Story highlights
- Spanish PM Rajoy outlined his plan to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy
- Nearly half a million people marched against the measures in Barcelona
On Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced his
plans to dissolve the Catalan parliament under a never-before-used article of the constitution, vowing to remove the region’s elected leaders as soon as possible and hold new elections.
It is the most serious threat Rajoy has made since Catalonia held an independence referendum on October 1. Madrid dismissed the vote as illegal but Catalan leaders saw it as a mandate to announce a split from the country.
On Saturday, nearly half a million people protested in Barcelona, Catalonia’s biggest city.
Demonstrators shouted “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” and “Rajoy, Rajoy, so you know we are leaving!”
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was among the throngs, but he stopped short of declaring independence, as he had threatened to do earlier in the week.
“The Catalan institutions and the people of Catalonia cannot accept this attack,” he said later in a televised statement, accusing Madrid of seeking the “humiliation” of the Catalan people.
“What is being done with Catalonia is directly an attack on democracy that opens the door to other abuses of the same kind anywhere, not just in Catalonia.”
Other Catalan politicians were similarly defiant. Catalan parliamentary leader Carme Forcadell accused Rajoy of “enormous political irresponsibility” that “trespassed all limits.”
“He announced a de facto coup d’etat with which he aims to take over Catalan institutions,” Forcadell said Saturday. “We will not take a step back. We were chosen by the people of this country as legitimate representatives, and as public servants we owe ourselves to them.”
Rajoy calls for new elections
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Rajoy is seeking to employ
Article 155 of the constitution, which would allow the national government to suspend the autonomy of the Catalan regional administration. Rajoy said the measure would be sent to the Spanish Senate within the week.
New elections should be called for Catalonia within six months, Rajoy said, adding that he wants it to happen as soon as possible.
Under the measures proposed Saturday by Rajoy, Puigdemont, his vice president and ministers would be suspended and replaced by the administration in Madrid, where necessary.
“The government had to enforce Article 155. It wasn’t our desire, nor our intention. It never was,” Rajoy said. “But in this situation, no government of any democratic country can accept that the law is ignored.”
In undertaking these steps, the government has four goals, Rajoy said — to return to legality; to restore normality and coexistence in Catalonia; to continue the region’s economic recovery; and to hold elections under normal conditions.
Catalan media: ‘An unacceptable attack’
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Every move Madrid has made to ward off an independence declaration, the Catalan people appear to have responded to with more vigor.
Madrid sent thousands of police into Catalonia to stop the October 1 vote, but officers were seen using what many called excessive force, dragging voters from polling stations by their hair and restraining elderly people.
And Rajoy’s announcement Saturday has been met with heightened defiance.
Catalan media reacted Sunday with editorials goading Puigdemont to declare independence soon.
The Catalan daily Diari Ara published photos of the march under the banner “Freedom,” while the daily El Punt Avui showed a photo of Rajoy in black and white overlooking the colorful protests under a the headline: “Returning to the past.” It also ran an editorial under the headline: “An unacceptable attack.”
National media presented the events differently. The national daily El País ran a front-page story under the headline: “The Government restores the Constitutional order in Catalonia” with a picture of Rajoy addressing reporters.
Nearly 7.5 million people live in Catalonia, an economic powerhouse in the northeast of Spain. Spain’s population is almost 49 million.
More than 2.25 million people turned out to vote, with the regional government reporting that 90% of voters favored a split from Madrid. But the turnout was low — around 43% of the voter roll — which Catalan officials blamed on the central government’s efforts to stop the referendum.
An independent Catalonia would be outside the European Union and its single market, which is essentially a free-trade zone.
EU leaders have backed the Madrid government in its handling of the crisis, which Rajoy insists is an internal matter.
Catalonia would also sit outside the World Trade Organization, which could have consequences for the region’s economic health.
