Half a year after the proclamation of the "referendum or referendum" it is clear that this will be unilateral. The Rajoy government does not want to hear about a Scottish vote and in the Puigdemont government the time to keep his word is running out. At the beginning of the spring of 2017, Junts pel Sí and the CUP promote a reform of the Parliament's regulations to approve the disconnection laws by urgent means, with a single reading, to avoid being challenged in the process.
But how many laws? The CUP rapporteur, Benet Salellas, and Junts, Lluís Corominas and Jordi Orobitg, discuss. “It was decided to make two so that the citizens would understand it better, but also because it was thought that this would ensure that, at a minimum, Catalunya Sí Que Es Pot would approve the referendum”, says an authorized voice. The referendum law is basically prepared by this group of speakers.
In that of transience, the departments of the Generalitat also intervene, contributing content from the different sections, and Carles Viver Pi-Sunyer. “The CUP had not requested this second rule. He considered that from law to law could not be done because the subjects of sovereignty were different. This idea came from the Junts program”, explains a source familiar with its development.
Starting in June, Carles Puigdemont has a setback. The Venice Commission rejects the collaboration that he has asked for. Any referendum must be agreed with the Spanish authorities in accordance with the Constitution, responds the advisory body of the Council of Europe. It gives so much On the 9th, the president announces that the unilateral referendum will be held on 1-O.
On July 4, Junts and the CUP present the draft of the referendum law. They have elaborated it based on the General Electoral Regime Law, the Popular Consultations Law 4/2010 by way of referendum of the Montilla government and partially annulled by the TC, and they protect it in United Nations and The Hague resolutions.
More discussions. Finally, it is agreed that the two laws will be approved together. “The decisions of what was done were in the hands of a few, the speakers and small groups of party leaders. For discretion, the parliamentary groups did not have details. The surprise effect was sought”. At the end of the month, the plenary session approves the reform of the Parliament's regulations, but the TC suspends it five days later.
Junts and the CUP register on July 31 the proposal of the referendum law. It's the day before vacation. The Board leaves the admission pending so that the Spanish Government cannot appeal it. To meet deadlines and avoid challenges, vacations are shortened. In mid-August the chamber reopens. It has already been decided that the admission of the referendum law will take place the same day it is processed and approved.
September 6. When the general secretary of the ERC, Marta Rovira, asks for the floor, the vertigo begins. The rule is processed by article 81.3, pre-existing in the Parliament's regulations, which allows the introduction of new items on the agenda of a plenary session once convened. “As we already anticipated that the reform of the regulation would be challenged, we had studied alternatives. This was one of those that was from the beginning”, reveals a source participating in this strategy.
“In the previous days I said buy energy bars because the opposition will not even let us eat. We already knew that they would want to delay the plenary session to give time to the objections of the Spanish Government and the TC, which was meeting. At the same time, however, what was happening was a surprise to most of us”, says a voice with a relevant role in the plenary. "In the previous days, some members of the Parliamentary Board prepared scenarios to try to protect Forcadell and to avoid interruptions," adds another.
The Chamber's lawyers warn the Board of legal consequences. The Consell de Garanties Estatutàries protests because it cannot issue its opinion on the standard. The pro-independence majority considers that it is not binding or mandatory. The opposition is trying hard to stop the plenum as much as it can. As important as defending their rights was conveying to public opinion the impression that they are violated. Meetings and more meetings of the Bureau and the spokesperson's board follow one another. The hemicycle and its corridors are a vaudeville.
At night, the pro-independence majority approves the referendum law and the Government calls it. "The norm confirms the rupture with the current legality from beginning to end." Another authoritative voice adds that “the formula used formally left a margin of flexibility for the Parliament that was less than that provided for by the CATN, which forced it to open negotiations to make effective the electoral result favorable to independence and the declaration of independence only took place at the end ”.
In the early hours of the 7th it is not clear that the transience law will be processed. The chaotic plenary session of the previous day makes Puigdemont and other deputies doubt whether the show should be repeated. “That the two laws would be approved was already agreed upon. There are those who want to back down, but the CUP believes that the second law guarantees the materialization of independence. People have to know what will happen if the yes wins."
Without the cuperos, the pro-independence majority cannot play. The Chamber, therefore, revives the previous session. The lawyers and the CGE warn, the opposition makes a fuss and defends itself. The Table and the president go head to head. In the meantime, the Spanish Government warns the Catalan municipalities. If they support the referendum process, they will remain outside the constitutional and statutory framework and the pronouncements of the TC.
On the morning of September 8, the independence movement approved the transitory law. "The institutional staging was terrible, the result of a poorly written script," says a very involved voice. "I disapprove of the circumstances that led us to that situation, not the procedure we followed," adds another. The Constitutional Court is not slow in suspending the disconnection laws. It gives so much The countdown to the celebration of 1-O has already begun.
