Spanish PM accuses separatists of ‘blackmail’

SPAIN’S prime minister on Monday accused Catalonia’s separatist government of blackmail after a newspaper reported it was planning to declare independence unless Madrid allows the wealthy region to hold a referendum on secession.

“The threats and blackmail which have been put on the table are intolerable,” Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said. What Catalan leaders “intend to achieve is the complete rupture of what Spain is today”, he added.

Rajoy was reacting to a report in El Pais which said Catalonia’s regional government was prepared to immediately declare independence for their northeastern region unless Spain’s central government lets it hold a binding independence referendum.

The Catalan government has already drafted a transitional bill on the basic structure and functioning of an independent Catalan state, the newspaper said citing a copy of the blueprint.

The bill handles questions such as who would retain citizenship as well as provisions for taking over assets currently owned by the central government, according to the report.

The Catalan government denied the report, saying in a statement that its priority remains to reach an agreement with the central government to hold an independence referendum.

A Catalan government source said that the document cited by El Pais was a “very preliminary draft written several months ago which is nothing like the text that exists today”.

Rajoy’s conservative government argues that it could not permit such a vote since it would be unconstitutional – a stance supported by the judiciary.

Parties that want Catalonia to break away won a majority of seats in the regional parliament for the first time in 2015 local elections. Demands for autonomy have been fuelled by Spain’s economic downturn, leading many to resent sending tax money to Madrid to prop up poorer regions.