1-O vote come what may
Puigdemont tells Le Figaro he will not abide by any constitutional court suspension and that nothing can stop the will of the Catalan people to vote
In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro yesterday, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont insisted that “no suspension and no threat” would stop Catalans from voting, and that he would not abide by any ruling from the Constitutional Court to suspend him. “Only the Catalan parliament can suspend me,” he told the newspaper.
In the interview, Puigdemont, insisted on the Catalans’ right to self-determination as “very clearly, it is a people,” although he did admit that the October 1 referendum could be a failure if there is “a ridiculous turnout”. He also confirmed that should the vote prove successful, independence would be declared within “a week to 10 days” and that a transitional period would ensue with constituent elections and the ratification of a Catalan constitution by referendum.
Puigdemont’s party, PdeCAT, later responded to his statements with the spokesman for the party in the Spanish Congress, Carles Campuzano, warning that the Spanish government “should listen to the people of Catalonia and not launch more threats at the legitimate representatives of the Catalan government.”
Whether the ‘yes’ option wins on October 1 or not, there will no doubt be Catalan elections to follow in the months after, with ERC spokesman, Sergi Sabrià, suggesting within a maximum of 12 months.
In fact, the official state bulletin yesterday published the results of a tender to supply electoral material for a value of 897,520 euros. Nevertheless, Spanish deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría warned the Catalan government yesterday that “any preparatory action [for the referendum] will have a corresponding answer.”.