26.09.2014 - 16:37
A few hours after the official confirmation that the consultation would be convened on the coming Saturday 27, President Mas said that a combination of ‘courage and ability’ might mean that the weaker may overcome in relation to the process in Catalonia and the call to the 9-N consultation. Mas also said that ‘David did not beat Goliath because he was very strong, but because he was very clever and very able’. Mas used these words to answer the constant threats from the media. Precisely in the fact of not rushing into convening the consultation, the president has been astute in order to achieve as much time as possible for the decree before the Spanish government blocks it.
The convention will be signed on Saturday 27 September in the Palau de la Generalitat. The President will be accompanied by the government, by the leaders of the parties supporting the consultation and by the head of the parliament, Núria de Gispert, as well as the remaining members of the Catalan house.
A prominent place will also be given to Carme Forcadell and Muriel Casals, the leaders of the citizens’ movement behind the process towards independence.
When will the Spanish government meet to challenge the call?
As the consultation will be called during the weekend, if the Spanish government wanted to challenge it quickly, it would have to call an extraordinary meeting of the cabinet presided by Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría on Saturday or Mariano Rajoy, who would have returned from China, on Sunday.
The Constitution Court has no ordinary meeting until 7 October, but the Spanish government might also pressurise the Court into holding an extraordinary meeting to discuss whether it admits the Spanish government’s appeal and so blocks the call.
In the evening of the 27th, when the consultation has been convened, President Mas will give explanations in an interview with Televisió de Catalunya and on the 28th he will do so on the La Sexta state television channel.
White Book, roadmap to sovereignty
Next week the ‘White Book’ of the path to becoming a state will also be published with the 18 reports of the National Transition Advisory Council (CATN in its Catalan abbreviation). Minister Homs has said that this book is intended to ‘provide citizens with all available information so that they might take conscious decisions with respect to the planned consultation’.
