Catalan self-determination conflict timeline

The experts show concern on the extent and sophistication of the espionage against minority leaders and activists who had not engaged in any violent activities, and condemn that it can increase self-censorship and threaten the rights to freedom of expression and assembly as well as other rights of minorities.

The ruling by the CJEU affirms that European arrest warrants can be rejected when there may be abuses of an “identifiable group of persons”, and that they can only be repeated if they are proportionate.

The suggested modification of the Spanish Penal Code, proposed by the Spanish government and supported by the governing party in Catalonia, eliminates the crime of sedition but includes a new crime of ‘aggravated public disorder’ that increases the minimum penalties for public disorder and is an attempt to facilitate the extradition of exiled Catalan representatives. It also facilitates jail sentences, incorporates intimidation, provocation, conspiracy and proposal as causes of the crime and sentences disqualifying workers and public officials. That is why several juridical and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have shown their concern.

The Council of Europe publishes a document titled “Freedom of speech: an imperative for democracy”. According to this, freedom of speech is paramount for political debate and the function of democracy. Therefore, any interference with this right must come under the scrutiny of the courts, especially those defending fundamental rights.

Roger Torrent, a former parliament speaker and currently the business minister in Catalonia, is on trial for disobedience, along with other members of the bureau: Josep Costa, Eusebi Campdepadrós and Adriana Delgado, for allowing votes in the chamber against the Spanish monarchy and in favour of Catalonia’s self-determination in 2019.

Over 700.000 attend this year’s Catalan National Day demonstration in Barcelona, to defend Catalonia’s independence and to denounce repressive practices, judicial persecution and illegal espionage on the Catalan independence movement by the Spanish state.

The UN Human Rights Committee finds that Spain violated the political rights of former Catalan Government and Parliament members by suspending them from public duties prior to a conviction following the independence referendum in 2017, under article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) finds Spain guilty of breaching some Catalan pro-referendum judges’ right to privacy when, in March 2014, the Spanish newspaper ‘La Razón’ publishes their ID pictures in an article naming the magistrates who had signed a manifesto in favour of a vote on independence in Catalonia.

Spanish authorities systematically carried out political espionage with Pegasus against the Catalan pro-independence movement. With 126 confirmed hacks against 65 persons using Pegasus, including political, social and cultural members of Catalan society, as well as activists, the Catalan case is by far the largest espionage case in the world using this spyware.

Assemblea’s President Elisenda Paluzie is elected Vice-President of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Winning the Vice-Presidency of UNPO, an international organization for the right to self-determination with 44 member bodies worldwide, is an important step for the Catalan pro-independence civil society organization to enhance its international role.

Over 400,000 people participated in the Catalan National Day demonstration in Barcelona, the biggest political demonstration in Europe since the COVID19 Pandemic broke out, to defend fundamental rights in the face of authoritarian practices and judicial persecution of the Catalan independence movement by the Spanish state.

The resolution presented by the Council of Europe Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights calls on Spain to stop the persecution of Catalan political representatives and peaceful protesters, to release those incarcerated, to reform the penal code, and to refrain from asking prisoners to disown their political ideas. One day after this resolution, the Spanish government approves a pardon for the nine imprisoned Catalan leaders in an attempt to whitewash Spain’s international reputation.
The representatives are still banned from public office.

PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights states that politicians should not face prosecution for statements made in the exercise of their political mandates, referring to the situation in Turkey and Spain.
The Committee calls on the Spanish authorities to reform the criminal provisions on rebellion and sedition, to consider pardoning the jailed Catalan politicians, to consider dropping extradition proceedings against Catalan exiled politicians and to drop the prosecution of lower-ranking officials involved in the 2017 independence referendum.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, expresses concerns about the lack of clear definition of some of the notions enshrined in the provision on glorification of terrorism and recalls the potential danger posed by the use, in anti-terrorist legislation, of catch-all labels and of broad and insufficiently defined offences which may lead to unnecessary or disproportionate restrictions to the right to freedom of expression.

The rapper is sentenced to nine months in prison for criticizing the Spanish monarchy in songs and tweets. However, Spanish nationalists cry out fascist slogans and make apology of fascism with total impunity.

The Catalan president hung a banner in support of the Catalan political prisoners during an election campaign.

The report highlights the significant increase in hate speech, vilification, vandalism, physical threats and even assaults against members of the Catalan minority, as well as allegations that these complaints are not investigated, thus aggravating intolerance by Spanish nationalism.

The EU’s top court rules that Catalan leader Oriol Junqueras was protected by immunity as an MEP when the Spanish authorities jailed him, and calls for his immediate release.

The verdict, up to 13 years, is being applied to the accused in different degrees of sedition, disobedience and misuse of public funds. Rebellion, which was the principal charge of the accusation and is a criminal offence that requires violence, has not been proven according to the sentences.
The condemned are Jordi Sánchez, former president of the Catalan National Assembly (9 years); Jordi Cuixart, president of Òmnium Cultural (9 years); Carme Forcadell, former president of the Catalan Parliament (11,5 years); Oriol Junqueras, former vice-president of the Catalan government (13 years); Raül Romeva, former Foreign minister of the Catalan government (12 years); Dolors Bassa, former Labour minister of the Catalan government (12 years); Jordi Turull, former Presidency minister and spokesperson of the Catalan government (12 years); Josep Rull, former Territory and Sustainability minister of the Catalan government (10 years) and Joaquim Forn, former Interior minister of the Catalan government (10 years). The former Institutional Relations minister of the Catalan government Meritxell Borràs; former Justice minister of the Catalan government Carles Mundó and former minister of Culture and later minister of Business of the Catalan government, Santi Vila, are condemned to pay a fine for the crime of disobedience.
These sentences aim to punish the Catalan minority, especially the Catalan pro-independence movement. It does so by violating several human rights: the right to freedom of expression, right to peaceful assembly, right to the presumption of innocence as well as the right to a fair trial.

Nine CDR activists (Committees for the Defence of the Republic), a peaceful associative movement, were detained at dawn in front of their families, and charged with rebellion, terrorism and the possession of explosives. Despite the formal secrecy of proceedings, deliberate leaks by the Spanish propaganda apparatus began to fabricate a narrative of violence in Catalonia. False information such as the possession of explosives have been denied even by the sources, leaving the accusation unclear and making it difficult to exercise the detainees’ right to legal defence.
Some media have linked the alleged terrorist group (which nobody has heard of in Catalonia) with the President of the Generalitat, Rt. Hon. Quim Torra, and with the exiled President Rt. Hon. Carles Puigdemont, in a sudden action clearly designed to criminalize the pro-independence movement. Yet again, the fundamental right of free association of Catalans has been violated by the Spanish authorities, which are trying to intimidate the Catalan minority to participate in public affairs and in politics.

Over 59.500 Catalan protesters demonstrate at over 130 locations to claim Catalonia’s right to become an independent state, and to defend fundamental rights in the face of increasingly authoritarian practices by Spain during and after the COVID19 pandemic.

The unlawfully deposed President, Rt. Hon. Carles Puigdemont, winner of the European elections in Catalonia, Toni Comín, illegally dismissed Health Minister and number 2 on his list, and Oriol Junqueras, the unlawfully deposed vice president and leader of the third most voted list, were deprived of taking up the office for which they had been elected. The Central Electoral Board did not let them to take the oath, two being in exile and the third in preventive prison. The administrative excuses of Madrid and those of the conservative president of the European Parliament did not satisfy many MEPs, who raised their voices against this dangerous precedent: almost 2.3 million voters can see that they do not have political representation in the European Parliament, - a violation of the right of political representation of the Catalan national minority.

The long trial ends with protests by defence lawyers over bias during the trial, the violation of the defendants’ political rights, among others, the media participation of the extreme right and other irregularities. The trial judgment is now awaited, and it is feared that it may sentence to 10 year conviction in some cases. The International Trial Watch organization wrote a report listing all irregularities detected during the trial.
International Trial Watch report

Two Opinions issued by this Working Group (one finally published on June 13 and the other on July 10) called on Spain to release of Catalan political prisoners and to acknowledge their right to obtain compensation and other types of redress. They state that their fundamental rights have not been respected, especially the right to freedom of speech. The Opinions consider that their detention was arbitrary and contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a clear desire to silence the demands for Catalonia’s self-determination. Moreover, they point out that the trial was not fair in its form, in having biased judges who have ignored the presumption of innocence and have allowed political interference in the trial.

First opinion (translation from Spanish)
Second opinion (translation from Spanish)

In the election to the European Parliament, the most voted option in Catalonia was “Junts per Europa» (Together for Europe), led by the exiled – and illegally deposed – president, the Rt. Hon. Carles Puigdemont. Just behind the second party came “Ahora Repúblicas” (Now Republics), led by Oriol Junqueras, the illegally dismissed Vice-President, who is in pre-trial custody accused of rebellion and sedition. In Catalonia, the independence forces won a historic 49.71% of the votes, while the unionist parties obtained 37.93%.
For its part, the pro-independence party Esquerra Republicana came first in the local election in Barcelona, but the non-independence coalition of the Comuns joined forces with Unionist parties to retain the mayorship.

On the 16th of March, a historic demonstration took in place in Madrid, where Catalans marched peacefully in defence of the right to self-determination. They were accompanied by Andalusian, Basque, Galician and Castillian collectives and trade unions, who whished to express their support to the right to self-determination. Together, they claimed for justice and condemned the political prosecution and trials against the Catalans leaders and against other political dissidents in the Kingdom of Spain.

The Catalan defence counsels accuse the Supreme Court of being biased, violating fundamental rights and criminalising political dissidence.

The Catalan leaders are accused of breaking the law for having organised an ‘illegal’ referendum. First, organising a non-authorised referendum was taken out of Spain’s Criminal Code in 2005, which makes it impossible for Spain’s Justice to prosecute them for that. That is why the trumped-up charges of rebellion and sedition were invented, implying a violent uprising. Second, Spain is signatory and a ratifying party of the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, treaties that oblige countries to respect and to promote the right to self-determination. Being fully part of Spain’s legal system, Spain is as such acting illegally according to international law.

Apart from that, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, the two civil society leaders imprisoned for having given support and organised peaceful demonstrations, are also being sued for rebellion and sedition. These are clearly accusations meant to apply a chilling effect on civil society actors exercising democratic liberties and is a clear attack on the right to assembly, peaceful protest and freedom of expression.

In total, 4 jailed Catalan leaders went on hunger strike to protest against their treatment by the Spanish judicial system, accusing it of “severely violating our fundamental rights, including the right to the presumption of innocence.”

The 9 jailed Catalans, some of them in pre-trial detention for more than a year, have repeatedly asked for their liberation, which was systematically denied by Spanish Justice. Against these decisions, they appealed to the Spanish Constitutional Court, which own jurisprudence says such fundamental rights appeals have to be solved within 31 days, if they’re not denied, as happens in 99% of the cases according to the court’s own data.

By deliberately not judging on these appeals, now more than a year as lament the political prisoners, the Constitutional Court blocks the access to the European Court of Human Rights. The prisoners state that they “do not passively accept any discrimination or unwarranted procrastination.” They therefore started this hunger strike to protest against the Constitutional Court’s “unjust and arbitrary behaviour”.

The Spanish Attorney-General announced the prison terms the prosecutor’s office will demand against the 18 Catalan independence leaders and for which accusations. The heaviest accusation is that of ‘rebellion’, an ‘uprising’ including ‘force, aggression and violence’. The longest prison sentences are demanded for former deputy PM Oriol Junqueras (25 years), civil society leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart (17 years) and former speaker of Catalan parliament Carme Forcadell (17 years). Eight more face 7 to 16 years behind bars.
In the meantime, Catalan policer major Josep Lluís Trapero and his lieutenant, plus two former interior ministry officials, have been accused of rebellion or sedition by the special Spanish National Court, facing prison sentences up to 11 years.

Exactly one year has passed since Jordi Sànchez, then President of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC) and Jordi Cuixart, President of Òmnium Cultural (ÒC), have been in preventive detention, accused of rebellion and sedition for having defended freedom and democracy and having exercised such fundamental rights as that of nonviolent protest. Sànchez and Cuixart are currently immersed in a lawsuit tainted from the very outset by countless irregularities. The lawsuit is based on invented, non-existent acts of violence attributed to both men. Preventive detention itself, applied in this case with the clear intention of instilling fear into the citizenry, is an anomaly since it may normally be used only as a last resort.

Catalonia police force Mossos d'Esquadra charged against thousands of pro-independence who tried to prevent that the protest organized by the Spanish police association Jusapol in downtown Barcelona in homage to the police officers that beat voters on the Referendum, could be carried out normally. The memory of police violence against voters comes back.

15,000 people concentrated in front of the headquarters the Catalan Economy Ministry
to mark one year of the police macro-operation of September 20th last year and the citizen mobilization which lead to the imprisonment of the leaders of Catalonia's main pro-independence movements in Barcelona, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cruixart.
The demonstration was convened by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, claiming the right to freedom of speech.

Over a million of people have filled Barcelona today to demand independence for Catalonia. The slogan of the demonstration was ‘Let’s build the Catalan republic’ and illustrates the demand for the application of the democratic mandate arising from the Oct 1 referendum on self-determination, when 90% of voters (43% of the Catalan electorate) voted in favour of Catalan independence. At 17.14h precisely, the demonstrators at one of end the Diagonal Avenue started a wave of sound, holding up banners. Meter by meter, just like in a domino effect, the wave of sound moved on to the other end of the demonstration, where it symbolically felled a wall.
Human rights lawyers Ben Emmerson and Aamer Anwar and Prof Schulze MD were some of the speakers this year at the Diada. And ANC president Elisenda Paluzie demanded the establishment of the Catalan republic while The Diada – the Catalan National Day, celebrated worldwide.

Pablo Llarena withdraws all European extradition warrants for rebellion of all the exiled Catalan Ministers.
From this moment, they can freely circulate in all countries, except Spain, where they would be detained.

With this decision, judge Llarena has been fully exposed, and he finds himself in an unprecedented contradiction: there are seven Catalan politicians in exile, five of whom were members of the Catalan Government on October 1 2017, that can move freely around Europe, but cannot set foot in Spain without being detained, while in Spain there are nine political hostages, accused of serious but non-existent crimes such as rebellion – that the Belgian and German courts have ruled out –, and who have been in preventive detention for months and without a trial having been held.

200,000 gather in a protest called under the slogan “ Neither prison nor exile. We want you home” organised by ANC, Òmnium and ACDC.

President Carles Puigdemont and the rest of the Government in exile present a civil suit before the Belgian courts on the bases of impartiality and prevarication in his judgement of the Catalan independence process. Belgian law summons the judge to declare on September 4.

The motion was registered by PSOE on 25 May after the ruling PP was found to have profited from corruption. The motion was successful and resulted in the downfall of Mariano Rajoy's government and in PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez becoming new Prime Minister of Spain. Rajoy announced on 5 June 2018 his resignation as PP leader after having led the party for 14 years. The independentist parties (ERC and PdeCat) vote in favor of the motion and are decisive in the downfall of Mariano Rajoy.

The negotiations between Junts per Catalunya and ERC lasted several weeks and, finally, on May 10, the investiture was announced and a new candidate was proposed after the failed attempts of Carles Puigdemont, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Turull, as they were blocked by Spain.

The new candidate proposed by President Puigdemont himself is Joaquim (Quim) Torra, Deputy of Junts per Catalunya.

Hundreds of thousands turned up for the protests called by ANC and Òmnium to mark six months since the arrest of their leaders (Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart).

Tamara Carrasco, member of the CDR (Committee for the Defense of the Republic), was detained for blocking roads during Easter 2018 on terms of rebellion and terrorism. The protests were peaceful and nobody was harmed although tires were burned to block the roads. After a few days in custody she was released on the condition that she doesn’t leave her hometown Viladecans.

Another member of the CDR, Adrià, fled from Spain when he was about to be detained. At the moment, Adrià is in Brussels where President Puigdemont's law firm works in his case.

The Audience of Schlesvig-Holstein released bail to Carles Puigdemont and dismissed, at the same time, his extradition to Spain for the crime of rebellion.

The United Nations accept the formal complaint filed by President Puigdemont the 2nd of March about the lack of human rights in Spain alleging that Spain has committed several violations in many of his rights.

Spain and its judiciary system are totally exposed to the public opinion at an international level.

The legitimate President of the Generalitat de Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, was detained by the German authorities on the border with Denmark, while he was returning to Belgium from Finland. With the European extradition warrant reactivated, judge Llarena was able to intercept Puigdemont with the help of the German police, who kept him under custody in Neumünster, waiting on his extradition to Spain. 55,000 gather in a protest rally the same day organised by ANC and Òmnium.

After the failed investiture of Jordi Turull, Judge Pablo Llarena calls Ministers Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Dolors Bassa and Raül Romeva; ERC deputy Marta Rovira and the Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia Carme Forcadell to the Supreme Court.
They are sent into pre-trial detention without bail.
Rovira, Forcadell and Bassa resigned their seats in Parliament the night before, and Marta Rovira fled into exile in Switzerland.

Judge Llarena does not allow Jordi Sànchez to leave the prison of Soto del Real to attend his investiture as president of the Generalitat. Junts per Catalunya proposes a third option for the position of President of the Generalitat de Catalunya: the deputy and ex-Minister Jordi Turull. Even so, Turull does not obtain enough supports as CUP did not vote for him.

With President’s Puigdememont step aside, he announces the formation of a new organization presided by himself that will act from exile in Brussels: the Council of the Republic. A private organization that will work for the internationalization of the Catalan Independence Process and care for the creation of republican structures. In addition, it will be independent from the Government of the Generalitat in order to avoid any Spanish State interference.

President Puigdemont decides to provisionally step aside and discard himself as a candidate to preside over the Generalitat de Catalunya. He then proposes Jordi Sànchez, president of the ANC and number 2 of the list of JxCat, as a candidate. Jordi Sànchez is still in pre-trial detention.

The King of Spain Philip VI has scheduled a visit to Barcelona on occasion of the Mobile World Congress, the largest mobility fair in the world. His arrival, was not attended by any representative of the Generalitat de Catalunya, nor by the mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau nor by the President of the Parliament Roger Torrent.

The CDR (Republic Defense Committee) organized protest rallies against the royal visit, which grow up to be a casserole protest in all the cities of Catalonia.

The newly elected President of the Parliament of Catalonia proposes Carles Puigdemont as the candidate to preside over the Generalitat of Catalonia, the candidate with more support. The days before the investiture could be held, however, the Spanish Government asked the Constitutional Court to suspend the investiture of Puigdemont on the grounds that he was in Brussels.

The Constitutional Court then decreed that Carles Puigdemont could only be invested if physically present in Parliament; yes, with the prior authorization of Pablo Llarena, judge of the Supreme Court. This never happened.

Carme Forcadell, former President of the Parliament of Catalonia, refuses to repeat the position alleging that it is incompatible with the legal causes open to allow the vote on the Declaration of Independence on October 27, 2017.
When the elections were won, the Republican Bloc agreed that the presidency of the Parliament would be for the ERC, while the presidency of the Generalitat would fall to JxCat (Carles Puigdemont). In this way, therefore, ERC proposed Roger Torrent as the new president of the Parliament of Catalonia. Neither the exiled Consellers nor the prisoners were allowed to vote in the election. Even so, the abstention of Catalonia in Comú-Podem allowed the inauguration as President the Parliament of Roger Torrent and a new independence majority in the Bureau of the Parliament.

The elections held on December 21, 2017 in the Parliament of Catalonia convened by the President of the Spanish Government, had a tense electoral campaign that prohibited symbols and, even, the yellow color, color that was related to the Freedom of political prisoners and, in turn, the independence movement.
On this occasion, the pro-independence candidates didn’t agree to form a single list, and in the different pro-independence lists, there were candidates who were in jail or in exile.
The participation was 79.09%, the highest in the history in elections to the Parliament; and the Republican Bloc won the elections with 47.5% of the votes and 70 seats. Unionist had 43.47% of the votes and 57 seats. Non aligned (En Comú-Podem) had 7.46% of the votes and 8 seats.

Judge Llarena decreed the release of Ministers Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva, Carles Mundó and Josep Rull on December 4, 2017; but kept in pre-trial prison Vicepresident Oriol Junqueras and Minister Joaquim Forn, as well as the freedom movement leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart.

750,000 people gathered in the Marina street in Barcelona in a 3km rally.

The rally was organized by ANC and Òmnium Cultural with the motto "Freedom for political prisoners, we are a Republic".

The CSC union, with the support of the ANC, Òmnium Cultural and the AMI, summons a new general strike as a protest for the regression in social rights in Catalonia.

The pro-independence parties sign a declaration of independence in the Parliament of Catalonia.
President Puigdemont temporarily suspends the effects of the declaration to allow for an international mediation and a negotiated solution.

General strike in Catalonia in support of the referendum and against police violence.
Largest demonstration in Catalonia where people in all cities, towns and villages took to the streets.
Pro-independence protesters were joined by unionists protesting against police brutality.

The president of the Generalitat announces the self-determination referendum for October 1.
The Catalan people will be called to the polls to answer the question: "Do you want Catalonia to be an independent State with the form of a republic?"

The Catalan government once again demands an agreement on the referendum during a conference in Madrid.
Less than 24 hours later, Rajoy's response arrives, with the consent of the PSOE: there will be no negotiation on the referendum.

80,000 people take to the streets to defend Catalan institutions against the use of courts to stop the process of self-determination.
More than 400 elected officials are being prosecuted for political reasons, including the president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Carme Forcadell, and the former president of Catalonia, Artur Mas.

The political deadlock marks the first time that a Spanish election was triggered due to failure in the government formation process. Ahead of the election, Podemos and IU joined forces to form the Unidos Podemos alliance, along with several other minor left-wing parties.

PP wins the election with 137 seats, followed by PSOE with 85 seats, Unidos Podemos 71, with ERC with 9 seats and CDC with 8 seats. As a result Mariano Rajoy is elected president.

Carles Puigdemont is chosen 130th president of Catalonia with the vote of 70/135 deputies. President Artur Mas relinquishes his post to facilitate the constitution of a new independence government. The new government is committed to lead Catalonia to independence in a year and a half.

After a legislature plagued by the effects of an ongoing economic crisis, corruption scandals affecting the ruling PP party and social distrust with traditional parties, the election results in the most fragmented Spanish parliament in its history.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's PP emerges as the largest party overall, it obtains its worst result since 1989. The party's net loss of 64 seats and 16 percentage points also marks the largest loss of support for a sitting government since 1982. Opposition PSOE obtains its worst result since the Spanish transition to democracy, losing 20 seats and nearly 7 points. Newcomer Podemos (Spanish for "We can") ranked third, winning over 5 million votes, some 20% of the share, 69 seats and coming closely behind PSOE. Up-and-coming Ciudadanos enters the parliament for the first time with 40 seats, though considerably lower than what pre-election polls had suggested.

No party secures a majority. Ensuing negotiations fail to produce a stable governing coalition, paving the way for a repeat election.

The president of Catalonia officially calls the elections for September 27.
Although Artur Mas accepts that a regional election is not the best way to ask people about independence, he understands that it is the only way to allow citizens to express their opinion in a legal vote (Spanish institutions could only block them by suspending the autonomy of Catalonia).

Catalonia will hold a 'de facto' independence referendum through early elections on September 27.
Following the agreement reached between the two main pro-independence parties (CiU and ERC) and representatives of the main civil society organizations that support self-determination. The Spanish government has blocked the other alternatives for holding the referendum.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy visits Barcelona for the first time since the November 9 vote and harshly criticizes Catalonia's self-determination plans during a Popular Party meeting.
Rajoy ignores the offer of meeting made by the Catalan President but reiterates that he is open to discuss on any subject except "the unity of Spain".

President Artur Mas defends the right of the Catalan people to hold a legal and binding vote on independence.
It is prepared to call early elections, which will be a de facto plebiscite on independence if the Spanish government insists on blocking the other alternatives.

The Attorney General of the State files a criminal complaint against President Mas, the Vice President and the Minister of Education for "not stopping" the 9N independence consultation.
The three Catalan representatives are accused of disobedience, prevarication, misappropriation of public funds and abuse of power. They could be tried, suspended and imprisoned because they did not stop the democratic exercise.

Three days after the 9N independece consultation, the Spanish President Rajoy affirms that "it was not a democratic vote, but an act of political propaganda and a useless farce."
He also believes that the 9N independence consultation vote was a "failure of the independence project, since two-thirds of potential voters did not participate."

The Spanish Constitutional Court cancels the process of citizen participation five days before the event.
Because of the Constitutional Court's barriers, the Government of Catalonia decides to propose to different non-governmental organizations to organize the democratic exercise.

Once the popular consultation is prohibited, plan B consists of organizing a "process of citizen participation", a tool already provided for in the Statute that allows citizens to express themselves in public affairs and which includes the act of voting.

920 of the 947 mayors of Catalonia meet at the headquarters of the Government of Catalonia in Barcelona to show their support and commitment to the consultation on November 9.

In an urgent and unscheduled plenary meeting, the Constitutional Court accepts the Spanish Government's appeal and decides to temporarily suspend the Law of non-binding consultations and the decree calling the consultation on November 9.

The citizens of Catalonia will vote in favor of the status quo, in favor of a new accommodation for Catalonia within Spain (subject to Madrid's proposal) or in favor of independence. Registered foreigners and young people between 16 and 18 years old can participate.

As the referendums can only be called by the central government in Madrid and it refuses to do it, the Parliament of Catalonia approves an autonomous law that should enable the Catalan Government to organize a less formal vote, the so-called "popular consultation".

The two main Spanish parties (Partido Popular and Partido Socialista) agree and vote "no". 86% of the camera votes against and only 13.5% do it in favor.

As happened in the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Catalonia asks the Spanish Government to transfer the legal powers to hold a referendum. This vote comes to be requested eighteen times by the Catalan institutions.

The request is supported by 104 of the 135 deputies, including those belonging to the government coalition and four opposition parties. Only two parties reject it (Partido Popular and Ciudadanos).

With the approval of this resolution by the Parliament of Catalonia, it was agreed to initiate the process towards the right to decide, with 85 votes in favor, 41 against and 2 abstentions. The Constitutional Court of Spain suspended the Declaration, but the Bureau of the Parliament of Catalonia considered that it remained "in force" because "a political wish cannot be suspended".

107 of the 135 deputies of the new Catalan Parliament are in favor of a referendum on self-determination as the best option to know what most Catalans think about independence and how to effectively channel from the institutions the massive independence movement that goes from bottom to top.

The AMI was officially established in Vic, and since then, the number of adjoining municipalities has been growing. Nowadays, it officially brings together all the provincial councils (Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona and Lleida), 37 county councils (90.2% of the total), 787 Catalan municipalities (83% of the total), 9 decentralized municipal entities and 1 consortium.
For more information: http://www.municipisindependencia.cat/

The election campaign is dominated by the effects of an ongoing financial crisis, high unemployment, a large public deficit and a soaring risk premium.

The election results in the PSOE being swept out from power in the worst defeat for a sitting government since 1982, losing 4.3 million votes and scoring its worst result in a general election ever since the first democratic election in 1977.

PP win the election with 186 seats, followed by PSOE with 110 seats, CiU with 16 seats and ERC with 3 seats. As a result Mariano Rajoy is elected president.

Demonstration to request a referendum on self-determination of Catalonia. There were 10,000 people attending, according to the organizers.

After four years of growing bipolarisation of Spanish politics, the election sees a record result for the ruling PSOE and opposition PP, together obtaining more than 83% of the vote share—over 21 million votes—and 92% of the Congress seats.

As a result Zapatero is sworn in as Prime Minister of Spain for a second term in office in April 2008, just as the Spanish economy begins showing signs of fatigue and economic slowdown after a decade of growth.

Jose Montilla was invested by the Parliament as the new president of the Generalitat by 70 votes in favor and 65 against.

The outcome is similar to that of 2003. Again, CiU is the most voted party (48 seats, two more than in 2003), but the PSC, ERC and ICV-EUiA revalidate the absolute majority (37 seats for PSC, 21 ERC and 12 ICV-EUiA). They form a tri-party government under the presidency of socialist José Montilla with the republican independence leader Josep Lluís Carod Rovira as vice president. The new Ciutadans party enters the Parliament with 3 seats, which, like the PP (14 seats), was in direct opposition to the new Statute.

The Partido Popular files a constitutional complaint against the new Statute of Catalonia, in which 114 of the 223 articles and 12 provisions are amended. Mariano Rajoy lists the elements of unconstitutionality that his party saw in the Statute: 1. Catalonia being a nation, since "from the constitutional point of view, there is no other nation than the Spanish nation, holder of sovereignty”; 2. The "privileged" treatment of the Catalan language derived from considering its knowledge as a duty and "the exclusive consideration of Catalan as the language of education"; 3. The Judicial Power for Catalonia, because "it breaks with the judicial unity of Spain"; 4. The distribution of competences between Catalonia and the State; 5. The bilateral principle "that privileges Catalonia and lays the foundations of an asymmetric confederal model" and supposes "an inadmissible inequality in the Constitution"; 6. The international relations of Catalonia; 7. Catalonia’s own financing system, “it must be agreed between all the autonomies.”

Reactions of the Catalan parties to the amendments are immediate. The PSC accuses the PP of acting with "disrespect towards the Catalans" who has approved the new Statute in a referendum and of "underestimating" the idea of "plural Spain". ERC warns that if the Constitutional Court approves the appeal, the new Statute “will not meet the needs of Catalonia and will show that another constitutional framework that respects our rights was necessary". CiU describes the PP initiative as "aggression against Catalonia", although it recognises that it was a "legitimate and respectable" decision, while ICV predicted a failure of the Popular Party in the upcoming Catalan elections.

The two chambers of the Cortes Generales discuss and water-down the text proposed by the Parliament of Catalonia. Prime Minister Zapatero disappoints many Catalans as he cannot honour his promise to pass the text as originally drafted by the Catalan Parliament. . Catalonia loses the power to collect taxes, and is not defined as a nation in the Statute.

Parliament after the agreement reached by the prime minister of Spain, Rodríguez Zapatero and the leader of the Catalan center-right nationalists, Artur Mas. Under the slogan “We are a nation. We have the right to decide” called by the Plataforma pel Dret de Decidir, hundreds of thousands fill the Gran Via Street, from Plaça Espanya to Plaça Catalunya.

Mariano Rajoy’s party challenges the law from the opposition bench before the Spanish Constitutional Court, which, surprisingly, decides to hear the case. Four million signatures are collected throughout the rest of Spain against the Statute.

The Parliament of Catalonia approves (with the support of 120 MPs out of 135) and sends to Madrid a proposal to reform the 1979 Statue of Autonomy recognising Catalonia as a nation, preventing Madrid’s interference in devolved powers, and giving Catalonia full control over a transparent and rational financial arrangement. The text has to be validated by the Spanish Parliament and confirmed by the Catalan people in a referendum before it will enter into force.

PSOE win the election with 164 seats, followed by PP with 148 seats, CiU with 10 seats and ERC with 8 seats. As a result the socialist José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero is elected president.

The electoral outcome is heavily influenced by the aftermath of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings. For the remaining days before the election, the PP government keeps claiming evidence that the terrorist organization ETA was responsible for the bombings. However, it soon becomes evident that the bombings has not been authored according to ETA's modus operandi, and new evidence points out to an Islamist attack with possible links to al-Qaeda.

During the campaign, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party and future Prime Minister of Spain, commits himself to supporting the new Statute which will be drafted by the Parliament of Catalonia.

In the run up to the regional elections, the main Catalan political parties propose to reform the 1979 Statute of Autonomy with the aim of finally accommodating Catalonia within a pluralistic Spain.