Brussels, 09/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - Spanish MPs have little sympathy for Catalan plans for a referendum on self-determination, which appears to be increasingly unlikely to take place. The Spanish parliament as a block rejected by 299 vote against, with 47 votes for and 1 abstention, the Catalan demand for the transfer of the powers of the central state to the autonomous region to organise a referendum on the subject on 9 November. Although this result was to be expected, it did, however, require seven hours of preliminary debate during which the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, pointed out that he could not “conceive of Spain without Catalonia or Catalonia outside of Spain and Europe”.
The referendum in question would seek to put the question to 7 million Catalans of whether they want Catalonia to be a state and whether this state should be independent. The referendum was called for by Artur Mas, the leader of the Catalan independence and nationalist movement, who is the president of this region. He responded to the result of the vote by declaring that the Catalan institutions will seek to build a legal framework that would enable them to organise the referendum. He also explained that this way forward would be followed “in a positive, constructive, enthusiastic, democratic and peaceful way”. (MD)