Spanish Government Declares Our Independence

The Spanish Deputy PM has announced the government's intention to appeal before the Constitutional Court against the approval of the Declaration of Sovereignty by the Catalan Parliament. According to Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the declaration adopted has legal effects and therefore, although it is a resolution to impel political action (in accordance with Rule 145 of Parliament) and not of a regulatory nature, should be appealed against so as to declare it unconstitutional.

The Spanish government has apparently ignored the initial position expressed by minister Margallo, when he said that the declaration had no legal effect. Therefore, the government recognizes the legal status of the parliamentary declaration. The reason for this lies in the fact that the political content of the statement is against the “constitutional spirit” that identifies not with the transition from a dictatorship to a democratic system, but with the indissoluble unity of the Spanish fatherland. It uses a manifestation of political intent adopted by a large majority in a parliament made up of the people, a fact unprecedented in recent political and constitutional history of Spain. Opinions contrary to the unity of Spain have thus become unconstitutional and illegal.

Pere Aragonès