The crisis over the future of Catalonia has deepened with Spain’s constitutional court suspending the session of the regional parliament, which was scheduled to meet next Monday to declare independence a week after the brutal state offensive had roiled the referendum.
The 9th of October may not be a watershed after all; the proposed unilateral declaration of freedom has been scuttled at the threshold. In effect, the judiciary has buttressed the executive’s action with the ruling that allowing the Catalan parliament to meet and potentially declare independence would violate the rights of the Socialist Party’s MPs.
The judiciary has warned that any session carried out in defiance of its ban would be “null”, adding that parliament’s leaders could face criminal action if they ignored the court order.
Markedly, the court action follows the warning by King Felipe that the Catalan authorities were trying to break “the unity of Spain”.
That unity has been jolted to its foundations since last Sunday and the ever so robust expression of sub-regional jingoism has been suppressed by the monarch, the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and now the court. As the political turmoil intensifies, Catalonia will remain an economically exploited region for some time yet.
Carme Forcadell, president of the Catalan parliament, was suitably wary to clarify that Monday’s session had not yet been formally convened, but that the court’s decision to suspend it “harms freedom of expression and the right of initiative of members of this parliament and shows once more how the courts are being used to solve political problems.” The Catalan government is yet to firm up its response after having ignored the constitutional court’s previous rulings, notably its order to suspend the referendum itself.
There is as yet no indication of a counter-mobilisation; rather the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, has spoken in favour of compromise. He has iterated his appeals for mediation and dialogue with the Spanish government, but said the results of the vote would be placed before Parliament.
“On Sunday we had a referendum under the most difficult circumstances and set an example of who we are,” he said. “Peace and accord is part of who we are. We have to apply the results of the referendum. We have to present the results of the referendum to Parliament.”
It devolves on the government in Madrid to respond and without exacerbating the turmoil further still. The referendum was as violent as it could be and it would be dangerous for Spain and Europe if Catalonia’s independence movement is reduced to a conflict between repressive state power and those in the vanguard of the struggle for freedom and self-determination.
For the Catalans, the thorniest issue is recognition by the government in Madrid and the European Union in the geopolitical context.