If Article 155 is triggered Thursday its effects would not be felt for several days due to it requiring approval from the upper house of parliament, the Senate.
Rajoy would have to submit a list to the Upper House detailing the specific actions that the government is planning to take under Article 155. This list is also sent to a separate committee within the Senate that deals with autonomous communities, like Catalonia, before finally being debated by the Senate. A majority is then required to approve the proposals the Spanish government has suggested. Currently, Rajoy’s People’s Party has a majority in the Upper House meaning the proposals should pass.
Article 155 has never been invoked before so its effects — and how exactly the Spanish government would implement direct rule — are unknown.
Teresa Giménez Barbat, a founding member of Ciudadanos, a party allied with Rajoy’s People’s Party and against Catalan independence, told CNBC that Article 155 was the only option.
“The Catalan government has hijacked the institutions in Catalonia. And the solution is to trigger Article 155 of the Constitution and to organize new elections to have new representatives with a clear transparent election that change the scenario in Catalonia and we can then initiate dialogue with everybody.”
Javi Lopez, member of the European Parliament and member of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (the PSC), the Socialist party in the region which backs the Rajoy government and does not support independence, told CNBC Thursday that snap elections were needed.
“If the Catalan government doesn’t give this answer (on independence) then the Spanish government probably has to force, with Article 15, snap elections in Catalonia … The political problem will be there after elections but the point is to force the elections and have new actors and to start dialogue to have constitutional reforms from Spain,” he said.
