Catalan rebels cling to power
CATALANS turned out in record numbers to vote for independence again yesterday, figures showed.
Separatist parties looked to have gained a majority in the area’s parliament in a snap election designed to resolve a consitutional crisis.
Voters dealt a massive bodyblow to the Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy – whose party finished dead last – and even defied a terror alert in the main city of Barcelona.
With 90 per cent of votes counted, the three secessionist parties together have won enough votes for 70 seats in the 135- seat assembly. This gives them the chance to form a regional government, nearly two months after Spain dismissed the previous one.
It puts pro- independence leader Carles Puigdemont back on track to regain the leadership of the country’s northeastern region.
Last night, it was reported that Barcelona was on ‘lockdown’ over fears of a terror attack in the city. According to Spanish newspaper website La Gaceta, Spanish national police released a warning that they had intelligence on a plot involving a knife attack.
Details of terror suspect El Ouakili Abdelhakim, a French national living in Germany, were released after reports he had been searching jihadist websites and that ‘he could find himself conceiving some type of terrorist act in Barcelona’. Sources said the was evidence the suspect, 37, had been seen entering the city and that ‘there is information that this individual is going to attack with a knife’.
Mr Rajoy had called the election in the hope that separatist parties would be losing steam and that the poll would return Catalonia to what he has called ‘normality’ under a unionist government – or with a separatist government that will not seek a unilateral split. The Spanish government had tried to resolve the constitutional crisis triggered after Catalonia illegally declared independence from Spain.
Mr Puigdemont was deposed two months ago. He fled to Brussels, where he has remained, and others in his government have been jailed.
Last night he said he would return if the vote went his way – despite Spain having an arrest warrant out for him.
He urged voters from his self-imposed exile: ‘Today we will demonstrate the strength of an irrepressible people. Let the spirit of October 1 guide us always.’
Catalan authorities said a record 86 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, a total of 4.5 million people.
The atmosphere was one of peace, in contrast to the October 1 referendum, when police fired rubber bullets and wielded truncheons to prevent people voting in the illegal ballot.