Daily Mirror

Madrid has won early battles but the war is still on

- BY JASON BEATTIE, HEAD OF POLITICS

PRO-independen­ce Catalans used to chant they would never concede a “hand” of space to Madrid. Yesterday they gave up several arms’ lengths of ground.

Carles Puigdemont fled, the mass show of defiance by Catalan civil servants never materialis­ed and a planned general strike was called off. A series of setbacks has taken the wind out of the sails of the pro-independen­ce movement.

Pro-Spanish papers gloated yesterday the Catalans have taken a “cold bath”. Madrid is winning the initial battles but this does not mean it has won the war. At the Catalan elections ordered by Madrid there might be a surge of support for pro-independen­ce parties which could then claim a fresh mandate for change.

And Puigdemont could turn from fugitive to a kind of martyr if the courts pursue charges against him.

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