Spanish Government says it will try to block Catalonia’s referendum on November 9

The Spanish Government reacted to Artur Mas’ declarations yesterday—in which he promised to guarantee that the polls would be open on November 9 for the referendum—by saying they would aim to ‘avoid encouraging social division and uncertainty in Catalonia’ and that they would apply the law and the constitution in order to block a referendum that they consider illegal. Spanish vice president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria said, ‘We are all subject to the law and those of who hold public office are required to follow the law. It’s not good for someone in a public office to speak openly about such a thing.’

What will the Spanish Government do when the referendum is convoked? ‘The government will react to any actions against the constitution. We have brought actions that we considered contrary to the constitution before the Constitutional Court,’ said Sáenz de Santamaria, in reference to the appeals against the Catalan Parliament’s Declaration of Sovereignty.