The Catalan government has created an advisory body to help launch a “civic and social forum on a constituent debate” addressed at all citizens. The project was presented on Tuesday by Catalan president Quim Torra and the president of the advisory body himself, the singer-songwriter and former MP Lluís Llach.

Llach ruled out that the aim of the forum was to write a constitution, one of Torra’s promises when he took office. “We’re nobody to launch a constituent process—what we aim for is a constituent debate” he said, adding that it’s the Parliament that should draft a constitution once independence is “implemented.”

“This forum aims for large public participation to rethink society in the 21st century” said Llach. “We don’t want to lead the debate, we want to facilitate it. We want the government and the parliament to have a clear idea of what our society wants.”

Plural advisory body

The debate on a constituent process is hardly a newcomer to Catalan politics. In the previous term, the parliament approved the conclusions of a commission promoted by pro-independence parties which recommended to launch a “constituent process” in Catalonia.

Unionist parties have long criticized all efforts from pro-independence parties that could eventually lead to a constituent process. Yet, Llach stressed that the advisory body has “nothing to do” with such endeavor and said that some of its members—whose names will be disclosed in the coming weeks—will not be in favour of independence.