Spanish Court Trying to Block Catalonia From Declaring Independence

Catalan officials have indicated that they intend to declare independence from Spain during a Monday meeting of the regional parliament.Spain’s Constitutional Court is trying to prevent this from happening by forbidding the Catalan parliament from meeting on Monday.

The Catalan Socialist Party, which opposes secession, was the one who pushed the court to make the move, arguing that the Monday session would violate their MPs’ rights. The court agreed, though largely just in hopes of stopping secession.

Catalonia hasn’t been doing what Spain’s courts have demanded for awhile now, though. The parliament hadn’t even finalized their Monday session in the first place, and many say that forbidding it before it’s announced makes the ruling meaningless.

Catalan officials say they are still undecided about if they’re going to meet Monday, though the court ruling probably isn’t going to have a major impact on the decision, nor is it likely to preclude an eventual declaration of independence.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.