Oleh MATT MOFFETT
BARCELONA—Leaders of separatist parties that dominate the wealthy region of Catalonia reaffirmed their commitment Friday to hold a referendum on independence from Spain, despite a court injunction barring the vote, the regional president’s spokesman said.
Party leaders meeting with regional President Artur Mas decided to maintain the scheduled Nov. 9 date of the nonbinding referendum, spokesman Francesc Homs said. At the same time, they urged Spain’s Constitutional Court to act quickly on Catalonia’s appeal to lift its Sept. 29 injunction while the judges deliberate the central government’s request to declare the vote illegal.
Mr. Homs said the daylong meeting then turned to a discussion on how “to guarantee the referendum,” and continued into the evening.
Mr. Mas is grappling with signs of strain in a diverse alliance that he has described as delicate as fine china. His decision Tuesday to suspend a promotional campaign for the referendum to avoid violating the injunction raised debate among pro-independence politicians.
Some politicians say they want to move ahead with the referendum regardless of the court prohibition, while others want to call it off. While a strong grass-roots movement has mobilized on the street to support the referendum, the political parties expected to orchestrate the vote have significant tactical and ideological differences.
Mr. Mas’s centrist Democratic Convergence party leads the independence process, but has been weakened recently by corruption scandals and voter frustration with its economic austerity policies.
Its partner in the governing coalition, Democratic Union, has expressed reluctance to hold the referendum if it means breaking Spanish law and putting public employees at risk of sanctions. Democratic Union leaders have also conveyed a preference for a compromise that would keep Catalonia in Spain but give it greater autonomy.
Another member of the alliance, Republican Left of Catalonia, has been ardently fighting for independence for longer than the other parties. Republican Left leaders have advocated a civil disobedience campaign if the vote is canceled.
The alliance is rounded out by the Greens party and a small far-left party.
On Thursday, Mr. Mas took an incremental step to advance the referendum by signing a decree establishing a seven-member commission to oversee it.
Mr. Homs said the decree didn’t violate the court injunction. Some analysts said the wording of the decree offers Mr. Mas some legal protection because it makes no explicit reference to the law passed by the Catalan parliament calling the referendum. That law is the main target of the central government’s court case.
Central government officials said Friday they would ask the Constitutional Court whether the latest decree violates the injunction. Alicia Sanchez Camacho, the head of the Catalan branch of the Popular Party, which governs at the national level and opposes independence, accused Mr. Mas of trying to buy time and said the independence alliance is “cracking.”
“Artur Mas is pushing legal limits in order to convince the electorate that he has taken every possible step to organize the plebiscite, although he will probably stop short of deploying ballot boxes,” said Antonio Barroso, a political risk analyst at Teneo Intelligence. He said he thinks Mr. Mas will call early parliamentary elections as a substitute for the referendum.
Mr. Mas has broached the idea of early elections as a way of allowing voters to express support for independence by picking a slate of pro-secession candidates.
A poll taken last week by the regional government’s Center of Opinion Studies found 71% of Catalans favored the Nov. 9 referendum. It also found the Republican Left leading other parties with 19.8% support, compared with 13.1% for Convergence and Union and 5.8% for the Socialist party, which opposes independence but backs a constitutional reform to give Catalonia more autonomy.
Catalan separatists say Spain’s central government doesn’t respect their language and culture, or give them a fair return on their taxes. Spanish leaders say Catalonia has plenty of autonomy, and that the Catalan political class just needs to put its house in order.
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