The Spanish government will initiate a Constitutional Court challenge against the motion passed by the Catalan Parliament on Thursday ratifying the "political objectives" it set down in 2015; that is to say, the rupture with the Spanish state. According to spokesperson Isabel Celaá, the required report from the Council of State has already been requested. "This will be done in defence of the Spanish constitution and the Statute of Autonomy. The Government is and remains determined to move along a political pathway with Catalonia," which in no case will include "a right to self-determination that does not exist and is not contemplated in our Magna Carta" and which "has nowhere to go", asserted the minister Celaá.
The announcement comes three days before the meeting between prime minister Pedro Sánchez and Catalan president Quim Torra, next Monday at Sánchez's official residence, the Moncloa. Despite this, the government spokesperson said that the executive was "enthusiastic" and had "high hopes that the meeting will turn out very well." "There will be an agenda full of issues of great interest, issues as important as that of reducing conflictiveness [with regard to the Constitutional Court], investments, transfers, which are already envisaged in Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy", she specified, after reiterating that a referendum will not be accepted.
The fact is that Sánchez will approach the appointment on Monday morning looking for "reciprocity" with Torra, and Celáa considers that the court challenge should not interfere with this since "the government represents the state" and the Constitutional Court has already warned that a break with the state is not the course to take. "This executive maintains its political determination, we are not only talking about the Catalan president, but about all the citizens of Catalonia. For everyone, it has to be a fruitful meeting. Other routes of remonstrance have already been taken, the political path is the appropriate one for us. It is an obligation, to open spaces for dialogue," she said.
The Spanish executive does not discard "second and third meetings" although its goal is for this one to function well. "In this meeting, there must be political subject matter, issues that are of concern to most people, and prime minister Sanchez will listen, and then analyze and act," she affirmed. The government spokesperson also commented that she "didn't know whether there were vestiges of Francoism in Catalonia," but she reiterated the Socialist government's commitment to the exhumation of Franco - in response to a statements made by Torra, on the presence of "vestiges of Francoism" in the Spanish institutions.