CATALONIA GOVT
Spain PM calls for elections on Dec 21 to replace Catalan Parliament
MADRID
SPAIN was plunged into crisis on Friday as Madrid seized power from independenceseeking Catalonia, the first curtailment of regional autonomy since the brutal dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
After regional lawmakers voted to declare a Catalan “republic”, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy moved swiftly to dissolve the rebel government and Parliament, and called a Dec 21 elections to replace them.
In an escalating stand-off closely watched by secessionwary Europe, Rajoy fired pro-independence leader Carles Puigdemont and all his ministers, as well as the director of the regional police, and Catalan envoys to Madrid and Brussels, to halt what he termed an “escalation of disobedience”.
Secessionist lawmakers voted 70 to 10 in the 135-member Parliament on Friday to declare Catalonia “a republic in the form of an independent and sovereign state”.
They take their mandate from the “Yes” result in a banned and unregulated Oct 1 independence referendum spurned by more than half of Catalan electors.
Observers warned of trouble ahead, with Catalan officials and public servants likely to defy orders from caretaker envoys sent by the central government.
“Tensions are likely to rise significantly over the coming days,” suggested Teneo Intelligence, a risk analysis group.
“Demonstrators might try to prevent the police from removing Catalan ministers from their offices... This increases the risk of violent clashes,” it said in a statement.
The region of some 7.5 million people accounts for about 16 per cent of Spain’s population, a fifth of its economic output, and attracts more tourists than anywhere else in the country.
Catalonia’s inhabitants are fiercely protective of their language, culture and autonomy — restored after a long period of oppression during nationalist Franco’s 1936-1979 rule.
In Barcelona, separatists broke out in ecstatic shouts of: “Independence!” and popped bottles of cava, a Catalan sparkling wine, as the outcome of Friday’s vote was announced. Separatist members of parliament cheered and embraced before singing the Catalan anthem.
But any cause for joy was soon nipped in the bud, and shares in Spanish companies, particularly Catalan banks, dropped sharply as the crisis deepened.
“We Spaniards are living through a sad day in which a lack of reason prevailed upon the law and demolished democracy in Catalonia,” Rajoy said as he announced steps to “restore normality”.
The sweeping measures were approved by the Senate on Friday under a constitutional article designed to rein in rebels among Spain’s 17 regions.
Yesterday, Puigdemont defiantly called for “democratic opposition” to the direct rule imposed by the central government on the region.
“The best way to defend what we have achieved to date is democratic opposition to the application of Article 155,” Puigdemont said in a carefully-worded televised statement that appeared to indicate he did not accept his dismissal.
Puigdemont added that he and his team would keep working “to build a free country”.
In his first comments since being deposed as president of Catalonia, flanked by a Catalan and European Union flag, he did not clarify whether he would carry on as leader of a new republic thatwas not recognised by Madrid or abroad.
In a copy of his speech sent to AFP, he signed off as “president of the Catalan government”, implying he considered himself to still officially be head of the semiautonomous region.
He stopped short of signing off as president of the republic, though.
In a cryptic message, Puigdemont also asked Catalans to defend the republic proclaimed by the regional parliament.
“We need to keep defending the stage in which we have entered with a tireless sense of civic responsibility and peaceful commitment.”
He added that “in a democratic society, only Parliaments can pick or dismiss presidents.” AFP