Constitutional Court blocks Catalunya referendum Bill, but region intends to forge ahead

Over 900 mayors in the region have been told by the highest court in the land that they could be fined and struck off if they cooperate with the voting process on October 1.

Spanish president Mariano Rajoy, who filed the appeal after an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday (Thursday) morning, has said the referendum on secession 'is not going to happen'.

He has told Catalunya's president Carles Puigdemont to 'just accept with good grace' that he 'will have to admit defeat'.

But Puigdemont intends to do no such thing, saying regional governments have a right to decide their own laws, that the referendum is covered by the laws of Catalunya, and that an independent Catalunya would not be bound by the Constitutional Court of Spain in any case.

A mass appeal has gone out from the central government via Catalunya's regional media – including TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio – to over 60 key regional Parliament figureheads and the mayors of the 947 towns and villages in the provinces of Girona, Barcelona, Lleida and Tarragona to block the voting process by refusing to allow polling stations to run.

The heads of the region's military police, the Mossos d'Esquadra – Josep Lluís Trapero and Pere Soler i Campins – have been similarly instructed.

Spain's government considers that holding the referendum would be in breach of eight articles of the national Magna Carta, in particular Article 3.2 which states that the Constitution of Spain takes precedence in the event of any conflict between State and regional law.

Also, Rajoy's cabinet recalls, in its appeal to the Constitutional Court, that a unilateral declaration of independence in a democracy during peacetime is not valid under international laws.

This 'self-definition' of a population is only permitted in 'situations of colonial rule, territories annexed by conflict or invasion, foreign domination or occupation' – such as the Baltic States following the Cold War – and populations under oppression from 'massive and blatant violation of their human rights', such as South Sudan and, although not technically recognised as such by the United Nations, Kosovo.

Only Ethiopia and the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies hold the legal right to agree to the secession of part of their territories, the appeal text claims – in the case of the latter, this included the island of Anguilla until its secession in 1971; Saint Kitts and Nevis became independent in September 1983, and Nevis held a referendum in August 1998 on seceding from Saint Kitts, but this failed as it did not meet the two-thirds majority stipulated.

Evidently, Catalunya does not meet this criteria.

The Spanish State in the form of the Parliamentary Monarchy is considered sovereign, according to Articles 1.1 and 1.3, and the unity of Spain as a nation is enshrined in Article 2.

Other issues include the Constitution taking precedence (Article 9.1) and the manner in which Constitutional reforms may be conducted (Article 168), and the State being the sole entity with the jurisdiction required to call referenda (Article 149.1, section 32).

Laws covering referenda are also contained in Article 92.3 and 81, the latter covering legislation-drafting, whilst the right of the people to participate in public affairs is provided for in Article 23.1, which the national government says has been violated by the way the Catalunya Parliament introduced the referendum Bill and the framework for creating a new country if the majority – set at anything over 50% - chose to break away from Spain.

This is the most heated the 'Catalunya vs Spain' issue has ever become, and has led to national government political parties normally poles apart in terms of their values burying the hatchet as never before.

Whilst far-left Podemos – the polar opposite of Rajoy's right-wing PP – believes a referendum of sorts should be allowed, it does not support independence; the PP's main opposition, the left-wing PSOE (socialists) are against both, but believe open discussions should take place on why Catalunya wants to be a separate nation, and centre-right Ciudadanos backs the PP's view but does not believe it should attempt to 'criminalise' those who forge ahead against the rules.

Podemos' leader Pablo Iglesias lost his temper during the regional Parliamentary debate on Wednesday, accusing the deputy president of 'bare-faced cheek' for claiming she 'feels democratically embarrassed' over the attempts to block the referendum Bill.

Politicians had laid out either catalán or Spanish flags on their seats, according to how they felt, and Iglesias rebuked his party's regional representative for removing all the Spanish flags, ordering her to put them back.

Catalunya's 'IndyRef' is due to take place in three weeks and two days, unless Puigdemont's supporters back down at the last minute.