15.10.2014 - 10:45
The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, ruled out yesterday the consultation vote already called for November 9 and agreed upon among a majority of Catalan parties, in face of the opposition from the Spanish authorities. However, he announced an alternative consultation vote on that same date, in which 20,000 volunteers throughout Catalonia will run the polling stations, located in Catalan Government venues, and people would register just before voting (more details here). The parties that until now had pressed ahead with plans for an independence consultation vote offered different reactions to President Mas’s decision. Civil society organisations pushing for independence are asking for unity among them, althought it is not complety broken it is feeble. The coming days will be decisive, until the moment this is how they reacted:
Republican Left of Catalonia: ‘It’s not the consultation that we would have liked, but we will try to help’
The president of traditionally pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the main opposition party and until now government ally, Oriol Junqueras, blamed the government for the breakdown of consensus among political parties regarding the 9 November consultation. ‘The government caused a breakdown of the unity we had forged until now, which was built around defending the agreed-upon consultation model. Until yesterday, we all agreed on defending that consultation’, said Junqueras, adding that the best option would be to revert to the previous model.
If the consultation cannot go forward in its previous incarnation, Junqueras said that he favours holding elections that would be a de-facto plebiscite ‘as soon as possible’ and, ‘if there is a majority vote for independence, declaring independence’. Junqueras said that ‘the other model was better because everyone was involved’. Nevertheless, he added, ‘we will try to help out as much as we can’.
CUP will support the new consultation if minimum guarantees are met
Radical-left CUP called the current breakdown of unity among pro-consultation parties less than ideal and demanded that Mas abandon ‘partisan manoeuvring and honour government commitments’.
MP Quim Arrufat called on president Mas to put an end to ‘partisan manoeuvring, personal heroics and politicization’ that will lead to plebiscite-like elections. Nevertheless, CUP lent its support to Mas’s new plan for an independence consultation vote, provided that the conditions spelled out yesterday in a meeting on the issue are met, including the guarantee that there will be ballot boxes in every polling station.
ICV does not support the alternative consultation and instead proposed ‘taking to the streets on 9-N to cue up at closed polling stations’
Green-left coalition ICV-EUiA does not support the alternative popular consultation vote: ‘The agreement we had is gone. Mas spoke of an alternative, some kind of backup plan. And he spoke of plebiscite-like elections’ said party leader Joan Herrera. Instead, Herrera proposed taking to the streets on 9 November and congregating ‘in front of the polling stations that the Popular Party has shut down, to denounce the violation of our fundamental rights’. Herrera said that the newly proposed consultation will also be blocked by the Spanish government. ‘When it becomes apparent that the consultation cannot be held, that we cannot move forward, there must be a response, we must congregate in front of the doors of the closed polling stations that the Popular Party has shut down. We need the European institutions to see that.
The Spanish government threatens to challenge the new plan for a consultation
The Spanish government is ‘analysing’ the alternative consultation that President Mas has announced. At press time, no official statement had been made. However, the Spanish Minister of Justice, Rafael Catalá, said that if Mas intends to unconstitutionally consult the public about the political future of Catalonia, it will again be challenged, as Catalá has always maintained. The Spanish government, therefore, does not appear willing to budge from its reactionary position.
