The meeting of the Council of Valencian Cortes this Tuesday will analyze the ‘Proposed law for the declaration of independence of the Valencian Country’ presented by a Catalan sovereignist party in the days preceding the regional holiday of October 9.
The popular legislative initiative (ILP) registered by Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència seeks to recognize “the right to self-determination” of a territory whose history is “intrinsically linked to that of the others” which “make up the ‘Catalan Countries ‘”, in reference to Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. It also seeks to recognize the result of the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017 and Catalonia’s unilateral declaration of independence.
Some claim that, according to parliamentary sources consulted by ABC, conflict with the Statute of Autonomy and the Constitution. With the report from the Chamber’s lawyers in hand, the Les Corts Council – the governing body in which all four groups are represented – must decide whether or not the text meets the minimum requirements to begin the process. If so, the entity would need to collect 10,000 signatures over an eight-month period.
But it seems unlikely that this scenario will come true, beyond the fact that the majority of PP and Vox will reject this question. The autonomous law of 2017 which regulates the popular legislative initiative excludes, in its article 4.2., all the matters on which Les Corts “they have no competition”. “It is obvious that the determination of the sovereignty of a territory is in no way the responsibility of the regional parliament,” underline the same sources.
The President of the House herself, Llanos Massó (Vox), indicated on Friday that she would do “everything possible” to prevent the proposal from being voted on because “it threatens the unity of the Spanish nation.” “This is a very serious problem that we have already experienced in other autonomous communities and that we have seen where it has led us to fracture,” he said.
There is also precedent. Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència, which is not represented in any institution, already presented an ILP in February to the Parliament of Catalonia to declare the independence of this region. His treatment continued with the votes of the Juntas, but in April the Constitutional Court suspended him after admitting an appeal from the central government.
In the case of the Valencian Community, the initiative is promoted by the secretary general of this party, David Folch, as well as by the Valencians Vicent Pallardó and Ricard Chulià, member of Compromís.
