CATALUNYA'S planned independence vote has been blocked by Spain's Constitutional Court, which says it goes against the country's Magna Carta.
Regional president Artur Mas (pictured) approved a law reform allowing a non-binding public 'consultation' to go ahead on November 9 after the central government banned him from holding a referendum – but judges at the highest court in Spain unanimously agreed both the legislation and the voting were illegal.
The Constitutional Court has been working around the clock after a crisis meeting with Spanish president Mariano Rajoy and his Council of Ministers yesterday (Monday) took place and an appeal against Mas' move lodged before close of business.
According to a spokesman for the 12 magistrates at the court, they moved quickly because they were 'conscious of the constitutional and political transcendency' of the issue, 'for Spanish society as a whole' as well as for the people of Catalunya.
Catalunya's regional Parliament has been given a fortnight to attend the court in person and to file any appeal against the decision they wish to make in relation to the law reform allowing the public consultation on independence to go ahead, and three weeks to do the same with regard to the magistrates' having blocked the actual consultation.
But the Constitutional Court has not made a binding decision as yet, since it normally has five months to go into case in detail in order to pass a verdict – which, in the case of a vote planned for November 9, would not give them time.
Their blocking of the law reform and the consultation is an emergency measure in light of the limited amount of time left.
Artur Mas has criticised Rajoy's 'hostile attitude' to his move and the court's 'super-sonic speed' in banning the consultation.
He says he is prepared already for his appeal as he suspected this situation might arise, and that the consultation was never intended to be a definitive route to a unilateral decision to make Catalunya a separate country – only a way of holding a public opinion poll to find out what the region's residents and natives wanted.
Rajoy insists that for such a consultation to be legal and in accordance with the Spanish Constitution, it would have to allow all citizens in Spain to vote, not just in Catalunya, since it relates to an issue that affects the country as a whole.
When the Spanish government announced plans to apply to the Constitutional Court, thousands of Catalunya's residents protested in the street and their being denied the right to cast a non-binding vote.
Some of them flew the Scottish flag, fired up by the recent referendum where residents were allowed to have their say as to whether or not to stay in the United Kingdom – a right Catalunya says has been refused to them.
They say they want Catalunya to have more powers, even if it does not achieve independence, given that the region's population of 7.5 million makes up 16% of that of Spain and it is one of the wealthiest and most industrialised parts of the country.
Unofficial polls show that 55% of Catalunya's residents and citizens – including the latter where they live elsewhere – do not believe a referendum should be scrapped just because the Constitutional Court says it is illegal, but only 23% believed Mas should defy such a verdict and go ahead whilst the others considered he should work on ways of making it comply with the law first.
