Catalan declaration of independence
On 27 October 2017, a resolution based on the "Declaration of the representatives of Catalonia" declaring the independence of Catalonia was voted in the Parliament and was approved with 70 votes in favor, 10 against, and 2 blank votes. Fifty-three MPs from the opposition refused to be present during the voting after the legal services of the Catalan Parliament advised that the voting could not take place, as the law on which it was based had been suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The two pro-independence parties, JxSí and CUP, had 72 seats, and the vote in favour of independence obtained 70.
Catalan Countries
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 contains a clause forbidding the formation of federations amongst autonomous communities. Therefore, if it were the case that the "Països Catalans" idea gained a majority democratic support in future elections, a constitutional amendment would still be needed for those parts of the "Països Catalans" lying in Spain to create a common legal representative body, even though in the addenda to the Constitution there is a clause allowing an exception to this rule in the case of Navarre, which can join the Basque Country should the people choose to do so.
Catalans in the French territory of Northern Catalonia, although proud of their language and culture, are not committed to independence. Jordi Vera, a CDC councillor in Perpignan, has said that his party favoured closer trade and transport relationships with Catalonia, and that he believed Catalan independence would improve the prospects of that happening, but that secession from France was "not on the agenda". When Catalans took to the streets in 2016 under the banner of "" ("Yes to the Catalan Country") to protest the French government's decision to combine , the region which contained Northern Catalonia, with to create a new region to be called , the French magazine said that the movement was "completely unrelated to the situation on the other side of the border", and that it was "more directed against Toulouse [the chief city of ] than against Paris or for Barcelona." , which stood in the French legislative election, 2017, said that's its aim is a "territorial collectivity" within the French Republic on the same lines as Corsica.