Catalan bid to declare self-rule
Crisis hits Spain’s economy
CATALONIA will move on Monday to declare independence from Spain, a regional government source said, as the EU nation nears a rupture that threatens the foundations of its young democracy and has unnerved financial markets.
Pro-independence parties which control the regional parliament have asked for a debate and vote on Monday on declaring independence, the source said. A declaration should follow, although it is unclear when.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont earlier told the BBC that his government would ask the region’s parliament to declare independence after tallying votes from last weekend’s referendum, which Madrid says was illegal.
“This will probably finish once we get all the votes in from abroad at the end of the week. Therefore we shall probably act over the weekend or early next week,” he said in remarks published yesterday.
The constitutional crisis in Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-biggest economy, has shaken the common currency and hit Spanish stocks and bonds, sharply raising Madrid’s borrowing costs.
Yesterday, the Ibex stock index fell below 10 000 points for the first time since March 2015 as bank stocks tumbled. In a sign of the nervous public mood, Catalonia’s biggest bank, Caixabank, and Spain’s economy minister sought to assure bank customers their deposits were safe.
Puigdemont’s comments came after Spain’s King Felipe VI accused secessionist leaders on Tuesday of shattering democratic principles and dividing Catalan society, as tens of thousands protested against a violent police crackdown on Sunday’s vote.
Spain has been rocked by the Catalan vote and the Spanish police response to it, which saw batons and rubber bullets used to prevent people from voting.
Hundreds were injured in scenes that brought international condemnation. Catalans came out on to the streets on Tuesday to condemn the police action, shutting down road traffic, public transport and businesses, and ratcheting up fears of intensifying unrest in a region that makes up one-fifth of the Spanish economy.
Road closures related to the protests briefly halted production at Volkswagen’s Catalonia plant.
As shares in Spain’s big lenders fell yesterday, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos tried to reassure investors and customers. “Catalan banks are Spanish banks and European banks are solid and their clients have nothing to fear,” he said.
Caixabank, Catalonia’s largest lender, said in a memo to employees that its only objective was to “protect clients’, shareholders’ and employees’ interests”.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative who has taken a hard line, faces a huge challenge to see off Catalan independence without further unrest.
European Council President Donald Tusk has backed his constitutional argument but some fellow members of the bloc have criticised his tactics. Tusk has appealed to Rajoy to seek ways to avoid escalation in Catalonia and the use of force.
Brussels has in the past given little or no encouragement to separatist movements inside the EU, whether of the Catalans, Scots, Flemings or others.
Pro-independence parties who control the regional government staged the referendum in defiance of a Constitutional Court ruling that the vote violated Spain’s 1978 constitution, which states the country is indivisible.
Catalonia has its own language and culture and a political movement for secession that has strengthened in recent years.
Participants in Sunday’s ballot – only about 43% of eligible voters – opted overwhelmingly for independence, a result that was expected since residents who favour remaining part of Spain mainly boycotted the referendum.