Spain to call fresh polls in Catalonia
PM TO FIRE GOVERNMENT; PUIGDEMONT SAYS ACTIONS DO NOT RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW
S pain announced yesterday that it will move to dismiss Catalonia’s separatist government and call fresh elections in the semiautonomous region in a bid to stop its leaders from declaring independence.
The drastic escalation of Spain’s worst political crisis in decades will see separatist leader Carles Puigdemont and his administration stripped of their jobs, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said.
Puigdemont’s threat to declare independence “has been unilateral, contrary to the law, and seeking confrontation,” said Rajoy, adding that he will seek approval from the Senate for permission to dissolve the Catalan parliament and call elections within six months.
In the meantime, the jobs of Puigdemont and his team will be carried out by Spain’s national ministers, Rajoy said.
Late yesterday, Puigdemont rejected Rajoy’s plan. The Spanish government’s actions do not respect the rule of law, he said. They are “incompatible with a democratic attitude and do not respect the rule of law,” Puigdemont said in a televised announcement, calling on the Catalan parliament to meet over the crisis. He said it was “the worst attack against the institutions and the people of Catalonia since the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco.”
Meanwhile, 450,000 people had joined a protest in Barcelona, many of them chanting the words “freedom” and “independence.
In an unexpectedly forceful attempt to stop Catalan secessionism in its tracks, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain announced yesterday that he would begin the process of removing the region’s separatist leader, Carles Puigdemont, from office.
After calling an emergency meeting of the Spanish Cabinet, Rajoy announced the process to begin taking back control of the independence-minded region by invoking Article 155 of the Spanish constitution — a broad tool that has been threatened once before but never used.
Rajoy said the Catalan government never offered real dialogue with the government in Madrid but instead tried to impose its secessionist project in violation of Spain’s constitution. He said his government was putting an end to “a unilateral process, contrary to the law and searching for confrontation” because “no government of any democratic country can accept that the law be violated, ignored and changed.”
Rajoy added, “What I have faced is something that I have never confronted in my many years in politics, but I didn’t choose my interlocutor.”
Ministries in Madrid will take over the management of the Catalan administration, including the regional police force and its public television and radio channels, while the prime minister will have the power to dissolve the regional legislature. Rajoy said he aims to trigger fresh elections within six months.
“We are going to work to return to normality,” Rajoy said at a news conference in Madrid after a cabinet meeting. “We are going to work so that all Catalans can feel united and participate in a common project in Europe and the world that has been known for centuries as Spain.”
Catalan meeting
The decisions must be ratified by a vote in the Senate. The vice president of the Spanish Senate said a session next Friday will vote on the measures.
The decision brings the Catalan crisis to a new intensity, as the prime minister seeks to put down an unprecedented constitutional rebellion with untested legal weaponry. While Rajoy has the law, most of the country and ultimately the army at his back, the Catalan separatists are counting on widespread support from regional officials and an extensive network of activists who’ve drawn up plans for guerrilla action against foreign companies and critical infrastructure.
Catalan institutions have flouted the authority of the Spanish state since legislating for a referendum on independence on September 6. Despite a series of rulings from the courts, regional officials went ahead with that vote amid a violent police crackdown, waving away complaints about widespread irregularities to declare victory.
Separatist leaders in the Catalan parliament will meet tomorrow to discuss a date for an unilateral declaration of independence, according to a person familiar with their plans. “This is a serious attack on the rights and freedoms of all people, here and everywhere,” Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who backs the Catalans right to vote, but hasn’t called for independence, said on Twitter.
Rajoy’s decision is a watershed moment for Spain and its $1.3 trillion (Dh4.7 trillion) economy, which counts on Catalonia for a fifth of its output. Hundreds of companies have already set up headquarters elsewhere in the country to avoid legal limbo and the government has cut its growth forecast for next year.