Bill Allowing Catalonia Independence Within 48 Hours of Referendum Enters Parl't

A draft legislation which would provide Catalan authorities the right to declare their regions’ independence from Spain within a 48-hour period after the popular referendum slated for October 1 was submitted to the Catalonian parliament on Tuesday.

MADRID (Sputnik) – The bill’s authors include representatives from two Catalan coalitions, namely, Together for Yes and Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), both opting for Catalonia’s split from Spain and expecting the bill to become legally binding in a manner that easily overrides any contradicting legislation.

Lluis Corominas, a lawmaker from Together for Yes, specified that in the case that Catalans vote for the region’s splitting from Spain, the independence would be declared as soon as October 3, given the bill’s adoption.

According to Corominas, the draft legislation stipulates that the results of the referendum would be legally binding for everyone and involves the establishment of Catalonia’s elected administration.

On Monday, a DYM survey made for El Confidencial newspaper said that a total of 65.4 percent of residents of Catalonia who planned to come to the polling stations in fall to decide on Catalonia’s independence are expected to vote for the region’s independence.

Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont, who pledged to look for an agreement on independence from Spain back in the fall of 2016, said on June 9 that the region’s independence vote would take place on October 1, 2017. The move came when, in late May, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refused to hold Puigdemont-proposed talks on the terms and conditions of the referendum in which the citizens of Catalonia would decide the political future of the region.

Previously, approximately 80 percent of Catalans who took part in the non-binding referendum on the region's status as part of Spain, on November 9, 2014, voted in favor of Catalonia becoming an independent state. Madrid declared the referendum unconstitutional.