The speaker of Catalonia’s parliament called Spain’s plan to sack the autonomous region’s leaders a “coup.”

Parliament speaker brands measures ‘de facto coup d’etat’

BARCELONA, Spain — Spain announced an unprecedented plan Saturday to sack Catalonia’s separatist leaders, install its own people in their place and call a new local election, using previously untapped constitutional powers to take control of the prosperous region that is threatening to secede.

Catalonia’s president responded by making a veiled independence threat, telling lawmakers to come up with a plan to counter Spain’s “attempt to wipe out self-government.”

Even moderate Catalans were aghast at the scope of the move, greeting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s announcement with banging pots and honking cars in the streets of Barcelona, the regional capital.

In a televised address late Saturday, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont called Rajoy’s plans to replace him and his Cabinet an “attempt to humiliate” Catalonia and an “attack on democracy.”

Puigdemont called Rajoy’s move the “the worst attack” on Catalan people and institutions since Gen. Francisco Franco’s abolishment of Catalonia’s regional government in 1939.

Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, who opposes independence without a valid referendum, called Rajoy’s measures “a serious attack” on self-government in Catalonia. Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell accused Spain’s central authorities of carrying out a coup.

“Mariano Rajoy has announced a de facto coup d’etat with the goal of ousting a democratically elected government,” Forcadell said, calling it “an authoritarian blow within a member of the European Union.”

After a special Cabinet session to derail Catalonia’s independence movement, Rajoy said he wants the country’s Senate to allow central ministers to take over the jobs of all senior members of the Catalan government, including control over the regional police, finances and the public media.

Rajoy is also seeking the Senate’s approval to assume the power to call a regional election — something that only Catalonia’s top leader can do now.

In response, protesters wrapped in red-and-yellow Catalan flags flooded the streets of central Barcelona on Saturday.

About 450,000 people joined the protest, according to police.

Emilio Morenatti The Associated Press Thousands of protesters wave Catalonia independence flags as they take part in a rally Saturday in Barcelona, Spain.