Constitutional crisis grips Rajoy

Spanish PM faces Catalonia fallout

Madrid: Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is facing the biggest constitutional crisis in decades after Sunday’s violence-marred independence referendum in Catalonia opened the door for its wealthiest region to move for secession as early as this week.

The streets of Barcelona, the Catalan capital, were quiet yesterday, but newspaper editorials said the referendum, in which Catalan officials said 90% of voters had chosen to leave Spain, had set the stage for a decisive clash between Madrid and the region.

“It could all get worse,” the moderate Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia said in an editorial after Spanish police used batons and rubber bullets to disrupt the vote, which had been declared illegal by Madrid.

“We’re entering a phase of strikes and street protests ... and with more movement, more repression.”

Catalan officials said 840 people had been injured.

Catalonia is a centre of industry and tourism accounting for a fifth of Spain’s economy, a production base for major multinationals from Volkswagen to Nestle, and home to Europe’s fastest-growing sea port.

Although it already has extensive autonomy, its tax revenues are crucial to Spain’s state budget.

Catalonia’s regional leader, Carles Puigdemont, declared on Sunday that voters had earned the right to independence and said he would present the results to the region’s parliament, which then had the power to move a motion of independence.

The referendum has no legal status; it has been blocked by the Madrid government and Constitutional Court for being at odds with the 1978 constitution, which states that Spain cannot be broken up, and there is little sign of support for Catalan independence in any other part of Spain.

Puigdemont’s comments threw down a challenge to Rajoy, who has the constitutional power to sack the regional government and put Catalonia under central control pending fresh elections.

That would raise tensions further in the region of 7.5 million people, a former principality with its own language and culture, and potentially hurt the resurgent Spanish economy. The anti-independence newspaper El Pais wrote in an editorial of Rajoy’s ”absolute inability to manage the crisis since the very beginning”.

Ordinary Spaniards tried to digest the tumultuous scenes that had played out across cities in Catalonia on Sunday and were splashed across front pages of newspapers.

“What happened yesterday was pathetic. When Rajoy stepped up, it was surreal. Nothing has changed and I’ve no idea how things can be fixed now,” said Elvira Ramisa, 58, talking in her kitchen in the small town of Sant Pere de Torello while the latest news blared on the radio.

The Catalan government said 2.26 million people had cast ballots on Sunday, a turnout of about 42%, despite the crackdown. The results were not a surprise, given that unionists were mostly expected to stay home.

Opinion polls had shown around 40% support for independence. — Reuters