All eyes on Puigdemont as Catalans awake to their day of destiny
Catalans wake up today to what could be a momentous day in their history as the world waits to see whether the region will proclaim its independence from Spain.
Having passed a notional deadline yesterday for when the announcement would be made, it is widely expected that Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will make a statement when he addresses the regional parliament to deliver the results of the October 1 referendum.
A spokesman for the Catalan parliament told CNN that the session will take place at 6pm central European time.
After demonstrations on Sunday in Barcelona, in which hundreds of thousands of pro-Spanish protesters took to the streets of the capital, the divide between Madrid and the regional government has shown no signs of narrowing. Spain prime minister Mariano Rajoy told Die Welt that the province would not be allowed to secede.
“Spain will not be divided, and the national unity will be preserved. To this end we will employ all the means we have within the law. It is up to the government to make decisions, and to do so at the right moment,” Rajoy said.
“We have listened to many people. I believe we know what Spaniards think, and they should know that the government too is clear about what it has to do.”
Catalonia is the economic powerhouse of Spain, making up 19 per cent of the national economy, but there are been signs that uncertainty over its future is causing a headache.
The Times reported that companies were lining up to leave the region. Abertis, a corporation that runs more than 8,000 kilometres of motorways in Europe and America and with more than 16,000 employees, stated it was likely to move its legal headquarters from Barcelona to another part of Spain.
Telecommunications group Cellnex, and Colonial, a construction company, are also likely to follow the growing exodus out of the region after executive-level discussions. Last week CaixaBank, Banco Sabadell, Spain’s fourth biggest bank, and a raft of other companies chose to move their operations from Catalonia.
The newspaper also reported growing signs of panic on the streets of Barcelona and across the region as people withdrew money from banks and began to stockpile food in case the situation turned violent during the week.
A manager at CaixaBank said that savers had withdrawn €400,000 (Dh1.7m) in one day last week, twice the amount usually available from a single branch.
“Normally any branch only holds up to €200,000 in cash, we had to request extra so these people could get all their money,” the manager told The Times. “They were putting it in Spanish banks. There was a real panic. Mine is only a small branch. Imagine what it was like in bigger branches.”
Yesterday there were more warnings for the Catalans from other European nations on the dangers of independence. France’s European affairs minister, Nathalie Loiseau, said: “If there were to be a declaration of independence, it would be unilateral, and it would not be recognised.
“Catalonia cannot be defined by the vote organised by the independence movement just over a week ago. This crisis needs to be resolved through dialogue at all levels of Spanish politics.”
She repeated the EU line that if the region seceded from Spain it would automatically leave the union and would have to reapply for membership.
“If independence were to be recognised – which is not something that’s being discussed – the most immediate consequence would be that [Catalonia] automatically left the European Union.”
The divide between Madrid and the regional government has shown no signs of narrowing