Spain calls for crackdown on protesters in Catalonia
SPAIN’S CENTRAL government has threatened to deploy national police to ensure security in Catalonia if regional authorities fail to stop recent disruptions by pro-independence protesters.
The warnings from officials in the centre-left cabinet of prime minister Pedro Sanchez follow the blocking of a highway that runs across Catalonia for more than 15 hours on Saturday.
Separatist groups who want Catalonia returned to protest the next day, on Sunday, allowing cars to pass through tollbooths without paying the fees.
The presence of Spain’s national police or civil guard officers in Catalonia is a highly contentious issue. Separatists regard them as “invaders”.
Last year’s independence attempt in the north-eastern region led to an unprecedented political crisis, but Catalan and Spanish authorities began talks in June when Mr Sanchez’s new centreleft administration took power.
But Spanish officials have criticised Catalan President Quim Torra, a separatist, for saying PEDRO SANCHEZ: The Spanish government has criticised Catalan leaders for response to protests.
Slovenia’s secession from Yugoslavia in 1991 was the road map for the Catalan independence movement. However, the TenDay War that followed its declaration of independence led to massive bloodshed, a fact Spanish authorities highlighted in their criticism of Mr Torra.
A Catalan government spokeswoman said Catalonia should follow its own “peaceful path” to independence while looking for “inspiration” in other countries’ experience with secession.
In the latest bout of tension, three cabinet members sent letters late on Monday urging their Catalan counterparts to explain why Catalan police force Mossos d’Esquadra, which is controlled by the regional government, did not intervene to stop protesters from blocking roads over the weekend.
“Apparently, there has been a dereliction of duties, with economic, social and public security consequences,” wrote deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo in her letter to Catalan vice president Pere Aragones.
The prosecutor’s office in Catalonia also opened an investigation into the highway disruption, mentioning that regional police at the scene “didn’t use the necessary and proportional force to reestablish public order”.
Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said in a separate letter to his Catalan counterpart that if the Mossos does not end public disorder and traffic disruptions, “the government will order an intervention of the state’s security forces”.