Catalan politician is banned from office
THE former president of Catalonia has been barred from public life for organising a mock referendum on his country’s independence.
Artur Mas held a “consultative” ballot – essentially a mass protest action – in 2014 in the aftermath of Scotland’s legally binding poll.
Mr Mas, who has since left office, had been banned from holding a formal plebiscite by Spanish authorities who say his Iberian nation does not have the right to self-determination.
A court in Barcelona has now ruled his symbolic action breached a legal order prohibiting a full vote and found him guilty of exceeding his powers.
Central authorities in May – both judicial and political – have always argued a Scottish-style independence referendum would be unconstitutional. However, the ruling against Mr Mas will inflame passions in Catalonia, where support for holding a referendum is higher than support for independence itself.
Mr Mas has said he will take his conviction all the way to the highest courts in Europe.
Pro-independence parties have a majority in the Catalan assembly after regional elections which were practically a plebiscite on independence in 2015.
Catalan leaders yesterday latched on to Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement of a bid for a second referendum after Mr Mas’s conviction. “A mistake! What a difference compared to consolidated and healthy democracies,” tweeted Carles Puigdemont, Mr Mas’s successor.