Catalan crisis

Sturgeon urges talks as Spain moves to seize power

SPAIN’S prime minister Mariano Rajoy plans to dissolve the regional Catalan government and call an election in a move seen to be a thinly-veiled attempt to remove the pro-independence leader Carles Puigdemont from power. Rajoy wants the country’s senate to give him direct control as soon as possible so that he can “restore order” in Catalonia following a referendum on October 1 which saw Spanish police violently try to stop people voting.

Last night, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the standoff “can only be resolved through dialogue” and insisted the people of Catalonia should be permitted to “determine their own future”. Catalan authorities said around 90 per cent of voters backed independence, on a turnout of 43 per cent, prompting Puigdemont to begin a process towards secession. Spain’s Supreme Court had declared the vote illegal and unconstitutional.

On October 10, Puigdemont signed and then suspended a declaration of Catalan independence, calling on Rajoy to enter into talks. Speaking after a cabinet meeting yesterday, Rajoy said the government had no choice but to seek direct rule, insisting the Catalan government’s actions were “contrary to the law and seeking confrontation”.

He is proposing that the powers of Catalan officials be taken over by central government ministers. Rajoy is activating a previously untapped constitutional article to take control of the region, as well as its 16,000-strong police force.

The speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell, called the measures a “de facto coup d’etat” She said: “It is an authoritarian coup inside a member state of the European Union,” adding that Rajoy intended to “put an end to a democratically elected government”.

Josep Lluís Cleries, a Catalan senator, said Rajoy’s decision showed that “the Spain of today is not democratic because what he has said is a return to the year 1975”, referring to the year former dictator General Francisco Franco died.

Oriol Junqueras, the region’s deputy leader, said that Catalonia was “facing totalitarianism” and called on citizens to join yesterday’s protest in Barcelona. Article 155 of the Spanish constitution allows for direct rule over semi-autonomous regions in a crisis but it has never been used in democratic Spain.

It states that Spain’s central government can “take necessary measures” to force a regional government to comply if it “acts in a way that seriously threatens the general interest of Spain”. Like Scotland’s Parliament, Catalonia’s semi-autonomous assembly is in charge of major policy areas such as policing, education and healthcare. Speaking to the Sunday Herald last night, Nicola Sturgeon said: “The latest developments have again demonstrated that the situation in Catalonia can only be resolved through dialogue. The Spanish government should sit down with the government of Catalonia and identify a way to resolve this matter which respects both democracy and the rule of law, while allowing the people of Catalonia to determine their own future.”

SNP MSP Christina McKelvie said Rajoy’s move “should be a siren call to all autonomous or semi-autonomous areas in the EU”.

The Scottish Greens passed an “emergency motion” at its conference yesterday condemning violence against voters in Catalonia. Co-convener Maggie Chapman said: “The Spanish state sent out its police to beat up voters. It shouldn’t be happening in Catalonia, it shouldn’t be done in Europe, it shouldn’t be done anywhere.”

If Rajoy’s plans get the go-ahead, regional elections are expected to be held in January. The prime minister’s conservative Popular Party holds a majority in the senate, meaning the proposals are likely to pass.

In the streets of Barcelona, demonstrators banging pots and pans and honking cars greeted Rajoy’s announcement.