Defying ruling, Catalonia to press ahead with independence straw poll

MADRID — The regional government of Catalonia said that it would go ahead with a straw poll on independence, scheduled for this Sunday, in seeming defiance of an order from Spain’s constitutional court to suspend the ballot.

The court’s ruling, which came earlier in the day, and the response from the Catalan government were the latest episodes in a two-year standoff between Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Artur Mas, the Catalan leader, over the status of the region, Spain’s economic powerhouse.

The tensions hit a peak in September when Mas signed a decree approving the Nov. 9 vote on whether to break from Spain, despite efforts by the central government to block it.

Mas remains under pressure within Catalonia to keep the breakaway plans on track, but he has also said that he would not hold a vote if it were deemed illegal and would provoke a constitutional crisis for Spain.

As that outcome appeared unavoidable, Mas reduced the ballot’s status to an informal poll. Now, given Tuesday’s order by the constitutional court, Mas may be forced to diminish the status of the vote even further by having the balloting organized through civic groups rather than the government.

The Catalan government did not say Tuesday how such a vote could be legally arranged but insisted that it would challenge the central government before the Spanish Supreme Court on the grounds that it had violated the rights of Catalans to decide their own future.

Mas contends that his position has been made untenable by Rajoy’s refusal to discuss the status of Catalonia, even after Scotland rejected independence from Britain in a referendum in Septem- ber that was approved by the government of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Rajoy, on the other hand, maintains that there can be no dialogue with Catalonia until Mas and other secessionist politicians drop plans to hold an independence vote that violates the sovereignty guarantees included in Spain’s Constitution.

The constitutional court has repeatedly sided with Rajoy, forcing Mas to adjust his plans to try to circum- vent both legal and political objections from Madrid.

Francesc Homs, the spokesman for the Catalan government, said at a news conference Tuesday that “if what the constitutional court is seeking is to restrict the freedom of expression of citizens, it’s clear that it won’t be able to achieve that.”

Amid the uncertainty over the ballot’s organization, any vote Sunday is unlikely to carry the international legitimacy that Mas had hoped for.