Spain yesterday moved to assert direct rule over Catalonia, replacing its executive and top officials to quash an independence drive that has pushed the country into uncharted waters and sent shockwaves through Europe.
As thousands rallied in Madrid in support for Spanish unity, a government notice officially deposed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his deputy, Oriol Junqueras.
The announcement placed Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria in charge of administering the region.
Photo: Bloomberg
It is the first time the Spanish central government has curtailed autonomy in the region since Spanish General Francisco Franco’s repressive 1939-to-1975 rule.
Madrid also fired regional police chief Josep Lluis Trapero, seen as an ally of Catalonia’s separatist leaders, and put the Spanish Ministry of the Interior in charge of his department in a move likely to further escalate tensions in Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.
A day after Catalan lawmakers voted to break with Spain, the regional and national flags still fluttered side by side over the seat of the Generalitat, the name for the regional government.
The streets of Barcelona were largely empty after a night of firework-lit celebrations, and security was reinforced around the regional headquarters of the national police.
About 3,000 people gathered on Madrid’s central Plaza Colon, waving the Spanish flag as loudspeakers blared the popular song Y Viva Espana (“Long Live Spain”).
A small child was pushed by its father in a buggy sporting a sign proclaiming: “Together” and some in the crowd wave placards calling for Puigdemont to be jailed.
“It is a shame what happened in Catalonia,” said anti-secessionist protester Carlos Fernandez, a 41-year-old mining engineer.
Moving to quash what he termed an “escalation of disobedience,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy responded to Friday’s Catalan vote by assuming sweeping powers granted to him by the Spanish Senate under a never-before-used constitutional article designed to rein in rebels among Spain’s 17 regions.
He fired the Catalan government and parliament and called Dec. 21 elections to replace them.
On Saturday, Rajoy added Trapero, the highest-ranking officer in the Mossos d’Esquadra police force, to the list of heads to roll.
Trapero is accused by Madrid of disobeying court orders to block a banned Oct. 1 independence referendum.
Instead, the ballot was disrupted, sometimes violently, by officers from Spain’s national police and Guardia Civil paramilitary forces.
All eyes this weekend are to be on whether Puigdemont and his team will willingly step aside for caretaker envoys from Madrid. Puigdemont has not spoken out publicly since Rajoy’s announcement.
Saenz de Santamaria was due yesterday to meet with secretaries of state who will likely take charge of Catalonia’s regional ministries.
The move to usurp Catalonia’s wide-ranging powers is likely to anger many in the region of about 7.5 million people that enjoyed considerable autonomy, with control over education, healthcare and police.
Independence supporters have said they will resist the temporary measures.
“We won’t cave in to Rajoy’s authoritarianism nor to 155,” the far-left CUP party, a Puigdemont ally, tweeted on Friday.
Summarizing widely held fears, Federico Santi, Europe analyst at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said the crisis could become violent, with “more serious clashes between national police and pro-independence activists.”
The Spanish government has received unwavering support from the US and its allies in the EU.
The EU is increasingly wary of nationalistic and secessionist sentiment, particularly after Britain’s dramatic decision last year to leave the bloc.
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