Institutional statement by President of the Government

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

"Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and thank you very much for your presence on this occasion.

As you know, I am appearing here before you to inform you about the agreements adopted by the Council of Ministers at its extraordinary meeting this morning.

After analysing the opinions requested from the Council of State, the government has lodged appeals before the Constitutional Court on the grounds of unconstitutionality against the Law on non-binding referendums approved by the Parliament of Catalonia and against the Decree calling a referendum for 9 November, signed by the President of the Regional Government of Catalonia.

As you know, if the two appeals are admitted, the Act and the Decree will both be automatically suspended, under Article 161.2 of our Constitution.

I am not going to repeat to you the arguments that have been presented in the appeals which are down to the Court to judge. You know them well enough. The referendum that is being attempted is not compatible with the Spanish Constitution, neither in its purpose nor in the procedure being followed.

Today's decision is in line with what the government had already announced on 12 December last year, when I appeared here in this very room. It was then that the President of the Regional Government of Catalonia announced his decision to call a referendum on self-determination. That same day we determined the position the government would take, and as is understandable in an issue of these characteristics, it has not been modified.

We have always said that this referendum was not going to take place because it clashes directly with the Spanish Constitution. We have repeated this argument each and every time that this issue has arisen. And today we fulfil our obligation to lodge an appeal against a decision that is a serious violation of the rights of all Spanish people.

The referendum on self-determination that the Regional Government of Catalonia aims to call is openly contrary to our Constitution, which in Article 1 states that 'national sovereignty lies with the Spanish people, from whom the powers of the State derive.'

Sovereignty lies with the Spanish people as a whole, and one part of the people may not take decisions on what affects all of them. The Spanish Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, and thus any attempt to dissolve it is radically contrary to the Constitution. Of course, the Constitution can be reformed, but the referendum being attempted is in no way in line with the procedures that the Constitution itself establishes for its reform.

It is false that the right to vote and decide is a right that may be attributed unilaterally to one region and denied to the rest of the nation. It is a demagogic ruse to appeal to something that sounds good: the right to express oneself, the right to be heard. The problem is that those who use these arguments are actually denying this right to those who really have it, which is the Spanish people as a whole. So the referendum is profoundly anti-democratic; the attempt to give the right to some takes it away from others.

Legally speaking, the government may not do anything other than what it is doing today, and there is no other course of action from a strictly political point of view either.

There is nothing and no-one, no power or institution, that can break this principle of single and indivisible sovereignty on which our life together is based. Putting it another way, there is nothing and no-one that can deny all the people of Spain the right to decide what their country is; but that, in fact, is the practical consequence of the referendum called by the Regional Government of Catalonia.

The government is therefore obliged to act in defence of the Constitution, which means acting to defend the rights and freedoms of each and every one of the Spanish people, including the citizens of Catalonia. We are also defending them and their rights with this appeal.

I would like to recall that the government's position has been backed politically and legally by an indisputable majority of the Lower House of Parliament, as well as the Constitutional Court itself in its ruling of 24 March.

Let me here add something to my arguments because, apart from lodging the appeal, we must explain as clearly as possible what this challenge represents.

The first thing I would like to say is that with this appeal we are defending the validity of democratic law. The law is not a straightjacket or a restriction to freedom. It is quite the reverse: the law is a guarantee of equality, of the rights and freedoms of citizens. It is the guarantee of everyone's security. The law is not a whim of the government, neither this government nor any other. The law is an expression of the will of the majority of the citizens and that is why it is the duty of the government to defend it: to obey it and make sure it is obeyed.

It is not admissible to contrast the law with democracy, as some do, because without the law there is no democracy or respect for the rights of citizens; and without the law there is also no politics.

No one is being prevented from talking or expressing their will. Luckily, Spanish people have been doing so for decades. But what may not be permitted is for the will of one part to deprive the rest of their rights.

Laws may be changed, but always through established democratic channels. Anyone who wants to change this situation has full freedom to suggest a reform: to propose it in the democratically-established terms and to try to achieve the support necessary for it to be successful. That is how to do things. What cannot be done, or what a responsible lawmaker cannot do, is to try to find shortcuts or ploys to infringe legality, however well dressed up they are with pretty wording.

I would like to say something about dialogue. The government has maintained an ongoing, open dialogue with the Regional Government of Catalonia, and I in particular have maintained one with its President. But the truth is that the Regional Government of Catalonia has for some time been pursuing a policy of fait accompli that it has implemented consistently. It wants the government to be forced to find a solution to unilateral decisions that are impossible to agree with. My stance has been open, clear and firm. I have been prepared to negotiate from day one, but a real possibility has never existed, because the Regional Government of Catalonia has first of all taken decisions and then tried to make the government of Spain not only accept them but also find the political and legal means to implement them.

When one part acts against the legal framework and the interests of the whole, the government is not in any way obliged to find a meeting point of agreement. The only real way for dialogue would have been to set out the problems and to try to find the possible scenarios for resolving them jointly. In fact, the opposite has been done. Unilateral decisions have been taken with the aim of reaching a point of no return that obliges the rest to accept the situation as it stands.

I would like to speak, finally, of responsibility, because the person who has started this whole process is responsible for its serious consequences. They are consequences that include the unjust questioning of the legitimacy of our democratic institutions or the break-up of the bonds of brotherhood that have linked Catalonia and the rest of Spain for all our long common history.

In particular, the Catalans and the rest of the Spanish people have together granted ourselves a Constitution that has provided us with the period of greatest prosperity and welfare in democracy in our history. Supported by the vast majority of Catalans and backed by the Spanish people, our Constitution, grounded in consensus, dialogue and generosity on all sides, has allowed Catalonia to enjoy the greatest levels of recognition and self-government in its history, and for the longest time.

I deeply regret that despite these considerations, the President of the Regional Government of Catalonia has called this referendum on self-determination. I regret this, because it goes against the law, breaches democracy, divides the Catalans, steers them away from Europe and the rest of Spain, and seriously damages their welfare; to say nothing of the frustration to which some of the citizens of Catalonia are condemned by being urged to participate in an initiative that cannot see the light, due to its illegality. The worst of it is that this was known from the start.

I believe that we are still in time to get back on course, to overcome a sterile dialectic of confrontation and seek a fruitful dialogue. Both the government and I are open to any initiatives with this aim in mind; but always within the most scrupulous respect for the law, an essential condition for any dialogue in a serious and responsible democracy such as ours.
And of course, I would like to say with the utmost clarity that while I am President of the Government, the law will be respected in its integrity. May all the Catalans and the rest of the Spanish people have no concern on this point; all dialogue is possible within the law and none outside the law.

Thank you very much and good day."