Barcelona City Council is still to commit either way over its participation in the independence referendum with less than a month to go before 1st October. This afternoon the first deputy mayor, Gerardo Pisarello, explained that first they want to wait for the Catalan government to let them know "about what it has planned" after the Referendum Law was suspended by the Constitutional Court before the City Council decides what it will do.
Pisarello said that, as soon as they received the notice from the Catalan president to confirm that the Council would offer local facilities for polling stations, orders were given to the Council's secretary to check their availability.
Today, however, they argue that these procedures have been limited by the Constitutional Court suspending the Referendum Law and its summoning, as well as the other laws of disconnection. Because of that, mayor Ada Colau has sent the Catalan government a letter for them to inform them about the actions they have planned "to guarantee participation without putting the institution and the civil servants at risk", despite the suspensions. Pisarello said they had made this request for Barcelona, but that its also affects all other Catalan municipalities.
On the other hand, Pisarello reiterated "the commitment of the City Council to the right of the citizens to express themselves freely" whenever this does not put the City Council or its workers at risk.
The deputy mayor also said that they still don't have the report from the secretary general of the City Council about the assignment of premises for the referendum.
Meanwhile, more than 650 mayors from all over Catalonia have already committed themselves to the independence referendum and have signed a decree to demonstrate their collaboration with the government's official call. The document was driven by the ACM (Catalan Association of Municipalities) and AMI (Association of Municipalities for Independence).
Ada Colau's letter to Catalan president Carles Puigdemont:
