23.09.2014 - 15:54
More than 300 Catalan local governments, Barcelona among them, yesterday approved a motion in support of the independence vote scheduled for 9 November. The motion was put forth by two associations of Catalan local governments, Associació Catalana de Municipis (Catalan Association of Municipalities–ACM) and Associació de Municipis per la Independència (Association of Municipalities for Independence–AMI). Over the course of this week, more than 600 local governments will be holding full sessions in order to debate and pass the motion. The municipalities involved account for 70% of local governments in Catalonia and 72% of the Catalan population. The presidents of the two municipal associations driving the push for the motion, Miquel Buch and Josep Maria Vila d’Abadal, said that there has been a constant trickle of municipalities joining this effort and that the total number of participants is expected to grow over the coming days.
Contents of the motion
The motion many local governments are passing gives explicit support to the independence referendum in order ‘to freely decide the future of Catalonia’. This support extends to the president of Catalonia, Artur Mas, and to the government of the Generalitat de Catalonia, as well as to the Catalan Parliament and the political parties in favour of the referendum. The text of the motion notes the ‘materialization’ of the consultation ‘within the legal framework established by the Popular Consultations Act’ passed last Friday by the Catalan Parliament. The text states that the referendum corresponds ‘to the will of the majority of the Catalan people and their representatives”.
The two associations of municipalities that have driven the effort to pass the motion (ACM and AMI) will be sending joint notice of the approved measures to the president of Spain, Mariano Rajoy; the president of the Spanish Parliament, Jesús Posada; the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon; the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz; the EU Council president, Herman Van Rompuy; and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso.
Barcelona, for the referendum
The City of Barcelona is one of the more important local governments that will be joining the effort to hold the 9-N referendum. In a full session yesterday, the City Council passed the motion in support of the scheduled independence vote with 21 votes in favour and 12 opposed. ‘We are committed to ensuring both individual freedom and the democratic process, and to providing the necessary tools to make the consultation possible. We have the majority [needed] to exercise the right to decide’, said the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias.
Socialist Party of Catalonia forced to take a position on vote
The wave of municipalities that have included the motion supporting the 9-N vote in the agenda for the plenary sessions has forced local elected officials from the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) into a bind, given that the PSC has supported the independence referendum under the condition that a vote be called only with the approval of the Spanish government. The government of Spain has thus far remained unwavering in its opposition to the independence referendum in Catalonia.
Some small and medium-sized municipalities under socialist control have indicated a willingness to collaborate in the logistics of the referendum vote, but the majority of the most populated cities and towns governed by the PSC, including Cornellà, Esplugues and Hospitalet de Llobregat (located in Barcelona’s metropolitan area) have not. Other towns with sizable demographics, such as Badalona and Terrassa, remain on the fence and may yet decide to lend their support to the Catalan government in order to hold the referendum.
