Spain threatens to arrest 700 Catalan mayors over separatist vote
‘If anyone urges you to go to a polling station, don’t go, because the referendum can’t take place’
SPAIN’S public prosecutor has ordered a criminal probe of more than 700 Catalan mayors who are co-operating with an Oct 1 independence referendum deemed illegal by Madrid.
The move increases the pressure on Catalan officials just one day before the pro-separatist camp officially kicks off its referendum campaign in the Mediterranean port of Tarragona.
The prosecutor’s office ordered that mayors who have agreed to help stage the vote be summoned to court as official suspects and if they do not appear to “order their arrest”, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by AFP.
Catalonia’s pro-separatist government has asked the wealthy northeastern region’s 948 mayors to provide facilities for polling stations. So far, 712 have agreed to participate, according to Catalonia’s Municipal Association for Independence (AMI).
“They can arrest us, they’re crazy!” said David Rovira, the pro-separatist mayor of L’espluga de Francoli, a town of some 3,800 residents.
Joan Rabasseda, the separatist mayor of Arenys de Munt, which in 2009 became the first town in Catalonia to hold a symbolic independence referendum, said he was simply “obeying” the law calling the referendum which was passed by Catalonia’s regional parliament. “Obviously I don’t like these threats…i have a family,” he added.
Yesterday’s ruling comes a day after prosecutors ordered police to seize ballot boxes, election flyers and any other item that could be used in the referendum. Prosecutors have already launched an official complaint against Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont and members of his government, accusing them of civil disobedience, misfeasance and misappropriation of public funds – the latter carrying jail sentences of up to eight years.
Mariano Rajoy’s conservative central government has vowed to do all in its power to stop the referendum. It argues Spain’s 1978 constitution stipulates that regional governments cannot call an independence referendum.
Spain’s Constitutional Court has suspended a referendum law that was fast-tracked through Catalonia’s regional parliament last week but the Catalan government has vowed to go ahead with the referendum.
Rajoy, the prime minister, yesterday told Catalans: “If anyone urges you to go to a polling station, don’t go, because the referendum can’t take place, it would be an absolutely illegal act.”
Opinion polls show that Catalans are evenly divided over independence, but more than 70 per cent want a referendum to take place to settle the matter.