Madrid squeeze sparks outrage

SPAIN took drastic measures at the weekend to stop Catalonia from breaking away, announcing plans to dismiss its separatist government and call fresh elections in a move the region’s leader compared to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and his ministers – who sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades by holding a banned independence referendum – will be stripped of their jobs and their ministries taken over under measures laid out by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

After hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded Barcelona’s streets to show their anger at Madrid, Mr Puigdemont said Mr Rajoy was guilty of “the worst attack on institutions and Catalan people” since Franco, calling for the parliament of the semiautonomous region to meet urgently.

Franco ruled Spain with an iron fist from 1939 to his death in 1975, and among other repressive measures took Catalonia’s powers away and banned the official use of Catalan language.

Barcelona police said 450,000 people joined the protest in the regional capital.

Picture: GETTY IMAGES People hold up Catalan independence flags during a march on the streets of Barcelona, the massive protest attracting a whopping 450,000 people.