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posted by Fnord666 on Friday October 20 2017, @02:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-said-no dept.

After Catalonia's leader missed a deadline to clarify the government's stance on an independence referendum, and missed another deadline (Thursday calling for an unambiguous renouncement of the independence referendum, the Spanish government plans to strip Catalonia of its autonomous status:

Spain was preparing to impose direct rule over semi-autonomous Catalonia after the region's leader Carles Puigdemont declined to categorically renounce an independence referendum, the prime minister's office announced Thursday.

Spain's government said it would hold a special Cabinet meeting and "approve the measures that will be sent to the Senate to protect the general interest of all Spaniards."

At the Cabinet meeting, the government would invoke Article 155 of Spain's constitution allowing it to strip Catalonia of its self-governance. That would take effect on Saturday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's office said in a statement.

Madrid had given Puigdemont a 10 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) deadline to clarify his government's stance on a non-binding declaration of independence passed by the regional legislature following a successful referendum on secession. But the Catalan leader insisted on keeping his options open, but that wasn't good enough for Spain's government, which had insisted on an unambiguous "no."

Bloomberg reports "Merkel and Macron Have Spain's Back as Catalan Crisis Escalates":

European Union leaders offered their support for Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he prepares to suspend the powers of the Catalan administration to clamp down on its push for independence. EU chiefs arriving for a summit in Brussels on Thursday said they backed Madrid and stressed that the issue of Catalonia's independence was a domestic one for Spain.

"We're looking at this very closely and support the position of the Spanish government, which is also a position that's been adopted across parties," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Of course this preoccupies us, and we hope that there can be a resolution on the basis of the Spanish constitution." Asked whether he supported the Spanish government, French President Emmanuel Macron said "always," adding that "this summit will be marked by a message of unity of its members in regards to Spain."

Also at BBC, The Guardian, and EUObserver (opinion).

Previously: Spain Trying to Stop Catalonia Independence Referendum
Police and Voters Clash During Catalan Independence Referendum


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 20 2017, @04:04PM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday October 20 2017, @04:04PM (#585275) Journal

    I agree. The EU is muffing it as badly as Madrid has.

    Madrid should have done as the UK did with the Scottish referendum. Polls showed most Scots wanted to remain in the UK, and that's how the vote turned out. Polls in Spain showed most Catalans wanted to stay in Spain, and Madrid should have let that be realized. It would have put the issue of independence off for at least a generation. By taking a hard line and trying to prevent the vote from happening, they only effectively suppressed the vote of people who wanted to remain and inflamed many others who had been on the fence to break hard for independence.

    Now the EU is compounding the error by taking sides. That's significant, because the Catalans bidding for independence were only anti-Spain, while being pro-EU. They want to be in the EU and continue as part of that community. Now that the EU has sided with Madrid, they've driven a wedge between the body and the regional independence movements. Instead of ensuring a future for the EU as a unifying force, Brussels is practically guaranteeing now that it will fail.

    European identity continues to evolve, as it always has (most people forget now that there used to be no thing as "Germany," only a collection of independent, Germanic states like Prussia, Bavaria, and so on), and the EU should get with the times or fall apart.

    An EU with Catalonia, the Basque Country, Lombardy, Brittany, Provence, Flanders, Wallonia, and other smaller states among its members would do fine. An EU pockmarked with those states missing would quickly undermine everything it's been trying to achieve.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 20 2017, @05:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 20 2017, @05:48PM (#585346)

    EU is just revealing itself for what it was, a giant wolf in sheep's clothing. The days of EU are numbered, whatever they say is really not relevant.

  • (Score: 1) by GDX on Friday October 20 2017, @11:16PM (1 child)

    by GDX (1950) on Friday October 20 2017, @11:16PM (#585470)

    The Spanish government don't have the authority to authorize the referendum, this authorize is in the parliament and the senate and the Catalonia government didn't want to follow the proper procedure for the authorization. And for the anti Spain sentiment that was hammered in majority of independentists through an controlled TV channel group and a education akin to the one during the Nazi Germany (they even tell children to go to protest and take note of does that don't do it, plus is common to discriminate in class those that are not nationalist with active promotion of this behavior by teachers).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @04:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @04:03PM (#585687)

      No, that kind of referendum is unconstitutional. The only alternative is a constitutional reform.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:55AM (#585508)

    They are a mix. Some are Pro-EU (JxSi), and some are Anti-EU (CUP). So they will split from Spain.. and then split again over to EU or not EU. Catalan Civil War.

    In reality, they are all a bunch of wanna be kings, to rule on their own, and people are just pawns.