Separatists deal blow to Madrid as Catalan divide widens

BARCELONA: With their leaders in exile or jail, Catalan separatists scrambled Friday to reap the benefits of defeating Spain’s central government in a divisive regional election.

Madrid had called Thursday’s poll after secessionists declared independence on Oct 27, in Spain’s worst political crisis since democracy was reinstated following dictator Francisco Franco’s death in 1975.

The vote had been anticipated as a potential moment of truth on Catalonia’s independence question, a hugely divisive issue for the wealthy northeast region, that has rattled a Europe already shaken by Brexit.

But there was a lingering feeling Friday that it had raised new questions — such as how the separatists planned to govern, and whether the upheaval of the past weeks was now simply on hold.

What was clear was that the move to call snap polls appeared to backfire against Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Ousted regional president Carles Puigdemont picked up where he had left off in the tugof-war with his nemesis, calling on Rajoy to hold talks in Brussels, where he has sought self-imposed exile, or anywhere else in Europe — barring Spain, where he faces arrest.

He also called on the European Union, which has so far sided

I only demand to the European Commission or other European institutions, to listen, to listen to the Catalan people, not only the Spanish state. — Carles Puigdemont, ousted Catalan president

with Rajoy, to hear out the independence camp.

“I only demand to the European Commission or other European institutions, to listen, to listen to the Catalan people, not only the Spanish state,” he told reporters in Brussels.

Puigdemont’s statement was in line with his strategy throughout the crisis, positioning himself as an equal to the Spanish prime minister and seeking recognition from the international community.

But the appeal fell, once again, on deaf ears.

Rajoy rejected the call to meet Puigdemont, as he warned the new Catalan government should fully respect the law.

The European Commission declined to comment.

Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia list secured the best result of the three separatist groupings.

How the independence camp intends to rule remains a mystery, however.

Puigdemont faces charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of funds in Spain.

Other independence leaders, including Puigdemont’s former deputy Oriol Junqueras, are behind bars pending trial.

And a Spanish judge on Friday expanded a probe into the secessionist bid to include another six independence leaders, including former regional president Artur Mas, in a written ruling seen by AFP.

To govern together, the three separatist lists must reach an agreement after running on separate tickets with key candidates making acrimonious accusations against each other.

“A brutal confrontation took place, a fight to the death, within the separatist camp,” Oriol Bartomeus of Barcelona Autonomous University told AFP.

The separatists will likely manage to clinch a deal and avoid having to hold yet another poll, ruling together with their 70-seat majority in parliament — two less than their previous tally.

“A pro-independence minority government is likely to form comprising all three pro-separatist parties,” said Federico Santi, a researcher with the Eurasia Group consultancy. — AFP MADRID: Spain’s annual Christmas lottery on Friday showered over 10 million euros on employees of a retirement home in a struggling town where one in five people is out of work.

Celebrating employees of the ‘Sagrado Corazon’ in the central town of Campo de Criptana, many wearing their white uniforms, jumped up and down, sang and drank sparkling wine outside the building, images broadcast on Spanish TV showed.

Twenty-two workers at the home held at least one ticket bearing the winning number for the first prize, each paying 400,000 euros (US$475,000).

“They are workers who really need it,” the home’s director, Ana Maria Campos, told local media.

A truck driver who volunteers at the home bought 30 winning tickets during a trip to the northwestern region of Galicia.

He kept two for himself, gave one to each of his two brothers and re-sold the remaining 26 to staff at the nursing home.

“I am thrilled that I brought so much luck and money to my hometown,” Jesus Martinez, 54, who has been a volunteer at the home for the past decade, told online newspaper El Espanol.

His two tickets won him 800,000 euros while the nursing home staff’s 26 tickets will award them a combined 10.4 million euros.

Campo de Criptana mayor Antonio Lucas-Torres said he was ‘very happy, because anything that rains money on Criptana is good because it has repercussions on the economy of the town’. — AFP