spanish constitution

The international rating agency Moody’s analyses the current political situation in Catalonia regarding the alternative consultation vote scheduled for the 9^th of November and the potential early elections. Moody’s considers that early Catalan Parliament elections are the most likely scenario, emphasising the Catalan Government’s commitment to respect the legal framework. In addition, it also considers “a common platform” with which pro-independence parties would run in the elections to be the most likely outcome. On top of this, Moody’s predicts the victory of such a common platform and that Catalonia would be in a “strong” position to negotiate a better fiscal deal within the current Constitution. However, in such scenario, Moody’s does not consider independence. In this vein, Catalonia’s credit rating is likely to improve while Spain’s would worsen.

Parties supporting the self-determination vote scheduled for the 9^th of November have met on Monday in Barcelona to discuss whether to carry on the consultation vote as is currently planned or to launch an alternative, in view of the total opposition from the Spanish authorities. According to two parties present at the meeting, the Catalan Government has ruled out the organisation of the consultation as it has been proposed by the decree that has been temporarily suspended by the Constitutional Court. Instead, the Catalan Government has proposed organising a “participatory process” on the same day, using the legislation that has not been suspended by the Spanish authorities. This alternative will be disclosed on Tuesday morning by the Catalan President, Artur Mas. The Spanish Government has already said it will also appeal against such an alternative. The left-wing Catalan independence party ERC has announced it will not back such an alternative and proposes a unilateral declaration of independence.

The Disciplinary Commission of Spain’s Judicial Power Council (CGPJ) will have to decide whether it suspends Santiago Vidal, judge of Barcelona’s High Court, for having worked in his free time on the drafting of a proposal for a future Catalan constitution in the event of independence, together with other law experts. The CGPJ judge in charge of investigating other judges, Antonio Jesús Fonseca-Herrero, recommended Vidal’s temporary suspension for “infidelity to the Constitution” of Spain. On Friday, the Catalan judge defended his freedom of expression and argued that this activity did not affect his work as he was doing it during his free time. The CGPJ decided to investigate Vidal, despite not having done the same with judges participating in activities of the People’s Party political think tank, for instance.

The Spokesperson for the Catalan Government and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, stated that between the 13^th and 15^th of October , a decision must be reached on whether or not the self-determination consultation vote can take place on the 9^th of November. Considering that Catalan authorities want to hold such a vote with enough democratic guarantees and that the Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended its direct preparations, Homs argued that there is a deadline for the possibility of restarting direct preparations, since "they cannot start on the 7^th or 8^th of November". Therefore, according to the Catalan Government, if the Constitutional Court lifts the temporary suspension before mid-next week, they will still have enough time to put everything in place in order to hold the 9^th of November's self-determination vote. However, 1 of the 7 members of the vote's Control Commission did not think the same and announced his resignation on Sunday evening.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has organised a meeting with the parties supporting the 9^th of November's consultation vote on independence in order to agree the next steps to be followed after the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension. They have agreed to keep the 9^th of November's call but, at the close of this edition on Friday evening, they had debating during the whole day on how to guarantee a legal and democratic vote. The meeting was supposed to end at lunchtime, but it has carried on until the evening and participants do not rule out the possibility of continuing discussions over the weekend. A wide range of political parties, representing 65% of the Catalan Parliament (ranging from the Christian-Democrats to the Alternative Left), have to decide whether the 9^th of November's call will be kept until the end or if they will call for early elections within a few days, with or without the possibility of forming a national unity government.

The judicial battle for the 9^th of November's vote was intensified in the last few hours by Catalan authorities and the Spanish Government. On Thursday evening, the Catalan Parliament's Bureau agreed to challenge 2 of the 12 Constitutional Court members for their closeness to the People's Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government. They are the Court's President, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, who was a PP member until 2011, and Pedro José González-Trevijano, who is directly dealing with the Spanish Government's appeal. Moreover, the Spanish Government has announced it will include in its appeals, the election of the members of the Control Commission for consultation votes, which was voted for on Wednesday by the Catalan Parliament and ratified by the Catalan President on Thursday, despite the Court's temporary suspension of the law on which it is based.

On Thursday, the day after the Catalan Parliament elected the members of the electoral body that should control the development of consultation votes in Catalonia, including November’s independence consultation, the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, signed the decree appointing the new members. Mas made this step the day before meeting with parties supporting November’s vote to reach an agreement on the new steps to be taken. Spain’s Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the law and the decree on which November’s vote is based. The suspended law was regulating the creation of this Control Commission but the Catalan Parliament’s legal services argued that its members could be elected, as it did not have a direct effect. With the decree, Mas ratified this election, but included an ambiguous clause regarding its validity.

Based on a report from its legal services, the Catalan Parliament has elected the 7 members of the Control Commission that will supervise the development of the 9^th of November's consultation vote on independence. This decision comes the day after Catalan authorities temporarily suspended the direct preparations for November's self-determination vote following the Constitutional Court’s decision to temporarily suspend the law and the decree on which they are based. However, a majority of the Parliament argue that electing the Control Commission would not be a direct action as it does not have any effect, according to the legal services report and previous sentences from the Constitutional Court. However, parties against November's consultation refused to participate in the Parliament's vote. On top of this, the People's Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government, threatened to take the MPs who elected the Commission to justice.

People massively and peacefully gathered in front of each town hall in Catalonia on Tuesday evening in order to protest against the decision to suspend the self-determination consultation vote made by the Constitutional Court the day before. Citizen protests have been organised in each of the 947 municipalities in Catalonia, despite the heavy rain in parts of the territory. In Barcelona, for instance, thousands of people carrying umbrellas filled up Sant Jaume Square, where the City Council is located. The demonstrations were organised by the civil society association that were behind the massive rallies of September 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural. These grass-roots organisations are not giving up and launched their own campaign for November's vote.

The Catalan Government and Parliament will file allegations against the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension of the Law on Consultation Votes and the decree calling November's self-determination consultation vote. The temporary suspension was approved on Monday evening and entered into force this Tuesday morning. Despite the appeal against the Constitutional Court's action, the Catalan Government has decided to "temporarily" suspend the institutional campaign and direct preparations for the 9^th of November's consultation vote on Catalonia's political future. The Spokesperson of the Catalan Government and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, explained that such a decision was made "to prevent public employees from being backed into a corner", as the Spanish authorities could persecute them.  The left-wing parties clearly supporting independence – ERC and CUP – want to disobey the Court's temporary verdict, but the governing and centre-right CiU as well as the greens and post-communists ICV-EUiA want to continue with the vote's preparations wherever legally possible. In addition, thousands of people are demonstrating in front of Catalonia's town halls against the Constitutional Court's decision.

The Spanish Government held an extraordinary meeting this Monday morning to approve the appeals against the Catalan Law on Consultation Votes and the decree calling the 9^th of November consultation vote. The Spanish PM, Mariano Rajoy, considered the Catalan measures to be "antidemocratic" and "an attempt against the rights of all Spaniards". The appeals were filed at 1:15 pm and, after this, the Constitutional Court announced it was holding an extraordinary meeting at 6:30 pm, instead of waiting until the next regular meeting, scheduled for the 7^th of October. Furthermore, the Spanish Government's main advisory body, the Council of State, gave their recommendation on Sunday evening to file the appeals. Such a recommendation came after the Spanish Government asked for it on Saturday morning, the first time in Spain's democratic history that such a body reacted so quickly. The Catalan Government advised Rajoy and the Constitutional Court to be very careful with their decisions, as they could make "the greatest mistake in Spain's democracy".

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has formally called a consultation vote on the 9th of November in order “to find out the [citizen] opinion” about “Catalonia’s political future” to launch “the legal, political and institutional initiative” to negotiate the necessary changes at the Spanish level. The Spanish Government has immediately replied that such a vote “will not take place” and that it will take it to the Constitutional Court, as it had already announced. Mas insisted that the democratic mandate from the last Catalan elections allowed him to organise a self-determination vote. Furthermore, “as all the other nations in the world, Catalonia has the right to decide its own future”, he stressed. The decree was signed on Saturday morning, in a ceremony attended by  all the Catalan Ministers and most of the political leaders supporting November’s vote. In addition, 92% of Catalonia’s municipalities have approved motions backing November’s vote and the law on which the decree is based was approved with 80% parliamentary support.

The person coordinating the Spanish Government's legal strategy and actions against Catalonia's self-determination consultation vote, which are supposed to be launched at any moment, has resigned a few hours after an announcement made by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. Spain's PM announced on Tuesday morning that the controversial reform of the Abortion Law, which was the main project of the Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, has been put aside because of a lack of "consensus". The announcement was made in the decisive week in which the Catalan Government is expected to call the independence vote and the Spanish Executive is expected to launch its legal actions against it, which have been precisely coordinated by Ruiz-Gallardón. In his resignation speech, the Justice Minister denied any connection with the Catalan situation.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, is using his legal prerogatives to control the political tempo regarding the call of the 9^th of November's self-determination consultation vote and therefore the Spanish Government's immediate appeal against it. As if it were a chess play, Mas' tactic seems to follow a strategy based on gathering as much institutional support as possible throughout Catalonia and on disturbing the Spanish Government's already-prepared veto actions. After an 80% of the Catalan Parliament approved on Friday the Law on Consultation Votes (the legal tool to call the independence vote), everybody anticipated that Mas would enter it into force early this week and that he would immediately call the aforementioned vote. However, the Catalan President is using the legal procedures to make the calendar suit his best interests.

A two-third majority of the Catalan parliament has approved a motion supporting the self-determination consultation vote, scheduled on the 9^th of November, which has to take place "with all the possible democratic and participation guarantees". With this resolution, parties have reaffirmed their commitment to carry out this vote, which will very likely be banned by the Spanish authorities in the coming days. The parliamentary text has been approved with the support of 89 MPs of the 133 representatives who voted (since 2 were ill), a 66.9% majority. The resolution has been approved with the votes of the governing centre-right pro-Catalan state coalition CiU (which brings Liberals and Christian-Democrats together), the left-wing Catalan independence party ERC, the Catalan green socialist and post-communist coalition ICV-EUiA and the alternative and radical independence party CUP, as well as with 3 votes from rebel MPs of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC). The rest of the PSC, the People's Party (PP) and Ciutadans (C's) have opposed the motion.