The government in a meeting of crisis to take control of Catalonia

AFP

AFP

Saturday, 21 October, 2017 05:53

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Saturday, 21 October, 2017 05:53

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The Spanish government met Saturday to decide how to regain control of the autonomous region of Catalonia moves to secession, after having received support, blazing of king Felipe VI, and the european Union.

The king of Spain intervened in this crisis, the worst that has crossed its country since the end of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in 1975, ensuring on Friday that the State can deal with this “attempt unacceptable to secession (…) with its democratic institutions as legitimate”.

“We do not want to give up what we have built together”, said the sovereign on the occasion of the awarding of the Prize Princess of the Asturias, of which the european Union was one of the winners.

An extraordinary council of ministers began shortly after 10 p.m. local time to decide what skills to remove to Catalonia, in application of article ever yet used in the 1978 Constitution.

The conservative head of government, Mariano Rajoy would unveil by mid-day the measures he has extensively negotiated with the socialist Party (PSOE), the main opposition force, and its allies in the centrist of Ciudadanos.

They will then be submitted to the Senate for approval, expected by the end of October.

Logically, Madrid should take the control of the regional police, the Mossos d’esquadra, whose leader has been charged with sedition for not having prevented a self-determination referendum on the 1st of October.

The daily El Pais believes Saturday that the government will also remove all of the executive catalan and convene elections as soon as possible, perhaps as early as January, in Catalonia.

Risk of popular mobilisation

All are aware of the popular mobilization that may lead to the suspension of the prerogatives of a region very jealous of its autonomy, even if the population is divided on the question of independence.

A big demonstration was planned for 17 h to Barcelona to demand the release of two separatist leaders.

Also Madrid he insists on the fact that these measures will be limited, provisional, and should lead to short-term on new regional elections. The PSOE would like to organize at the end of January.

Ordered to return to legality, the head of the government of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont, on the contrary, threatened to officially proclaim the independence of this region of 7.5 million people, if its autonomy was suspended.

Mr. Puigdemont and his firm pro-independence claim to have a mandate for secession, after organizing a referendum of self-determination is forbidden by justice.

According to them, more than two million Catalans, representing 43% of the electorate, have voted 90 % yes to independence in spite of interventions, sometimes of a violent nature the police to stop them.

After this election, Mr. Puigdemont, had made a statement that is ambiguous on the independence, announcing immediately that he suspended the effects.

But it is the catalan Parliament, where it has with its allies short of an absolute majority of 72 seats out of 135, which is expected to officially proclaim the “Republic of Catalonia “.

This same assembly was triggered as early as November 2015 the process of rupture with Spain, the objective being to establish an independent republic at the latest in 2017, announcing that it no longer acknowledged the decisions of the constitutional Court.

“Chaos spiral”

The wing lasted from the coalition pushes Carles Puigdemont to consume the rupture, but the former journalist 54-year-old topped the Beatles timer in front of the economic impact of the crisis and the lack of support abroad.

France and Germany have strongly condemned its efforts in view of the secession and the EU repeated that it would not recognize the independence of Catalonia, which would automatically the Union.

On the occasion of the Awards ceremony as a Princess of the Asturias in Oviedo, in the north-west of Spain, the president of the european Parliament, Antonio Tajani, has denounced with virulence those who “sow discord (and) ignore the laws”, in an allusion transparent to the leaders catalans who challenge the State for the past two years.

“Too often in the past the prospect of changing borders was presented as a panacea divine and is transformed into a chaos spiral”, he warned.

Led by the two largest banks in the Catalan Caixabank and Sabadell, nearly 1,200 companies have transferred their headquarters outside Catalonia, investments are suspended, and the hotel bookings have fallen in the region Spain’s most popular tourist.

The separatist leaders promised for years to their voters that an independent Catalonia would be recognized by the EU and prosper as long as it would pay more in taxes to Madrid.