Separatist Movement in Catalonia Escalates Battle with Madrid
MADRID (Dispatches) - The separatist movement in Catalonia’s parliament has escalated its battle with Madrid after it defied Spain’s constitutional court by debating a controversial pro-independence roadmap, and the region’s president announced a confidence vote to consolidate the move towards sovereignty.
The angry, last-minute debate – which saw the pro-independence Together for Yes coalition and the smaller, far-left Popular Unity Candidacy secure approval for the unilateral disconnection plan by 72 votes to 11 – represents another open challenge to the Spanish judiciary and to Spain’s acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
It also provoked a furious reaction in the Catalan parliament from Ciudadanos and Popular party MPs who left the chamber rather than take part in a vote they described as "illegal” and flagrantly undemocratic. One Ciudadanos MP accused the separatist faction of "wanting to take us not only out of Spain and the EU, but out of the 21st century and modern democracy”.
However, the president of the Catalan parliament, Together for Yes’s Carme Forcadell, insisted that the parliament was exercising its sovereign rights.
Earlier on Wednesday, the pro-separatist Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, said that a confidence vote would be held in parliament on 28 September to help bring the region to "the gates of independence”.
Last November, the Catalan parliament voted to begin the process of breaking away from Spain after separatist MPs used their majority to pass legislation to effect a "disconnection from the Spanish state” and pave the way for an independent Catalan state.
Spain’s constitutional court responded by unanimously ruling that the legislation had ignored and infringed the rules of the 1978 constitution, adding that the "principle of democracy cannot be considered to be separate from the unconditional primacy of the constitution”.
Rajoy hailed the court’s decision as a victory for "the majority of Spaniards who believe in Spain, in national sovereignty and in the equality of all”.
The issues of Catalan independence remains bitterly divisive in both Spain and within the region itself. A recent poll suggested that 47.7% of Catalans are in favors of separating from Spain, while 42.4% were against it, with 8.3% undecided.
The angry, last-minute debate – which saw the pro-independence Together for Yes coalition and the smaller, far-left Popular Unity Candidacy secure approval for the unilateral disconnection plan by 72 votes to 11 – represents another open challenge to the Spanish judiciary and to Spain’s acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
It also provoked a furious reaction in the Catalan parliament from Ciudadanos and Popular party MPs who left the chamber rather than take part in a vote they described as "illegal” and flagrantly undemocratic. One Ciudadanos MP accused the separatist faction of "wanting to take us not only out of Spain and the EU, but out of the 21st century and modern democracy”.
However, the president of the Catalan parliament, Together for Yes’s Carme Forcadell, insisted that the parliament was exercising its sovereign rights.
Earlier on Wednesday, the pro-separatist Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, said that a confidence vote would be held in parliament on 28 September to help bring the region to "the gates of independence”.
Last November, the Catalan parliament voted to begin the process of breaking away from Spain after separatist MPs used their majority to pass legislation to effect a "disconnection from the Spanish state” and pave the way for an independent Catalan state.
Spain’s constitutional court responded by unanimously ruling that the legislation had ignored and infringed the rules of the 1978 constitution, adding that the "principle of democracy cannot be considered to be separate from the unconditional primacy of the constitution”.
Rajoy hailed the court’s decision as a victory for "the majority of Spaniards who believe in Spain, in national sovereignty and in the equality of all”.
The issues of Catalan independence remains bitterly divisive in both Spain and within the region itself. A recent poll suggested that 47.7% of Catalans are in favors of separating from Spain, while 42.4% were against it, with 8.3% undecided.