- MADRID- The pro-independence vice president of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, on Monday said that a heavily debated referendum on independence might be moved forward to summer instead of mid-September. This might happen, he said, if the Spanish judiciary were to remove the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carmen Forcadell, from his position.



Forcadell has been charged with 'disobedience' towards the Constitutional Court in Madrid. Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has pledged to call a referendum on self-determination in September despite stiff opposition from the Spanish government, which has declared it unconstitutional. Forcadell was charged in December for disobedience for having held a vote in October on a resolution about starting the independence process. He may be barred from practicing his profession and suspended from his position. Pro-independence parties, who hold an absolute majority in the Barcelona parliament, have said that they will not accept this. Oriol has said that it would be possible to hold the referendum earlier and that ''we must be in a position to respond''.