Ousted leader calls for peaceful defiance
BARCELONA, Spain — In a defiant message, Catalonia’s ousted leader, Carles Puigdemont, called Saturday for Catalans to unite in peaceful “democratic opposition” after the Spanish central government took control of the restive region — an act Puigdemont called “premeditated aggression.”
Puigdemont said in a televised address that “our will is to continue to work to meet our democratic mandates,” in an indication that his government may attempt to ignore its dismissal and, in effect, create two competing administrations.
He spoke a day after Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, fired him and the entire Catalan Cabinet and set a date for new regional elections.
Madrid’s hard-line stance was announced shortly after regional lawmakers illegally declared an independent republic, setting up a showdown that escalated the biggest political crisis the country has faced in decades.
On Saturday, a day after the Spanish Senate voted to give Rajoy emergency powers under Article 155 of Spain’s Constitution to end the secessionism drive, the full force of the national government’s actions went into effect. Madrid took control of Catalonia’s government, and Spain’s deputy prime minister will take over the Catalan administration from Madrid.
Dozens of other Catalan officials were expected to be fired, but Enric Millo, the current representative of the central government in Catalonia, said that he expected Madrid to make “the minimum possible” staff changes.
Puigdemont insisted that Rajoy was removing a democratically elected government.
“These are decisions contrary to the will expressed by the citizens of our country at the ballot boxes,” he said. He added that the central government in Madrid “knows perfectly well that, in a democratic society, it is the parliaments that choose or remove presidents.”
On Friday, Rajoy announced that new Catalan elections would be held on Dec. 21, the earliest possible date, in an apparent bid to show frustrated Catalans that Madrid wanted to avoid prolonging a constitutional crisis.
Spain’s attorney general is expected to take legal action against Puigdemont and other leading separatists Monday, possibly on grounds of rebellion, which carries a prison sentence of as long as 30 years.
Joan Queralt, a professor of criminal law at the University of Barcelona, said he expected the attorney general to act forcefully.
“One thing is what the law says and another is how far the government can act,” Queralt said. “I’ve got the feeling that the attorney general will do whatever he wants, just as happens when governments deal with terrorists.”