CATALONIA’S REFERENDUM AND THE SPANISH CONSTITUTION

The Government in Madrid insists the referendum is illegal and defies the Constitution which says the country is indivisible.

Article 92.1 of the Spanish Constitution provides that ‘Political decisions of special importance’ may be submitted to all citizens in a consultative referendum. The following paragraph stipulates that the ‘referendum’ shall be called by the King on a proposal by the President of the government after previous authorization by the Congress.

Several Catalan professors of constitutional law have defended the constitutionality of this option to call a referendum on independence of Catalonia. They suggested that ‘all citizens’ does not necessarily mean all Spanish citizens but is an expression to differentiate     a referendum on a section of the population (e.g. a consultation of young people on the self-employed) from a general call. This broad interpretation of Article 92.1 could be founded among other reasons on

1. the principle of democracy (Article 1.1. of the Constitution)
2. the principle of participation (Article 92.2 of the Constitution) and
3. the fundamental right to political participation (Article 23 of the Constitution)

However, the place of Article 92 within the Spanish Constitution which deals with the Spanish Parliament and the fact that most of the central Spanish institutions are needed for calling such a referendum (The King, the President of the government and the lower House of Parliament) clearly point out that ‘all citizens’ means all Spanish citizens.