Catalonia defies Spanish orders by approving a roadmap to independence

The regional parliament of Catalonia approved a plan to set up a roadmap for independence from Spain by 2017, in defiance of central government.

The chamber, based in the northeastern city of Barcelona, passed the motion by 72 votes to 63.

The proposal was made by pro-secession lawmakers from the ‘Together for Yes’ alliance and the extreme left-wing Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP).

The groups together obtained a parliamentary majority in regional elections in September.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy has previously vowed to take legal action against the Catalan parliament if it were to approve the secession plan.

The motion passed by the parliament in its first post-election session, declared “the start of a process toward the creation of an independent Catalan state in the form of a republic” and a “process of democratic disconnection not subject to the decisions by the institutions of the Spanish state.”

Separatist lawmakers applauded the victory that will likely put them on a collision course with the central government and Spain’s Constitutional Court, which has in the past blocked moves toward independence.

“There is a growing cry for Catalonia to not merely be a country, but to be a state with everything that means,” Raul Romeva, head of the ‘Together for Yes’ alliance, said at the start of the session. “Today we don’t only open a new parliament, this marks a before and after.”

Catalan branches of Spain’s ruling conservative Popular Party and the Socialist and the Citizens opposition parties had filed appeals to halt the vote, but Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled last Thursday that it could go ahead.

“You want to divide a country by raising a frontier in the EU,” Citizens regional leader Ines Arrimadas told separatist lawmakers.

The Constitutional Court is expected to rule the law illegal quickly, but the motion specifically orders the regional government not to heed the decision of Spain’s highest court.

The motion gives the incoming government 30 days to start working on a new Catalan constitution, which would later be voted on in a referendum, and begin establishing a new tax office and social security administration.

Pro-secessionist parties won their majority of 72 seats in September on the strength of just 48 percent of the votes. That was because of a twist in Spanish election law that over-represents rural areas, where separatists have more support.

The Spanish government has refused requests by regional lawmakers to hold an official referendum similar to the one Scotland held last year when Scots voted to stay in the United Kingdom.