2017 Spanish constitutional crisis
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| Date | 6 September 2017 – present (2 weeks and 1 day) |
|---|---|
| Location | Catalonia, Spain |
| Cause | Catalan independence referendum, 2017 |
| Participants | Government of Spain, Generalitat of Catalonia, Municipalities of Catalonia, Parliament of Catalonia, Constitutional Court of Spain, High Court of Justice of Catalonia, Spanish Attorney General |
| Outcome |
Ongoing
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Ongoing
The 2017 Spanish constitutional crisis is an ongoing political conflict between the Government of Spain and the Generalitat of Catalonia over the issue of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, starting after the law intending to allow such a referendum was denounced by the Spanish government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and subsequently suspended by the Constitutional Court until it ruled on the issue. The Catalan government under President Carles Puigdemont has announced that neither central Spanish authorities nor the courts would halt their plans and that it intends to hold the vote anyway, sparking a legal backlash that has quickly spread from the Spanish and Catalan governments to Catalan municipalities—as local mayors were urged by the Generalitat to provide logistical support and help for the electoral process to be carried out—as well as to the Constitutional Court, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia and state prosecutors.
By 15 September, as pro-Catalan independence parties kicked-off their referendum campaigns, the Spanish government had launched an all-out legal offensive to thwart the 1 October vote, including threats of a financial takeover of much of the Catalan budget, police seizing pro-referendum posters, pamphlets and leaflets which had been regarded as illegal and criminal investigations ordered on the over 700 local mayors who had publicly agreed to help stage the referendum. Tensions between the two sides reached a critical point after Spanish police raided the Catalan government headquarters in Barcelona on 20 September and arrested 13 senior Catalan officials, with some international media describing the events as "one of the worst political crisis in modern Spanish history".
Recent increase in support for Catalan independence has its roots in a Constitutional Court ruling in 2010 upheld most of the regional 2006 Statute of Autonomy granting new powers of self-rule to the region. The ruling came after four years of deliberation, deciding on a constitutional appeal filed by the conservative People's Party (PP) under Mariano Rajoy—then the main opposition party of Spain to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party government—and was met with anger and street protests in Catalonia. Shortly after the PP took power in Spain, and after a massive independence demonstration took place in Barcelona on 11 September 2012—Catalonia's National Day—the Catalan government under President Artur Mas called a snap regional election and set out to initiate Catalonia's process towards independence.
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