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Spain issues ultimatum to Catalan separatists
PM says region has 5 days to clarify its independence push
MADRID — Spanish authorities gave Catalonia’s separatist leader five days to explain whether his ambiguous statement on secession was a formal declaration of independence and warned Wednesday that his answer dictated whether they would apply neverused constitutional powers to curtail the region’s autonomy.
Threatening to invoke a section of the Spanish Constitution to assert control over the country’s rogue region, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said regional President Carles Puigdemont’s response to the central government’s ultimatum would be crucial in deciding “events over the coming days.”
Puigdemont announced Tuesday that he was using the victory in a banned Oct. 1 referendum to proceed with a declaration of Catalan independence, but proposed freezing its implementation for a few weeks to allow for dialogue and mediation with the government in Madrid.
His equivocal position seemed designed to appease the most fervent separatists, but also to build support —both in Catalonia and internationally — by provoking another tough response from Rajoy’s Cabinet. Spanish police used force to try to stop the referendum vote, producing images that elicited sympathy for the separatists.
Rajoy, speaking Wednesday in the national parliament in Madrid, said the referendum that Catalonia’s regional parliament and Puigdemont’s government held in violation of a court order was illegal and part of a strategy “to impose independence that few want and is good for nobody.”
The ensuing crisis, he said, was “one of the most difficult times in our recent history.”
Rajoy, whose government has been under fire for the police violence, blamed Catalan separatists for inciting recent street protests and said that “nobody can be proud of the image” Spain has projected to the rest of the world with the referendum.
Lawyers, civil society groups and politicians in Catalonia and elsewhere in Spain have offered to mediate between the sides, but the prime minister rejected the offers. He said he refused to engage in dialogue with a disobeying Catalan government.
If Puigdemont replies before Monday that he indeed proclaimed independence with his Tuesday announcement, he would have three more days to rectify the situation, according to a formal demand submitted by the central government Wednesday. That would mean abandoning implementation of the declaration Catalan separatist lawmakers signed establishing a new Catalan republic, the government said.
A refusal to backtrack or providing no response will lead Madrid to trigger Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which allows central authorities to take some or total control of any of the country’ 17 regions if they rebel or don’t comply with their legal obligations.
The warning issued Wednesday was the first step required before Rajoy’s Cabinet can invoke the article for approval from the Senate, where Rajoy’s ruling Popular Party has an absolute majority.
The measure has never been invoked during the nearly four decades since the 1978 Constitution restored democracy in postdictatorship Spain.