roadmap towards independence

The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, has convened the Spokesperson Bureau for this Tuesday, even though Catalonia’s People’s Party (PPC) haven’t yet constituted themselves as a parliamentary group. The aim is to respond to the appeals made by Catalan Socialist Party PSC and Anti-Catalan nationalism Ciutadans, which have urged reconsideration of the approval of the pro-independence forces agreed declaration on starting the independence process. The decision to convene the Spokesperson Bureau, and reactivate the debate on the proposal, arrived after PPC’s handed over of a writ of protection before the Spanish Constitutional Court. According to PPC’s leader, Xavier García Albiol, they took such an action to “avoid the celebration of the plenary session”to debate the pro-independence proposal as “it is absolutely outside of the basic rules of democracy”.

Two weeks after the 27-S Catalan elections, the debate on who will be the next President is still bogged down. Pro-independence unitary list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ (‘Together For Yes’), which won the elections but didn’t get an absolute majority, confirmed that Artur Mas was their candidate to run for President. However, radical left CUP have repeatedly stated that they won’t instate Mas as President, as an independent Catalonia needs a leader “who can’t be identified with cuts, corruption and privatisations”. “Now we are extremely focused on the content, the what, when, and how” stated CUP’s leader Antonio Baños, in an interview with 'Catalunya Ràdio'. Simultaneously, in another radio interview, ‘Junts Pel Sí’ lead member Raül Romeva assured that he “agrees with almost everything” regarding CUP’s roadmap towards independence and insisted that choosing a candidate to be President “is now secondary”.