The tension between the president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, and Mariano Rajoy's Spanish government has only grown since the Parliament approved his investiture last Monday. Catalan government sources say that Torra is not cancelling the ceremony for the members of his cabinet to officially take office, planned for this Wednesday. This is despite Spanish prime minister Rajoy having refused to publish the nominations of the new ministers in the DOGC, the Catalan government's official gazette. The president has warned Rajoy that his government will take legal measures if the decrees aren't published.
The nomination won't come into effect until they are published in the DOGC, which is in the hands of the Spanish government thanks to article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. Rajoy's executive has made it clear that it won't allow a government which includes two imprisoned ministers, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull, and two in exile in Brussels, Lluís Puig and Toni Comín. As such, they have so far refused to publish the decree, arguing that they're analysing its viability.
The government sources, however, note that the Spanish government is obliged to publish the nominations. They say that the ceremony, planned to be held in the government palace's Sant Jordi room this Wednesday, is to go ahead and that the president is contemplating no other scenarios to them coming into effect. "The ball is in the Moncloa's court", they said, referring to the Spanish government palace.
This morning, Torra had already warned Rajoy, in statements on Catalan radio station RAC1, that from the Catalan government's presidency department they will take legal measures if the decrees are not published.
Likewise, the government's secretary, Víctor Cullell, has this Tuesday sent a letter to the sub-secretary of the presidency department of the Spanish government calling for authorisation for the publication of the decree, or the legal arguments why they're not being published. The letter warns that, in accordance with the regulations, the refusal to publish the decree "could be understood as a generic and unlimited attribution of control of the functions of the president of the Catalan government and a divestment of the functions that the Statute of Autonomy [of Catalonia] attributes to them".
Judge Pablo Llarena this morning refused Rull and Turull authorisation to attend the ceremony; nor, clearly, will the ministers in exile be able to be present. That said, there is no rule about how to react towards the impossibility of the ministers being there in person.
From the Parliament, JxCat, ERC and CUP have denounced the situation caused by the government's decision to not publish the nominations. CUP called this afternoon for the president to go ahead with the swearing in of the ministers even if the decree hasn't been published. JxCat, meanwhile, has given its support to whatever decision Torra takes. "Our position is firm, we want the restitution of the ministers, and we stand with Torra to carry out the nominations and swearing-in," said JxCat deputy Gemma Geis.