The Standard (St. Catharines)

Spain cranks up pressure on Catalan breakaway bid

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MADRID — Spain’s top prosecutor is investigat­ing more than 700 Catalan mayors for co-operating with a planned referendum on the region’s independen­ce after the nation’s constituti­onal court ordered the vote put on hold, the prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.

Catalonia’s regional police force is under orders to arrest the mayors if they refuse to appear for questionin­g, State Prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza’s office said.

The announceme­nt significan­tly raised the stakes in an increasing­ly tense standoff between Catalan independen­ce supporters and national authoritie­s over the referendum planned for Oct. 1.

If mayors and their municipali­ties cannot help organize balloting, the vote is unlikely to proceed. Maza’s order also puts regional police officers in the uneasy position of carrying out commands from Madrid in their towns and cities.

The pro-independen­ce coalition ruling Catalonia has vowed to hold the referendum, defying a prohibitio­n by Spain’s constituti­onal Court. It has asked the 947 mayors in the northeaste­rn region to provide voting facilities.

Maza ordered the prosecutor­s in Spain’s 17 provinces to investigat­e the 712 mayors who already have offered to provide municipal premises as polling stations.

Most of Catalonia’s mayors have said they would co-operate with the referendum. However, the willing mayors represent less than half of the region’s voting-age population.

Urban support is key for the proindepen­dence movement, especially the Catalan capital of Barcelona, which is home to around 20 per cent of voters.

Barcelona Mayor Ana Colau, who opposes secession but supports a vote, says she wants to help arrange the referendum but won’t do so without assurances that she and her staff would be acting legally.

Such assurance is unlikely to materializ­e, and without Barcelona’s participat­ion, the referendum would lack legitimacy.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appealed to Catalans to ignore calls from independen­ce supporters to turn out to vote.

“If anyone urges you to go to a polling station, don’t go, because the referendum can’t take place, it would be an absolutely illegal act,” Rajoy said.

Spain’s King Felipe VI also entered the fray, stepping up the pressure on Catalonia by vowing that the Spanish Constituti­on “will prevail” over any attempt to break the country apart.

In his first comments on the growing political crisis, Felipe said the rights of all Spaniards will be upheld against “whoever steps outside constituti­onal and statutory law.”

— The Associated Press

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