The ERC plan warns Sánchez: there will be "unilateral" independence if a referendum is not agreed

The Sanhedrin of Pere Aragonès, that council of experts recruited to design the referendum proposal that the president of the Generalitat intends to present to the Government this term, foresees the possibility of Catalonia embracing secession unilaterally if Pedro Sánchez refuses to accept the celebration of an agreed secessionist vote.

The academics propose exploring a “clarity agreement”, that is, “a mechanism to channel the territorial conflict in an agreed and orderly manner” and warn that “if one of the parties refuses to adopt this agreement, this could trigger the other party acts unilaterally.

“Although the Catalan side would not have to unilaterally decide the constitutional future of Catalonia, the Spanish counterpart should not exercise an insurmountable veto over the political horizon proposed by an eventual majority of Catalonia's citizens,” states the opinion, the content of which began to be revealed by EL WORLD last Wednesday.

“If one of the parties ignores the duty to engage in negotiations, the legitimacy of its position would be weakened,” the report continues, to justify this leap to unilateralism with which ERC intends to pressure the acting president and socialist candidate for the investiture.

“On the other hand,” the text defends, “the party that demonstrated a genuine willingness to negotiate would have more arguments for its cause to be supported internally and internationally.”

In another point of the study, the group of wise men from Aragonès emphasizes that in cases in which “territorial conflicts” are faced in an “unagreed” way, “the resolution methods tend to be more unpredictable and give way to unilaterality.” of the actors involved and, often, to the use of force or violence”. “The characteristic feature of these cases is the imposition of a resolution by a party that seeks a new political status through fait accompli,” concludes the opinion, which will be officially presented next Monday.

In order for Sánchez to end up agreeing to negotiate the agreed holding of a referendum, the report maintains that “the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Spain that hinders the holding of sovereignty and secession referendums has arisen against unilateral proposals or actions first in the Basque Country and then in Catalonia”, and then predicts that the same would not happen if the Government agreed with the Generalitat to organize a separatist referendum.. “The Constitutional Court could review its jurisprudence or remain silent in the face of a referendum of this type that is the result of an agreement between the State and sub-state territory,” he alleges, in reference to Spain and the Catalan autonomous community.

Although ERC has long privileged the “agreed resolution of the conflict” through the negotiation with the Government that led to the granting of pardons and the suppression of the crime of sedition, the Republicans have never completely ruled out a return to the path of unilateral independence, in response to the Government's sustained refusal to agree to a secessionist vote whose result is binding and internationally comparable.

It should be noted that the electoral program with which Aragonès opted for the presidency of the Generalitat in 2021 read: “The State must know that its refusal to negotiate a referendum, if it persists over time, can lead to unilateral action by the independence movement.”. The Republicans' electoral contract also defines “civil disobedience” as “a totally valid and democratic tool.”

This threat continues. “Obviously, we prioritize the path of negotiation, but we do not renounce any democratic path,” defended Raquel Sans, the ERC spokesperson, on September 18 when asked about the explicit renunciation of unilateralism that the Government demands to reach an investiture agreement on amnesty.

The independentists want the Government to provide the measure of grace with the “commitment” that their future actions to consummate the secession of Catalonia will not be “judicially persecuted” again.. That is, they want to be exonerated from all responsibility so they can “do it again” without suffering criminal or administrative consequences.

«The conditions are not set by those who ask for help. “This is the other way around,” said Carles Puigdemont when the Government publicly demanded that the independence movement disengage from “unilaterality” in order to begin negotiating the investiture pact.

“Either elections or pact with a party that maintains the legitimacy of 1-O and that will not renounce unilaterality,” Puigdemont proclaimed on September 4 during the conference held from Brussels in which he set the conditions for the PSOE to obtain its support. to the re-election of Sánchez as President of the Government.

Now ERC makes it clear, through the plan designed to negotiate the referendum with the socialist once it has been anointed with separatist votes, that the return to unilaterality, already used in 2017 to organize the 1-O and unilaterally declare the secession from the Parliament, will not be buried in exchange for obtaining from the PSOE the approval of the amnesty law and the commitment to open a negotiation on self-determination.

No matter how much the socialists demand it, that threat will continue in the chamber of Junts and ERC, which has found in the report commissioned by Aragonès academic support for maintaining the unilateral route as the last option to achieve independence.