Catalan nationalist parties won a majority of seats in the parliament in September and the motion approved on Monday is seen as the first step towards the creation of an independent state, says the BBC’s Tom Burridge in Madrid.
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And it made the proposal deputies loyal to the separation within the framework of the so-called Alliance (together for Yes), party (Popular Unity) right-wing extremist.
Any moves the Spanish Prime Minister makes to quash Catalanian secession would have to be carefully carried out in a way that doesn’t rally other Catalonians and Spaniards to the Catalonian cause, says University of Valencia law professor Carlos Flores Juberías.
Catalan secessionists said that they have tried to discuss independence with the government, but they have been blocked by unionist parties. That court is Spain’s highest court and it’s Spain’s main tool against Catalan cessation.
Rajoy has said, “The state may use any available judicial and political mechanism contained in the constitution and in the laws to defend the sovereignty of the Spanish people and of the general interest of Spain”.
While not legally binding, the text calls on the regional assembly to start working on legislation within 30 days to create a separate social security system and treasury, with a view of complete independence as early as 2017.
The region pressed ahead anyway and held a symbolic vote. But it must also persuade private businesses and multinational companies with offices anywhere in Catalonia to pay their taxes to a new Catalan entity instead.
“Catalonia is Spain’s economic powerhouse, with a fifth of the country’s GDP”.
Mr Rajoy has frequently referred to a controversial reform his government recently steamrollered through Spain’s parliament which gives the Constitutional Court the power to suspend elected officials who ignore its rulings.
However, the document voted on in the Catalan parliament (November 9) specifies the independence process “will not depend on the decisions of Spanish institutions, most particularly the Constitutional Court”.
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He warned that, “Those who want to divide and split Catalonia from Spain must know that they will not succeed”. In recent years, there has been friction between Catalonia and the rest of Spain because the coastal region generates far more income than the rest of the country, and numerous residents feel they are “subsidizing” the poorer parts of Spain.
