Spain responds to Parliament’s vote on pro-independence roadmap by appealing to the TC again

The Spanish Government has reacted quickly to the decision of the Catalan Chamber to pass the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process, which established the next steps to take in Catalonia’s pro-independence process. Current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, has resorted to the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) once again and has ordered it to write a document in relation to the Parliament’s decision, which will be approved this Friday by the Spanish Cabinet. The TC has repeatedly warned that any declaration or action emerging from the pro-independence proposal agreed by the Parliament on the 9^th of November and, therefore, orientated toward the constitution of the Catalan Republic, will be invalidated. In a similar vein, current Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, reminded that the Spanish Government already warned that they ‘won’t let anything get by’.   

According to Sáenz de Santamaría, the ‘repeated violation of the constitutional legality’ by the Catalan institutions has forced the Spanish Government to resort to the TC once again. Neither the communiqué written by Rajoy nor that written by Sáenz de Santamaría herself specify what would be the content of the appeal or the sanctions which would be applicable. ‘The public prosecutor is analysing the action of the Parliament’s Bureau and that of the different institutions in the Parliament’ and will therefore ‘choose the most suitable formula’, stated the current Spanish Vice President.

She also wanted to ‘send a calm message’ to the citizens, since the Spanish Government ‘is very much present’ to ‘defend the equality of all Spaniards’ and their ‘right to decide their constitutional framework’.

Sáenz de Santamaría emphasised that the TC has already ruled in relation to the 9^th of November pro-independence proposal approved by the Parliament and that the Catalan Chamber was already warned last week regarding the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process. ‘Today they have gone one step further’ by ‘violating the right of all Spaniards to decide their constitutional framework’ and therefore the Spanish Government will act on the basis of the ‘democratic unity’ and with the ‘political will to safeguard the constitutional system, the rights and freedoms’ of the citizens.

PSOE’s leader considers the vote ‘an extremely grave political mistake’
Current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy also called the other main leaders in the Spanish Parliament in order to communicate to them his decision.

For his part, Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) commented that he considers this Wednesday’s vote ‘an extremely grave political mistake’. The leader of the second political force in the Spanish Parliament stated that the Catalan Chamber ‘is consciously ignoring the TC’s rulings and therefore defying its authority’ and expressed his intention to support Rajoy in his ‘demand to fulfil the law’. However, he also urged the current Spanish President to ‘promote a political solution for Catalonia and Spain’ and ‘rebuild bridges of dialogue’.