- The Spokesperson of the Catalan Government assured that “yesterday was not the end of anything” and the Government of the Generalitat is “determined in its commitment”
- Francesc Homs appealed to the Constitutional Court to “declare itself with the same diligence it had with the Spanish Government”
- The Government defended the judicial and legislative validity of the Law on Consultations”
The Executive Council has examined the Constitutional Court’s temporary suspension of the Law on Consultations which was approved by a large majority in the Parliament of Catalonia on September 19th as well as the Executive Decree calling for the Consultation on Catalonia’s political future that was signed last Saturday in the Palau of the Generalitat.
In a press conference following the meeting by the Executive Council, the Minister of the Presidency and Spokesperson of the Catalan Government, Francesc Homs, noted that "we are determined in our commitment” and explained his message to the public and to the [central] State is that “yesterday was not the end of anything” because it is a temporary suspension and not an actual reversal”
“This chapter has not finished yet. Some may think that there won’t be a consultation, we believe the opposite”, announced Homs.
The Government insists on the judicial and legal transparency of the Law on Consultations as well as the Decree calling for the November 9th Consultation, which was adapted to the current constitutional and statutory framework. Given this, and by the proposal of the President of the Government of Catalonia, the Executive Council agreed on the following:
The Government insists on the judicial and legal transparency of the Law on Consultations as well as the Decree calling for the November 9th Consultation, which was adapted to the current constitutional and statutory framework. Given this, and by the proposal of the President of the Government of Catalonia, the Executive Council agreed on the following:
- Promote the legal, political and institutional initiatives oriented to ensure the procedure whereby the citizens of Catalonia can exercise their right to decide on the political future of Catalonia, based on the principles of the law, of democratic legitimacy and the principle of pluralism.
- Inform the Parliament of Catalonia that the Constitutional Court has submitted the appeal filed by the State Government on September 28th 2014 against the Executive Decree 129/2014 of September 27th calling for the popular non-referendum Consultation on the political future of Catalonia, which was invoked by Article 162.1 of the Constitution for the purpose of suspending the appealed Decree.
- Manifest that the Government is at the Parliament of Catalonia disposition to carry out any action deemed appropriate in the context of the proceedings initiated before the Constitutional Court against certain provisions of Legislation 10/2014, of September 26th on popular non-referendum consultations and other forms of public participation.
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Enable the relevant Government agreements to appear before the Constitutional Court to seek the immediate lifting of the temporary suspension, as well as the final resolution of by the Spanish Government’s appeal against Legislation 10/2014 of September 26th on popular non-referendum consultation and other forms of public participation, and against Decree 129/2014 of September 27th calling for the popular non-referendum Consultation on the political future of Catalonia.
- Take the appropriate precautionary and temporary measures consequent from the effects generated by the Constitutional Court’s resolution on September 29th of 2014 and in particular those aimed at ensuring the judicial protection and correct actions by civil servants of the Public Administration of Government of Catalonia and of the local administrations.
In reference to the former, the Minister of the Presidency and Spokesperson of the Government, Francesc Homs, explained that all decisions will be made “case by case” if they affect civil servants and/or private citizens. According to Homs, “we are in a temporary and precautionary situation and cannot be so selfish to put the responsibility on individuals, who are unable to fully defend themselves, just because we have this kind of determination”. In this regard, one of the specific decisions taken by the Government is to "preventatively and temporarily" withdraw the institutional campaign for the Consultation on November 9th. According to Homs, “We will not put private citizens or civil servants at a crossroads for lack of our own courage”.
As part of the agreements reached today, and with the aim of defending the constitutionality of the two texts, the Executive Council has approved a plea against the unconstitutionality appeal filed by the Spanish Government in its opposition to the Law on Consultation and against the appeal of the decree calling for the Consultation. The Catalan Government requests the immediate lifting of the temporary suspension of the Law on Consultations and will designate the Legal Department of the Government of Catalonia to formulate the appeal for both cases against the Constitutional Court. The Spokesperson for the Government asked the Constitutional Court to “declare itself in the shortest possible time" on the precautionary suspension and that the sentence will be carried out "diligently, complying with the terms of the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court" which establishes that the sentence take place within a 10 day period. In this sense, Francesc Homs noted that "we would like to think that the sense of urgency will be maintained by the Constitutional Court”, in reference to the haste in answering the Spanish Government appeal, “because if it doesn’t” he continued “it will mean that the Constitutional Court is only interested in one of the two sides”.
The Executive recalled that the Government of the Generalitat had the exclusive power in terms of consultations, as provided by Article 122 in the current Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, and that from the beginning, the process has been guided by the research and consolidation of broad social majorities, political consensus, the constant seeking of dialogue and respect for the legal frameworks.
The Minister of the Presidency explained that we are now at another stage of the process, emphasizing that it depends on two factors “the capacity of political unity and the ability to mobilize the people”. According to Homs, for the next few weeks these two factors will be "particularly transcendent". "The political unity is up to us and the mobilization is down to the people”, Homs concluded.
During the press conference, Francesc Homs recalled that the Spanish government has not responded to any of 23 issues – mostly economy-related- raised to Mariano Rajoy’s executive government. In addition, the Minister of the Presidency noted that "not only have we had nothing answered but he has given us (ironically) a record for the lowest investment allocated to an autonomous community in the whole of Spain". According to Homs, the figures show that "in this sense, and in relative terms, we are the most affected territory in the whole of Spanish State".
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