MADRID: Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that a referendum law passed in Catalonia, which paved the way for a contested October 1 secession referendum, was not valid.
The court temporarily suspended the law after it was passed by Catalonia’s regional parliament on September 6 while judges considered an appeal against it filed by Spain’s central government.
Catalonia’s pro-independence regional government went ahead with the referendum on October 1 despite the suspension and warnings from Madrid that the vote was illegal.
The court said in a statement Tuesday that its 12 judges had “unanimously” declared the referendum law unconstitutional.
“The ‘right to self-determination’ does not exist for any of the ‘peoples of Spain’,” it said, adding that the “right” to “promote and enact the unilateral secession” of a part of the country is not recognized in the Spanish constitution.
Since 2014 Spain’s courts have systematically struck down decisions taken by the Catalan government and parliament regarding holding an independence referendum.
Madrid has given Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont until Thursday to clarify whether he is declaring independence following the referendum, which resulted in a 90 percent ‘Yes’ vote — although turnout was only 43 percent as many supporters of Spanish unity stayed away.
Puigdemont stopped short of giving the definitive response that Madrid had demanded on Monday and instead repeated his call for talks with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
But anything less than a full climb-down is likely to prompt the central government to start imposing unprecedented direct control over the semi-autonomous region — the so-called “nuclear option.”
Spain court strikes down Catalan referendum law
Spain court strikes down Catalan referendum law
Four killed in Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv exchange drone strikes
- Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in Kharkiv
- Synegubov said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district
KHARKIV, Ukraine: Russian and Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least four people Wednesday, officials said, as the war between the neighbors dragged on for more than four years with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.
The latest attacks came with a third round of three-party talks derailed by the war in the Middle East, despite pressure from Washington on both sides to agree to an elusive peace deal.
Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which lies close to the Russian border, was encircled at the beginning of Russia’s invasion four years ago.
It has been attacked almost daily since Moscow’s forces were pushed back later in 2022.
The governor of the wider region, Oleg Synegubov, said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district.
“A civilian enterprise caught fire as a result of the enemy strike,” he said, adding that three women and four men had been hospitalized.
Another Russian drone wounded 20 people in the afternoon, after hitting a civilian minibus in the southeastern city of Kherson, Ukrainian prosecutors said.
In the Russian-occupied part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow-installed authorities said two civilians had been killed in their car by a Ukrainian drone strike on the frontline town of Vasylivka.
“The danger of repeated strikes remains,” Kremlin-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.
