Spain's Constitutional Court (TC) has unanimously suspended, in a precautionary manner, the reform of regulations approved last Wednesday by the Parliament of Catalonia.
The TC met this Monday afternoon in an extraordinary session to study the appeal of unconstitutionality brought against the reform of regulations by the Spanish government, which aims to speed up the process of 'disconnection'. Once the appeal is admitted formally, and in accordance with article 161.2 of the Constitution, the law remains automatically challenged and suspended in a precautionary manner for a period of five months.
The appeal filed by the Spanish Government last Friday alleged that the amendment of the Parliament's regulations violated the right of political participation on equal terms for the members of parliament, whilst allowing a single reading of proposals to be processed and at the request of a single parliamentary group. This procedure would allow a proposal of law, such as the Referendum Law, to be approved more quickly and without any opposition amendments. It also argued that "the declared purpose of the reform is to facilitate the unconstitutional referendum of self-determination".
The State's appeal is based on the report of observations and legal and technical proposals of the Board of Deputies of the Catalan Parliament, and the opinion of the Council of Statutory Guarantees (CGE). According to the Spanish government, in these two documents it is concluded that "the right of amendment is a fundamental part of article 23.2 of the Constitution".