Catalan
trial turns into pro-independence show of force
As
prosecution of Artur Mas begins, Barcelona and Madrid remain at
loggerheads.
By DIEGO
TORRES 2/6/17, 8:05 PM CET Updated 2/6/17, 9:02 PM CET
BARCELONA — Around
40,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona Monday ahead of the
start of the trial of former Catalan president Artur Mas and two
members of his cabinet, who are accused of organizing an illegal vote
on independence from Spain in 2014.
In a carefully
organized show of force, the defendants walked from the headquarters
of the regional government to the courthouse accompanied by members
of the current Catalan cabinet. Thousands of supporters made their
voices heard, shouting “independence” and “you are not alone”
and waving pro-independence banners.
“Thank you for
your support, affection, convictions, ideals, for always standing up
to defend Catalonia,” Mas told the crowd in a short statement after
an initial court hearing.
“Many of us feel
that we’re being judged today,” said current Catalan President
Carles Puigdemont. “Those responsible for making [the vote] a
judicial affair will face a nation that maintains its dignity.”
Mas — who faces a
10-year ban from public office if found guilty — assumed full
responsibility before the tribunal for instigating the non-binding
vote, but denied having intentionally violated the law.
He claimed that his
government was simply supporting the work of an estimated 42,000
volunteers who organized the vote, which was ruled illegal by the
country’s Constitutional Court five days before it was due to take
place.
Around 2.3 million
people — between 36 percent and 42 percent of the electorate,
depending on which side’s figures are used — cast a ballot and 80
percent voted for independence.
From left, former
Catalan Vice President Joana Ortega, former Catalan President Artur
Mas, and their former Education Minister Irene Rigau, in court | Alex
Caparrós/Getty Images
“No one is being
judged for his political ideas,” Pablo Casado, a spokesman for
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party, told reporters in
Madrid after the hearing. In Spain, he claimed, “everyone is
subject to the rule of law because a democracy without law is not a
democracy.”
The trial of Mas,
his deputy Joana Ortega and his education minister Irene Rigau —
which will last five days — comes at a time of extreme tension
between Puigdemont’s secessionist cabinet, which has committed to
organizing a new referendum on independence (this time a binding one)
before October, and Spain’s government led by Rajoy.
The conservative PM
and the vast majority of Spanish political forces oppose the vote and
the self-determination of Catalonia. The government in Madrid has
made it clear that it will use all legal means to stop the
referendum.
Measures could
include the seizure of competencies from the Catalan regional
government and fresh criminal prosecutions against the current
Catalan leaders.
Catalan
pro-independence forces won 48 percent of the vote and an absolute
majority of seats in the regional assembly in 2015 elections.
Lawmakers then approved an 18-month roadmap to independence.
“We’ll
go far as we need to. We have a commitment to make a referendum” —
Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras
With Madrid and
Barcelona in a deadlock, and the deadline set by pro-independence
forces approaching, a key factor will be whether current Catalan
leaders are prepared to disobey Spanish law and go ahead with their
planned referendum.
“We’ll go far as
we need to,” Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras told POLITICO.
“We have a commitment to make a referendum […] and we’ll comply
with the democratic mandate that we have because it’s our duty.”
Junqueras is widely
expected to become the next president of Catalonia in the next
elections, which will likely be called at the end of this year —
with or without a referendum. His party, the center-left Catalan
Republican Left, leads in the polls over Puigdemont and Mas’
center-right Catalan European Democratic Party, the current coalition
partners.
Junqueras said a
criminal prosecution such as that leveled against Mas, and a
potential ban from public office, won’t deter him from going ahead
with the referendum. “Those who come after me will surely do it
better than me,” he said.
Fernando de Páramo,
a member of the Catalan parliament for the pro-unity, centrist
Ciudadanos, said he believes that the regional government will
ultimately call new elections and argued that the separatist leaders
have walked into a “labyrinth” from which they don’t know how
to get out.
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