Brussels, 12/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The central Spanish government was unmoved by the demonstration by 500,000 Catalans, calling for a referendum on 9 November on self-determination for their region.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's only reaction to the national Catalan day, the Diada (see EUROPE 1115), was a short tweet making reference to a heart transplant centre he visited that same day: “Solidarity allows an Andalusian to live with the heart of a Catalan and vice versa. This generosity defines our identity as Spaniards.”
Rajoy is resolutely opposed to the self-determination referendum announced by the Catalan regional government for 9 November, despite the wide support this referendum has among the Catalan people, as made clear the demonstration on the Diada. The referendum has not yet been formally called by the Catalan parliament, which is due to enact legislation for this purpose next week. It is likely that the central government will lodge an appeal against this regional law with the Spanish constitutional court in an attempt to have it annulled and thus prevent the referendum from taking place (there is a precedent for this with the Basque country in 2008). The constitutional court could come to its decision very quickly, a Spanish diplomatic source said. This is a major difference with the Scottish referendum on 18 September which has been fully agreed and recognised by the UK government.
These self-determination processes will be watched very closely by the European Commission, stated spokesperson Pia Ahrenkilde on 12 September. She also indicated that there had been no change in the European position in the event of a secession from an existing EU member state (the new state will not be a member of the EU and European treaties will no longer be applicable to it, see EUROPE 11151).
The same Spanish diplomatic source further told EUROPE that there had been no discussion between the Commission and the Spanish authorities with regard to Catalonia. (MD)