Royal rebuke
SPAIN King Felipe VI has spoken out forcefully at a public event against Catalonia’s independence drive, saying all Spaniards must respect each other and the law.
Felipe said in a speech at a prize-giving ceremony in northern Spain for the prestigious Princess of Asturias awards that everyone must respect the Constitution and the principles of parliamentary democracy.
Spain’s Constitutional Court has said Catalonia’s recent referendum on secession was illegal, and the Spanish parliament has rejected the Catalan regional government’s attempts to break away.
Felipe said yesterday that Catalonia ‘‘is and will be an essential part’’ of Spain, receiving a standing ovation in the city of Oviedo.
European leaders attending an event in Spain have indirectly reiterated their support for Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s efforts to halt Catalonia’s independence bid, which the country’s Constitutional Court says is illegal.
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo to receive a prestigious Princess of Asturias prize on behalf of the European Union. In his speech, Tajani said laws and constitutions must be respected, adding there are ‘‘populists and nationalists in Europe who are trying to tear us apart.’’
Juncker said as he passed through the city that he ‘‘saw Spanish flags everywhere, and it was a beautiful sight.’’ The comment drew loud applause from the audience of more than 1000 people, including Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.
Meanwhile, Catalan separatists say Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into as he moves to quash their campaign for independence.
As the government in Madrid prepares to deploy its most powerful legal weapons, three leading members of the movement in Barcelona said Rajoy isn’t equipped to achieve his goals and risks a damaging entanglement in hostile terrain. They reckon they have enough support among the Catalan civil service and police to thwart Spain’s plan.
Rajoy’s cabinet meets in Madrid on Saturday (local time) to consider specific measures to reassert control over the rebel region, a process set out in the Spanish Constitution that’s never yet been tested. Among the top priorities is bringing to heel the Catalan police force and deciding what to do with President Carles Puigdemont. The plan still needs approval by the Senate, so it could be another two weeks before Spain can take any action.
‘‘This is a minefield for Rajoy,’’ said Antonio Barroso, an analyst in London at Teneo Intelligence, a company advising on political risk. ‘‘The implementation on the ground is a risk for him when the government may face some regional civil servants who don’t co-operate.’’
It all comes down to Article 155 of the constitution, a short passage that gives the legal green light for Spain to revoke the semiautonomy of Catalonia.
Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said at a press conference in Madrid on Friday that it would be applied in a ‘‘prudent, proportionate and gradual manner.’’
The problem for Rajoy is that the separatists proved with their makeshift referendum on October 1 that they can ignore edicts from Madrid with a degree of success. That means he will need to back up his ruling with people on the ground, and it didn’t work as planned the last time around.
The Catalan police force ignored orders to shut down polling stations before the illegal vote on October 1.
After Rajoy sent in the Civil Guard, images of Spanish police beating would-be voters were broadcast around the world.
Mossos Police Chief Josep Lluis Trapero is a local hero, his face worn on T-shirts at separatist demonstrations.
When he returned this week from an interrogation in Madrid, where he’s facing possible sedition charges, staff greeted him with hugs and applause.
How the rank-and-file would respond to their boss’s ouster is just one of the questions hanging over Rajoy and his ministers as they gather.
‘‘If the government decides to intervene in the management of Mossos, which isn’t a scenario we want, we hope they do something surgical,’’ said Valentin Anadon, GETTY IMAGES a spokesman for the Catalan police’s largest trade union.
‘‘The government wants to restore stability, so they don’t need to go into the internal structure of the force.’’
To be sure, Rajoy has the Spanish police on his side, as well as the army in the final instance. And the central government has already imposed strict controls on payments by the regional administration since last month, restricting the flow of Catalan government subsidies to sympathetic media organizations and civic groups.
Separatist campaign groups have drawn up plans to disrupt the Spanish economy, already forecast to grow more slowly because of the standoff in Catalonia.
Hundreds of companies have already shifted their domiciles out of the region.
In a signal to Madrid of their potential, protesters fired warning shots.
They shut down all the major highways connecting Barcelona with the rest of Spain for several hours.
On Friday, they called on supporters to withdraw symbolic quantities of cash from Catalan banks. Bloomberg