% of Catalonia's total GDP.

The Catalan Government is preparing a decree to launch a volunteer and personal register of citizens living abroad that might be used for the self-determination consultation vote, scheduled for the next 9^th of November. The decree does not explicitly mention the self-determination vote. It develops a law from 1996 regarding Catalan communities abroad. The news was disclosed by two newspapers and confirmed to the CNA by sources in the Catalan Government. These sources underlined that other Autonomous Communities have similar registers, such as Andalusia and Galicia. However, such a register would be quite useful to organise a self-determination vote without the Spanish Government's assistance.

Barcelona’s City Council has achieved a cumulative budget surplus of €23.5 million for the last few years, after posting a budget surplus of €139.3 million in 2013. In a press conference on Wednesday, the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Business and Employment, Sònia Recasens also announced that the city had eventually executed 97.55%, (€2.25 billion) of its planned expenditure. Such a figure is higher than the average execution ratio for 2009-2013. The execution ratio for investments amounts to 94% (€356 million) and is also significantly higher than in 2009-2013. In addition, debt levels represent 46.7% of the annual ordinary revenue. Furthermore, the City Council paid its providers in 29.2 days on average. Thanks to these figures, the City Council will make available 1,000 new social housing units in Barcelona.

On Wednesday evening the main Catalan small- and medium-sized enterprises association, Pimec, organised a protest conference in which they accused the Spanish and Catalan Governments of politically and financially "discriminating" against them. With the slogan #diguemprou (#wesayenough) 1,400 owners of SMEs and self-employed workers protested against both Governments for not taking SMEs into account and only working for the interests of large corporations. The protest was explicitly backed by 220 guilds and associations, as well as by 9 professional associations and that of self-employed workers. The event issued a manifesto compiling a list of grievances, split into 7 different areas: entrepreneurship; loans and funding; taxation; labour market; energy; training and employment; and internationalisation.

The former Secretary General and 'number 2' of CDC, which is the Liberal Party and larger force within the two-party Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), has been indicted for another alleged offence: bribery. Oriol Pujol had already been indicted a year ago for influence peddling regarding the network of Technical Vehicle Inspection garages (ITV). Back then, Pujol temporarily stepped down from his party responsibilities and as Chairman of the CiU group within the Catalan Parliament, but he continued as MP. The case is still under investigation by a judge from Catalonia's Supreme Court (TSJC), who has now added bribery to the list of alleged felonies. The judge stated that he believes Pujol might have earned €30,000 through his wife's company for a specific vote in Parliament. The CDC and the Spokesperson of the Catalan Government – run by the CiU – emphasised that they believe in Pujol's innocence and hope the judicial process will clarify the situation as soon as possible.

On Wednesday, the parties supporting the petitions to transfer to the Catalan Government the powers to organise referendums, using Article 150.2 of the Constitution, welcomed the Spanish Parliament's decision to fix the debate as early as possible, particularly before the summer break. The Catalan Parliament had approved a motion urging the Spanish Government for such a transfer in order to organise a self-determination vote. However, the Spanish Parliament might have scheduled the corresponding parliamentary debate in September or October. For this reason, the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) and the Catalan Green Socialist Party (ICV) filed their own petitions using their MPs in Madrid in order to speed up the debate. Finally, the Spanish Parliament's Board, controlled by the People's Party (PP), decided to group all the petitions and to hold a single debate on the issue in April.

According to a poll issued by the Centre of Opinion Studies (CEO), run by the Catalan Government, 59.7% of Catalans would agree with Catalonia becoming "a new European State". Specifically, 40.2% of the interviewees "totally agree" with the idea, 19.5% of the interviewees tend to agree, 10.8% tend to disagree and 18.9% are "totally against" it. Furthermore, 87.3% of the interviewees affirm they would accept the result of a self-determination referendum while 9.3% state they would not accept it. Furthermore, 74% of Catalans believe that the best way to decide on Catalonia's political future and its relationship with Spain is through a referendum, while 21.7% think the opposite.

The Catalan President said that declaring independence unilaterally “is not the ideal scenario; neither the best nor the one that we want” but nonetheless refused to rule this option out. According to Mas, such a possibility should be considered if an agreement with Madrid for a referendum proves to be impossible and he is forced to call an early plebiscite-style election. “There is no way back”, said the President in a debate with citizens organised by the newspaper ‘El Periódico’. The leader of the opposition, Oriol Junqueras, who is an ally to Mas in the push for a self-determination vote, said that “the best” option is a referendum and therefore politicians should “not speculate with other scenarios”. However, he agreed with Mas in not ruling out a unilateral declaration in case negotiations with Spain were impossible. The co-leader of the Greens, Dolors Camats, said Catalans “do not understand” why Mas mentioned a unilateral declaration as this seems to suggest he does not longer believe a referendum or consultation is possible. The leader of the PP in Catalonia, Alicia Sánchez Camacho said Mas had “gone mad” while the socialists stated that considering a unilateral declaration was “a serious mistake”.

The Catalan Government announced that, if the Spanish Executive finally decides to recentralise Catalonia's own taxes, they will take the issue to the Constitutional Court. The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, stated that, if confirmed, "it would be a very provocative proposal" and "would make totally transparent, if it is not already transparent by now, the recentralising assault and the policy to dismantle the [current] Autonomous Community model". On Thursday an expert committee handed a report to the Spanish Government suggesting 270 measures to completely reform Spain's taxation system. The text states that the Spanish Government will "order" all the taxes, including those of the Autonomous Communities. Regional governments might continue having their own taxes but market unity will be a higher priority and taxes will always be "coordinated" by the Spanish Finance Ministry.

The Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry has drafted a new report on the consequences of an independent Catalonia, which predicts a 20% drop of the Catalan GDP. According to ‘El Periódico’ newspaper, the document - which will be sent to embassies throughout the world - foresees a fall in exports towards Europe and Spain, a decrease in foreign investments, a flight of talent, less tourism revenues because of the “lack of a common currency”, and a soar in Catalan debt which would reach 78.4% of the Catalan GDP since it would have to assume 18.9% of the Spanish Government's debt. The Catalan Minister for the Presidency and Government Spokesperson, Francesc Homs, said the report was merely “speculative”, adding that the Spanish Ministry was actually “campaigning” against self-determination. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs has asked Catalan authorities to back such claims with “empirical evidence”.