“The King’s succession process will not have the explicit support from Catalan nationalists”

Barcelona (ACN).- The Centre-Right pro-Catalan State Coalition, Convergència i Unió (CiU), which runs the Catalan Government and was an essential part of Spain’s Transition from dictatorship to democracy, will not vote in favour of the law regulating the King’s abdication. The CiU, which has also been a key party in guaranteeing Spain’s governance in the 1990s and in approving crucial reforms, announced on Wednesday that it has decided to abstain in the Spanish Parliament’s vote. After two days of internal debates, the CiU has chosen to be coherent with its support of Catalonia’s self-determination process and to break 37 years of continuous and explicit support of the monarchy. All other Catalan parties are expected to oppose the succession process since they defend a republican regime. The only exceptions are those which belong to Spain’s two largest parties: the Catalan socialist Party (PSC) – which is part of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) – and the Catalan branch of the People’s Party (PP) – which runs the Spanish Government. Therefore, the King’s succession process will not be explicitly backed by Catalan nationalist parties and will only receive the support of Spanish nationalism, with the affirmative votes of the PP, PSOE and the populist and centralist UPyD. Notably, on Wednesday morning, in his first speech after his father’s abdication announcement, the soon-to-be Felipe VI promised “to serve […] our beloved Spain”, “a nation, a political and social community, united, diverse, which deepens its root in a millenary history”. If Felipe does not recognise Spain’s pluri-national nature, with the existence of the Catalan and Basque nations, it is very unlikely Catalonia’s independence claims will fade away.

 

Full article here: http://www.catalannewsagency.com/politics/item/the-king-s-succession-process-will-not-have-the-explicit-support-from-catalan-nationalists