Spanish Constitutional Court Accepts Gov’t Lawsuit on Catalan Referendum

The Spanish Constitutional Court has accepted the government’s lawsuit filed in relation to Catalonia’s looming independence referendum.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Spanish Constitutional Court’s plenary session has accepted the government’s lawsuit filed with regard to Catalonia’s forthcoming independence referendum.

According to the Spanish EFE news agency, the Constitutional Court's extraordinary meeting started at 7 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT) to consider enacting four documents, aimed at suspending the referendum.

On Wednesday, Catalonia’s Parliament passed a bill enable an independence referendum to be held on October 1. The Spanish government claims the bill illegal and has already announced that it will challenge the legislation in the Constitutional Court.

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 be held on October 1. The move came when, in late May, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refused to hold talks on the terms and conditions of the referendum in which the citizens of Catalonia would decide the political future of the region.