Court jails two top Catalan separatists
Also, secession intent isn’t clarified
BARCELONA, Spain — Spain’s confrontation with its independence-seeking region of Catalonia intensified Monday when a judge ordered the leaders of two pro-independence groups jailed while they are investigated on possible sedition charges for organizing demonstrations before the region’s disputed secession vote.
The jailing of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the heads of grass-roots organizations Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural, sparked an immediate outcry in Barcelona, Catalonia’s capital. People banged on pots and pans, honked car horns and clapped in the streets.
The judge’s order came nearly 12 hours after a Monday morning deadline passed without the president of Catalonia clarifying whether he has declared independence from Spain.
The judge ordered Sanchez and Cuixart jailed while their roles in organizing Sept. 20-21 demonstrations in Barcelona are investigated. Spanish police arrested several Catalan officials and raided offices on those two days to prevent the referendum from taking place on Oct. 1.
In Monday’s court ruling, the Spanish National Court judge said Sanchez and Cuixart led the demonstrations, ignored some police recommendations for maintaining safety, and helped form a cordon to keep Spanish police from carrying out their duties, among other actions.
The actions of Catalonia’s police chief and a senior deputy during the September demonstrations also are being investigated. However, the judge ruled Monday that police chief Maj. Josep Lluis Trapero and Lt. Teresa Laplana could remain free with restrictions, including revocation of their passports and orders to return to court every two weeks.
Earlier, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy exchanged letters but made no headway in the conflict, one of the deepest political crises the country has faced in the four decades since democracy was restored.
Catalonia’s government held the referendum over the Spanish government’s insistence the vote was illegal and a court suspending it so its constitutionality could be considered. Those who voted were overwhelmingly in favor of secession, but fewer than half of eligible voters cast ballots.
Based on the referendum results, Puigdemont made an ambiguous declaration of independence last week, but said he would not immediately move to put it into effect to allow time for talks and mediation.
Responding to a demand from Spain’s central government to state explicitly whether he had declared independence, Puigdemont instead sent a four-page letter seeking two months of negotiations and mediation.
“The priority of my government is to intensively seek a path to dialogue,” Puigdemont said in his letter.
Rajoy’s response came less than two hours later. The conservative prime minister lamented that Puigdemont had declined to answer the question and said he has until Thursday morning to fall in line.
Otherwise, he faces the possibility of Spain activating Article 155 of the Constitution, which would allow the central government to rescind some of the powers that Catalonia has to govern itself.
“It wasn’t very difficult to say yes or no,” Rajoy’s number 2, deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, told reporters in Madrid. “That was the question that was asked and the response shouldn’t be complicated.”
Spain has repeatedly said that it’s not willing to sit down with Puigdemont if calls for independence are on the table.
Catalonia is home to 7.5 million people and contributes a fifth of Spain’s $1.3 trillion economy. Polls have shown about half of the people there don’t want to secede.
The Spanish government is lowering the country’s economic growth forecast for 2018 from 2.6 to 2.3 percent, blaming the political uncertainty in Catalonia for the slowdown.
The more modest growth target appears in the budget plan that Spain’s conservative government has submitted to European authorities. It was shared with The Associated Press early today.
In the plan, Spanish authorities also forecast a public deficit level of 2.3 percent, 0.1 percentage point higher than earlier estimates. Authorities blame the revisions both on a slower global economic cycle and less consumer spending domestically as a result of the deadlock in Catalonia.