Catalonia's leader Artur Mas is walking a legal tightrope as street protesters and political allies urge him to defy the courts by holding a vote on independence from Spain.
Mas has promised to respect the law in his drive for a non-binding vote on whether the northeastern region should break away, and Spain's Constitutional Court this week put him in a bind by suspending his plan.
Mas's centre-right regional government promptly filed lawsuits challenging the suspension and Catalan lawmakers have voted to set up a referendum commission.
Mas has suspended the official information campaign for the poll after the court's ruling and his government withdrew an advert for recruiting electoral staff to avoid any action that could be considered illegal as a result of the suspension.
But separatists have vowed to push ahead with the vote.
Waving Catalan independence flags of red and yellow stripes overlaid with a white star on a blue background, demonstrators rallied in a rainstorm on Tuesday evening, yelling: "We will vote!"
"We are committed to waging this country's biggest mass movement," said Carme Forcadell, leader of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a powerful civil pro-independence group. "We are starting here and now."
The ANC launched a campaign of door-to-door canvassing.
"There is nothing illegal about that. It is part of freedom of expression," said the Catalan political analyst Josep Ramoneda. "But political action is another matter."
The Catalan government's spokesman Francesc Homs said the information campaign was suspended so as not to oblige regional civil servants to break the court's ruling.
Those workers are the people who would have to organise the registering of voters and setting up of polling stations.
Mas's government has unblocked nearly nine million euros to fund the referendum but has not said when it will start organising the ballots to have them ready for November 9 -- and time is running out.
- 'Civil disobedience' -
With this week's events raising political as well as popular pressure on him, Mas has called a meeting with other Catalan party leaders for Friday to strike a common position on how to proceed.
Members of the left-wing Catalan nationalist party ERC, which props up Mas's CiU coalition in the regional parliament, has called for "civil disobedience" in response to the court order.
"We want no part in the suspension of the vote nor the Constitutional Court's rulings," said Marta Rovira, the ERC's deputy leader.
She offered Mas the services of "a multitude of civil servants and public workers who are willing to take responsibility" for running the referendum.
Proud of their distinct language and culture, many of Catalonia's 7.5 million inhabitants have long complained they get a raw deal from the government in Madrid, which decides how their taxes are spent.
The independence movement has gathered strength in recent years.
Catalonia formally adopted the status of a "nation" in a 2006 charter that increased its autonomy, but the Constitutional Court overruled that nationhood claim, fuelling pro-independence feeling.
Spain's recent economic crisis has increased unemployment and hardship in the region and swelled its debts but Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in 2012 rejected Mas's request for greater powers for Catalonia to tax and spend.
Now the clock is ticking for Mas, a moderate nationalist, who has called the vote for six weeks from now.
Media speculated that he may stake his leadership by calling a snap regional election to serve as a plebiscite on independence.
"The Catalan government will at no point venture to act illegally, so there will be no vote unless the Constitutional Court allows it," said Ramoneda.
"Very few people would vote in an illegal referendum. It would have no credibility and no international validity."
The conservative Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia said that even within Mas's camp there was "an intense debate among members of the Catalan government, with directly opposed views" on whether to defy the Constitutional Court.
Homs, the Catalan government spokesman, played down the reported divisions.
"We all have our views. That there are nuances does not mean that we are disunited," he said. "We are a mosaic of many colours."
Catalonia’s leader Artur Mas is walking a legal tightrope as street protesters and political allies urge him to defy the courts by holding a vote on independence from Spain.
Mas has promised to respect the law in his drive for a non-binding vote on whether the northeastern region should break away, and Spain’s Constitutional Court this week put him in a bind by suspending his plan.
Mas’s centre-right regional government promptly filed lawsuits challenging the suspension and Catalan lawmakers have voted to set up a referendum commission.
Mas has suspended the official information campaign for the poll after the court’s ruling and his government withdrew an advert for recruiting electoral staff to avoid any action that could be considered illegal as a result of the suspension.
But separatists have vowed to push ahead with the vote.
Waving Catalan independence flags of red and yellow stripes overlaid with a white star on a blue background, demonstrators rallied in a rainstorm on Tuesday evening, yelling: “We will vote!”
“We are committed to waging this country’s biggest mass movement,” said Carme Forcadell, leader of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a powerful civil pro-independence group. “We are starting here and now.”
The ANC launched a campaign of door-to-door canvassing.
“There is nothing illegal about that. It is part of freedom of expression,” said the Catalan political analyst Josep Ramoneda. “But political action is another matter.”
The Catalan government’s spokesman Francesc Homs said the information campaign was suspended so as not to oblige regional civil servants to break the court’s ruling.
Those workers are the people who would have to organise the registering of voters and setting up of polling stations.
Mas’s government has unblocked nearly nine million euros to fund the referendum but has not said when it will start organising the ballots to have them ready for November 9 — and time is running out.
– ‘Civil disobedience’ –
With this week’s events raising political as well as popular pressure on him, Mas has called a meeting with other Catalan party leaders for Friday to strike a common position on how to proceed.
Members of the left-wing Catalan nationalist party ERC, which props up Mas’s CiU coalition in the regional parliament, has called for “civil disobedience” in response to the court order.
“We want no part in the suspension of the vote nor the Constitutional Court’s rulings,” said Marta Rovira, the ERC’s deputy leader.
She offered Mas the services of “a multitude of civil servants and public workers who are willing to take responsibility” for running the referendum.
Proud of their distinct language and culture, many of Catalonia’s 7.5 million inhabitants have long complained they get a raw deal from the government in Madrid, which decides how their taxes are spent.
The independence movement has gathered strength in recent years.
Catalonia formally adopted the status of a “nation” in a 2006 charter that increased its autonomy, but the Constitutional Court overruled that nationhood claim, fuelling pro-independence feeling.
Spain’s recent economic crisis has increased unemployment and hardship in the region and swelled its debts but Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in 2012 rejected Mas’s request for greater powers for Catalonia to tax and spend.
Now the clock is ticking for Mas, a moderate nationalist, who has called the vote for six weeks from now.
Media speculated that he may stake his leadership by calling a snap regional election to serve as a plebiscite on independence.
“The Catalan government will at no point venture to act illegally, so there will be no vote unless the Constitutional Court allows it,” said Ramoneda.
“Very few people would vote in an illegal referendum. It would have no credibility and no international validity.”
The conservative Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia said that even within Mas’s camp there was “an intense debate among members of the Catalan government, with directly opposed views” on whether to defy the Constitutional Court.
Homs, the Catalan government spokesman, played down the reported divisions.
“We all have our views. That there are nuances does not mean that we are disunited,” he said. “We are a mosaic of many colours.”
