Complaint to Europe for rejection of self-determination

The Catalan government will present the elections of 27-S as the last resort before the international community

Oriol March
2 min
El conseller de la Presidència, Francesc Homs / ACN

Just after finding out about the Constitutional Court (TC in Catalan) slamming the door on self-determination, Artur Mas took advantage of a colloquium at Barcelona’s Cercle d’Economia to say that the international community "should listen" to the result of the September 27th elections in the case of a victory by pro-independence forces. The Govern is working quietly on the foreign flank of the sovereignty process, and will take advantage of the latest rejection by Spain of the agreed-upon consultation to send a report to European institutions --no recipients were named-- that will review how the Spanish administration has barred the way to the right to self-determination. According to spokesman Francesc Homs, the report has been commissioned from the National Transition Advisory Council (CATN). "We don’t expect a response, at least not immediately. We simply want for all this to be known", said Homs.

The Govern maintains that the interest in the process abroad is "ever-present", and that there are "weekly" contacts with international representatives. "They never tell us to forget the process", Mas argued on Wednesday. One of the arguments that will be used by the administration in defending the plebiscitary nature of the elections abroad is based on presenting them as the "only way" to consult the people of Catalonia on the political future of the country. "They can’t block this", said Homs, although the first report of the CATN-- on the legal ways to hold a consultation-- already says that Madrid can take legal action against a plebiscitary vote.

Is there room for continuing to fight battles in the courts to defend the Catalan Law on Consultations and the original calling of the 9-N consultation? "We have exhausted that path" said Homs, who ruled out taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights. "We are taking a strictly political route, and we have one last resort, which is that of elections", concluded the Presidential Councilor.

The role of Spain’s Constitutional Court

ERC, the party that supports the government, has never trusted the TC to resolve the Catalan case. "The parties that are systematically opposed to the will of Catalonia have chosen the members of the TC", noted Oriol Junqueras, president of ERC. Junqueras showed no surprise at the decision of the high court, and said that the roadmap to elections is "absolutely mature". Miquel Iceta, first secretary of the PSC, does not agree, and considers the idea of 27-S as a key date for independence to be a "hoax". Meanwhile, Tania Sánchez-- ex-leader of IU and now leader of another project-- saw room for a legal consultation and considers it an "enormous error" to resolve "political problems" in a court of law.

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