After 25 years of unsatisfactory interpretations of the 1979 Statute and a continued failure to implement it properly, Catalan political parties propose to set out definitively the political status of Catalonia within Spain.
A vast majority (77%) of the Catalan Parliament requests the Catalan President to start negotiations with the Spanish Government so as to hold a self-determination referendum in Catalonia.
The Parliament of Catalonia makes a formal petition asking the Spanish Government to transfer the necessary powers to hold the referendum (as Westminster did with Scotland).
Due to the Constitutional Court’s suspension of the scheduled consultation, President Mas announces a new vote through a ‘public participatory process’.
Despite the impediments of the Spanish government and the state’s judicial bodies, over 2.3 million Catalans vote in the participatory process: 80.76% vote for independence, 4.54% for the status quo and 10.07% for a “devo-max” or “third way solution”.
Three days after the 9 November informal vote, Spanish PM Rajoy makes an official statement on the subject. He says that “it was not a democratic vote, but an act of political propaganda and a useless farce”.
The Spanish State Prosecutor files a complaint and seeks criminal charges against President Mas, as well as the Catalan Vice-President and the Minister of Education, because they “did not prevent” the 9 November vote.
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy visits Barcelona for the first time since the 9 November vote and strongly criticizes Catalonia’s self-determination plans in a People’s Party meeting.