King blasts ‘disloyalty’
SPAIN’S King Felipe VI has accused Catalan secessionist leaders of shattering democratic principles and dividing Catalan society, as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to rally against a violent police crackdown against the banned independence referendum.
The televised speech, a rare intervention by the 49-yearold monarch, was a sign of how deeply Spain has been shaken by the Catalan vote and a police crackdown that injured almost 900 people.
The referendum and its aftermath have plunged Spain into its worst constitutional crisis in decades and are a political test for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative who has taken a hard-line stance on the issue.
Yesterday Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said the region would declare independence in a matter of days.
Mr Puigdemont said his government would “act at the end of this week or the beginning of next”.
If the Spanish Government were to intervene and try to take control, it would be “an error which changes everything”, he said.
Pro-independence parties who control the regional Government staged Sunday’s referendum in defiance of the Constitutional Court.
Those who took part in Sunday’s ballot voted overwhelmingly for independence, a result that was expected since residents who favour remaining part of Spain mainly boycotted the referendum.
Outside Catalonia, Spaniards mostly hold strong views against its independence drive.
The king said the “irresponsible behaviour” of the Catalan leaders had undermined social harmony in the region.
“[The Catalan leaders] have infringed the system of legally approved rules with their decisions, showing an unacceptable disloyalty towards the powers of the state,” he said.
Opinion polls before the vote suggested a minority of about 40 per cent of residents backed independence but a majority wanted a referendum to be held, and the violent police crackdown angered Catalans across the divide.
Madrid had warned Catalan separatist leaders they could not go ahead with the referendum in a region deeply divided, but they did so anyway.
As people queued, riot police moved in to prevent them voting, in some cases hitting people with batons and firing rubber bullets, injuring almost 900, according to authorities.
The Catalan Government said 90 per cent of the more than 2.2 million people who managed to cast their ballot voted for independence — but over half of eligible voters did not turn out in a vote branded a “farce” by Madrid.