What Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy, an organic right of the Spanish state, was and is worth could be seen when Mariano Rajoy and his political friends not only from his own PP party, but also from the PSOE and the Ciudadanos party, parts of which sympathise with fascist positions, declared the Catalan government, which had emerged democratically and constitutionally from properly held elections, deposed without sufficient legal basis, removed the President of Catalonia from office on his own authority and dissolved the Catalan parliament at the end of October 2017.
This was an outrageous act that should have led to an outcry and political protest throughout the European Union, but strangely went largely unnoticed.
At no point was the Spanish government constitutionally authorised to call new elections for Catalonia. This was the sole responsibility of Catalan President Carles Puigdemont — as was the dissolution of the Catalan parliament. From a legal perspective, all Catalan elections held after 27 October 2017 are therefore likely to be null and void.
However, the legal question of whether Carles Puigdemont is therefore still the acting president of Catalonia recedes into the background given the way Spain treats its de facto colony of Catalonia.
On 12 May 2024, Catalonia will elect a new parliament. The question will be no less than whether Catalonia will once again submit to Spain and continue to be content with a so-called Statute of Autonomy, which Spain can suspend at any time if it suits Spanish interests, or whether Catalonia, which validly proclaimed its independence under international law on 27 October 2017, will take the second step and now realise this independence by establishing a Catalan Republic. This is the goal of the Junts per Catalunya and CUP parties, while the Esquerra Republicana party is not really showing its cards and, although it speaks of its aspirations for Catalan independence, does not appear to be taking any recognisable steps towards realising this goal at present.
Catalonia's exiled President Carles Puigdemont is standing in the parliamentary elections on 12 May 2024. The fact that his opponents on the Spanish side believe he has the best chances of being elected and are also convinced that he will stand up for the realisation of Catalonia's independence can be seen from the fact that Spanish judges have been making a real fool of themselves in front of the world public in recent weeks by trying to conjure up a charge of «terrorism» against the Catalan president-in-exile for his alleged role in democratic protests.
In Catalonia, people see and understand very well who Spain does not want to see as the winner of the upcoming parliamentary elections, who Spain illegally monitored with the Pegasus espionage programme and who Spain trusts to realise Catalonia's independence. This is why the representatives of the «deep state» in Spain now seem to stop at almost nothing when it comes to trampling on the Catalan people's collective human right to self-determination and also violating the constitution of the Kingdom of Spain, which recognises the right to self-determination and therefore also the right of the Catalans to peacefully leave the multi-ethnic state of Spain as a mandatory higher right of the United Nations.
As an example of how honourable citizens of Catalonia view the historic opportunity that the Catalan president-in-exile is offering them with his candidacy for the elections on 12 May 2024, an open letter is published below, which may be joined by anyone who is of good will and wishes to support the courageous, peaceful and determined policy of the Catalan president-in-exile Carles Puigdemont. All you need to do is send an e-mail to the following address indicating your support for the content of the following open letter and co-sign it: antoni@strubell.cat.
Open letter:
«With President Puigdemont for an independent Catalonia!
We, the signatories of different political persuasions, supporters of Catalan independence as a key instrument for the national, social, cultural, environmental and economic progress of the country and its people, wish to express our support for the list led by the honourable President Carles Puigdemont y Casamajó, given the importance of the general elections on 12 May.
The candidacy that the 130th President of the Generalitat of Catalonia has proposed from exile connects us like no other with the legitimacy of the historic referendum of 1 October 2017.
The leadership of someone who is the most recognised defender of the liberation of the Catalan nation in the Catalan lands, in Spain, in Europe and throughout the world is a trump card of the highest order that deserves our support and that we must not squander.
The honourable President Carles Puigdemont was illegally removed from office by the Spanish government on the basis of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution for following the will of a mobilised citizenry on the streets and promoting a democratic and peaceful process of national emancipation. Since then, he has been persecuted and accused of alleged crimes that have not been recognised in any of the three European countries where he has been summoned to court — Belgium, Germany and Italy — nor in the other countries he has travelled to during these almost six and a half years of exile. His tenacious struggle has earned him respect and international renown as a champion of a just and democratic cause.
Now that the amnesty law must allow the end of the repression of those persecuted for the sovereignty process since 2011 and will allow the return of the person who was legitimately at the head of the country on 1 October 2017, we must join forces to resume and complete the path we have taken with greater strength and intelligence.
The path to full sovereignty requires the highest degree of national unity. Catalonia today must be able to respond to the challenges of a pluralist society in which Catalan must be a language of its own and a bond of cohesion, amid other major challenges of globalisation and the climate emergency that must be urgently addressed. Only in this way will we move closer to the «politically free, socially just, economically prosperous and spiritually glorious Catalonia» that Macià and so many generations of Catalans have dreamed of.
On 12 May, we must go to the polls and support President Carles Puigdemont!
Catalan Lands, in April 2024.»