Catalan President Pere Aragonés on Tuesday proposed a new referendum on independence for Spain’s northeastern region.
Presenting a study on the legality of such a vote, Aragonés said:
“Voting on independence is possible within the current legal context — just like the amnesty law, it’s only a matter of political will.”
According to the study, Article 92 of the Spanish constitution on the “consultative referendum” is best used to hold a vote on the region’s secession from Spain. The referendum question proposed by Aragonés is: “Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state?”
However, the vote must first be agreed by Spain’s king, proposed by the prime minister and approved by parliament.
On Tuesday, a Spanish government spokesman quickly rejected the proposal, saying the referendum was “clearly and radically at odds” with the government’s policy towards Catalonia. Aragonés’ new referendum proposal comes ahead of snap elections he has called in the region, which will be held on 12 May.
While his ERC party has never ruled out a referendum, the priority in recent years has been to negotiate amnesty and concessions from the Spanish government.
The campaign to elect the Catalan government has yet to officially begin, and the Popular Party has already filed a formal protest against Aragonés with the electoral commission, accusing him of using a government press conference for electoral purposes.
In 2014, the Catalan government authorised a non-binding referendum on Catalan independence. After voters cast their ballots in favour of independence and the results were undecided, the government promised to hold a binding referendum.
In 2017, that is exactly what the Catalan government attempted to do. However, Spain tried to block the vote, including using police to stop some voters from voting. With no legal minimum number of participants, the Catalan government claimed that 90% of voters supported independence and tried to unilaterally declare independence from Spain. The Spanish government then took over Catalonia, arresting the leaders behind the declaration of independence who did not escape.
