23.01.2014 - 00:30
Catalonia’s independence is impossible, is repeated over and over again by some important members of the Spanish government. But the sovereigntist process moves forward and the huge mobilization campaign and outreach about independence that is being carried out by the civil society is worrying both the unionists and the PP who has found itself obligated, indeed pressured, to react. And now Rajoy says he has a plan that he will lay out this weekend in Barcelona, at the convention of the Catalan PP, where many heavyweights from the Spanish executive are sure to be sighted.
This political event, baptized with the name, “Together we add up”, will be inaugurated by the PP’s General Secretary, María Dolores de Cospedal, and the closing event will be led by Rajoy. Among the attendees will be Spain’s Minister of Revenue, Cristóbal Montoro, who—according to information released yesterday—will try to contradict the economic arguments in favor of independence. At the end of last year, Montoro was supposed to publish the fiscal balance sheets, but he still has yet to do so. It seems like next month, they might be ready. They have been generated by university professors who are sympathetic to the FAES (conservative think tank) and the PP, and the Spanish Government believes that the data included could weaken the arguments in favor of independence that are based on the crushing fiscal deficit of 16 billion euros that Catalonia has to deal with.
Rajoy’s plan will have a fundamentally economic side, taken care of principally by Montoro, possibly in this weekend’s convention of the Catalan PP.
Rajoy pointed out yesterday what might be the focus of his speech; he said that CiU had to explain ‘the truth’ about the consequences of independence in Europe. According to him, the European institutions have already clearly expressed their criteria about secession and it would be good if CiU ‘would also explain that to all the citizens’.
Rajoy’s Plan
On Monday, the Spanish PM had promised that he has a plan against Catalonia’s independence, but he refused to give details. Yesterday, La Razon newspaper explained some of those details: they reported that it consisted in Rajoy and his ministers and secretaries spending more time in Catalonia in order to explain the dangers of independence—a deployment that will begin today with the Catalan PP convention. But in addition to the political arena, the plan also has a legal and judicial side.
‘To every executive and legislative decision that violates the law, the response will be given by the Constitutional Court which will immediately suspend the resolution or regulation in question that attempts to subvert the magna carta,’ explained the paper. And it went on, ‘If Mas disobeys the mandates of the Constitutional Court, the path is also set in stone, thanks to Article 155 of the Constitution,” referring to the suspension of Catalonia’s Autonomy.
According to La Razón, Rajoy is convinced that Mas will not retreat from his position but he also believes that he won’t declare himself in rebellion and that once the referendum is prohibited, ‘the tension will dissipate toward plebiscitary elections’.
For that reason, the Spanish government finds that there is a political offensive that needs to be carried out, in order to ‘recover the initiative and rebut the nationalist arguments with a message addressed to the citizens’. The foundation of this message is that independence would be a disaster. Reports have been prepared that ensure that Catalonia will not be able to sustain its pension system nor pay unemployment benefits because the figures won’t match the numbers of workers, or unemployed,’ said La Razón on Wednesday.
