Hakan KOLÇAK
Abstract
The political arena of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia was dominated by the unionists prone to preserve Catalonia’s constitutional ties with the Spanish State until the early 2010s, when two important constitutional incidents – (a) the ruling of the Spanish Constitutional Court on the new Catalan Statute of Autonomy; and (b) the refusal of the Spanish central government to offer the Autonomous Community a new self-government arrangement – resulted in the establishment of a new Catalan political arena dominated by the secessionists willing to construct an independent Catalan state. The secessionists, taking up the reins of government after the 2012 Catalan general election, managed to secure their parliamentary majority following the 2015 Catalan parliamentary election. While ruling Catalonia with a separatist political agenda, the pro-independence camp is now aimed at convincing the Spanish Government to empower the Catalan Parliament to hold a de jure independence referendum in the Autonomous Community; and if it is not possible, to hold a unilateral independence referendum on the 1st of October 2017 without obtaining the consent of the Spanish Government. In this article, I argue that it would be better for Catalonia to hold its independence referendum after receiving the assent of the Spanish Government, because the outcome of an independence referendum held without the consent of the Spanish Government would be the same as that of the 2014 Catalan independence referendum, meaning that the independence question would still be a solution-waiting, not resolved, constitutional issue at the end of the day.
Keywords
■ Spain ■ Catalonia ■ Catalan constitutional politics ■ Territorial autonomy ■ Unionism ■ Secessionism
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