Catalonia puts independence bid on hold
BARCELONA (AFP) — Catalan leaders signed a declaration of independence from Spain on Tuesday, but immediately put it on hold and called for talks with Madrid on the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
As Spain headed into the unknown, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is to chair an emergency Cabinet meeting this week to discuss the central government’s response.
In a speech to regional lawmakers in Barcelona that drew both praise and criticism from separatists, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said he had accepted “the mandate of the people for Catalonia to become an independent republic” following a banned referendum on Oct. 1.
But the 54-year-old asked the Catalan parliament to “suspend the effects of the independence declaration to initiate dialogue in the coming weeks.”
Rajoy has vowed to use everything in his power to prevent independence and has refused to rule out imposing direct rule over the semi-autonomous region — an unprecedented move many fear could lead to unrest.
Political leaders in Catalonia, Spain and Europe have come out against secession, concerned over the country’s biggest upheaval since its transition to democracy in the 1970s.
Puigdemont and his allies signed an independence declaration outside the parliament chamber, but he then suspended it and again called for dialogue, a regional government spokesman told AFP.
Deputy prime minister Soraya Saenza de Santamaria told reporters shortly after the signing that Puigdemont was “a person who doesn’t know where he is, where he’s going or with whom he wants to go.”
EU nations are watching developments closely amid concern that any Catalan move to break away from Madrid could put further pressure on the bloc still dealing with the fallout from Britain’s shock decision to leave.
Reaction was mixed among those who had hoped to witness a historic moment for a region that remains deeply divided over independence.
Merce Hernandez, a 35-year-old architect, said: “I am very emotional, this is a historic day. I’m satisfied.”
But in Barcelona’s trendy Gracia neighborhood, resident Maria Rosa Bertran said she was against a delayed secession.
“I find it even worse because it is suffering a longer agony, indecision is the worst thing that can happen to us,” she told