THE IRIS TIME
Parliamentary elections will be test of support for Catalan state
Spanish court struck down law allowing for consultations to seek citizens’ opinions
President
of Catalonia Artur Mas: ‘This future Catalan state wants to continue
forming part of the EU and will be a loyal and reliable partner for
European governments and public institutions.’ Photograph: David
Ramos/Getty Images
The Spanish constitutional court just
handed down a ruling declaring the Law of Consultations approved last
year by the parliament of Catalonia unconstitutional. This law was
approved with 106 MPs in favour and only 28 against, demonstrating the
broad political and popular support for a law that created the
possibility for the government to hold non-binding consultations to seek
citizens’ opinions on any topic of general interest. With the law the
Catalan government hoped to organise a consultation on the political
future of Catalonia to take place on November 9th, 2014.
When
the Spanish government appealed this new law last year, we were forced
to then find another means to consult our people, and we found it in the
form of a “participative process”. As a result, on November 9th last
year more than 2.3 million citizens freely expressed their views on
Catalonia’s political future at the ballot box. In the same way that it
is impossible to hold back the sea, likewise it is impossible to hold
back democracy and on November 9th we were able to demonstrate this with
an event that was an example of civility.
Despite
this reality, the constitutional court now considers that it is not
pertinent to ask citizens their opinion on relevant issues, even when
this consultation is not legally binding. This lends credence to those
who think that Spain’s democracy is low-quality, and one that is still a
considerable distance from the other European democracies. Without a
doubt, the shortage of democratic tradition that Spain has suffered for
the last 200 years has led to a political mindset where the separation
of powers is fragile.
That is why the court’s ruling
caught nobody by surprise, or at least not the majority of Catalonia’s
population. It has been a long time since the Spanish constitutional
court lost its designated duty to act as an impartial referee and took
on a role that is more political than judicial.
We
mustn’t forget that the current president of this court was a member of
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party, something which creates
legitimate doubts about his impartiality when called to rule on issues
of a political nature.
Be that as it may, neither
this ruling, nor any other decision taken by the Spanish political
sphere will break the will of the Catalan people to freely and
democratically decide their political future. On September 27th the
Catalan people will vote to choose the next Parliament of Catalonia. For
the first time since 1980 these elections will be different, because
they will have the undeniable characteristic of plebiscitary elections.
Since the Spanish government and their courts block an agreed and pacted
referendum, as was done in Canada and the United Kingdom, with absolute
respect and normality, we Catalans have no other option than to use
parliamentary elections as an instrument to see whether there is
sufficient popular support to configure a Catalan state.
The
main parties who support this possibility will make this explicit in
their electoral programmes, in such a way that we will clearly be able
to see what level of support there is for such an option.
If
the results are clearly favourable to the creation of an independent
Catalan state, then the new government will have a democratic mandate to
fulfil. We will then finish preparations for the state structures
necessary to guarantee a normal transition, and we hope to negotiate
with the Spanish government and the European Union a calendar and the
terms for creating a new European state, if this is the unequivocal will
of the Catalan people.
This future Catalan state
wants to continue forming part of the EU and will be a loyal and
reliable partner for European governments and public institutions.
Catalans
have long been enthusiastic defenders of the construction of the
European Union. This is precisely what makes it even more ridiculous
when they are accused of wanting to build frontiers; on the contrary,
Catalans want to belong to a stronger and more united Europe, but with
the same respect and sovereignty other European States enjoy – some of
which have similar-sized or even smaller populations or gross domestic
products than Catalonia.
Artur Mas is President of the Government of Catalonia
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