Spain orders Catalan police to arrest mayors

Referendum: Madrid raises stakes in standoff with Barcelona

Spain’s top prosecutor is investigating more than 700 Catalan mayors for cooperating with a planned referendum on the region’s independence after the nation’s constitutional court ordered the vote to be put on hold.

Catalonia’s regional police force is under orders to arrest the mayors if they refuse to appear for questioning, state prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza’s office said.

The announcement significantly raised the stakes in an increasingly tense standoff between Catalan independence supporters and national authorities over the referendum planned for October 1.

If mayors and their municipalities cannot help organise balloting, the vote is unlikely to proceed.

Mr Maza’s order also puts regional police officers in the uneasy position of carrying out commands from Madrid in their towns and cities.

The pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia has vowed to hold the referendum, defying a prohibition by Spain’s constitutional court. It has asked the 947 mayors in the north-eastern region to provide voting facilities.

Mr Maza ordered the prosecutors in Spain’s 17 provinces to investigate the 712 mayors who already have offered to provide municipal premises as polling stations.

Most of Catalonia’s mayors have said they would co-operate with the referendum.

However, the willing mayors represent less than half of the region’s votingage population.

Urban support is key for the pro-independence movement, especially the Catalan capital of Barcelona, which is home to around 20% of voters.

Barcelona mayor Ana Colau, who opposes secession but supports a vote, says she wants to help arrange the referendum but will not do so without assurances that she and her staff would be acting legally.

Such assurance is un- likely to materialise, and without Barcelona’s participation, the referendum would lack legitimacy.

Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, appealed to 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.”

Spain’s King Felipe VI also entered the fray, vowing that the Spanish constitution “will prevail” over any attempt to break the country apart.