Secessionist allies piled pressure on Catalan President Carles Puigdemont to formally declare independence from Spain as a deadline looms for him to clarify his stance or face being stripped of his powers by the central government in Madrid.
CUP, a radical party that’s part of Puigdemont’s pro-independence coalition in the Catalan parliament, published a letter on Friday saying that the only way to protect democracy and civil rights would be to proclaim a republic. The Catalan National Assembly, a separatist civic group that organizes street protests, also called on him to go ahead with a declaration of independence.
The clock is ticking in Catalonia toward an Oct. 16 deadline set by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy that risks resulting in the suspension of self-rule from Barcelona. Rajoy, who reviewed the troops at a military parade in Madrid on Thursday to mark Spain’s national day, is turning the screws on Puigdemont as he tries to hold his coalition together in the face of threatened legal reprisals for challenging the country’s constitutional order.
“We have a very serious problem facing us which is a coup d’etat against democracy,” Rafael Hernando, the head of Rajoy’s People’s Party group in parliament, said in an interview with TV channel Antena 3 Friday. “The state has many resources to confront this challenge so that no one carves up Spain.”
Hernando said he “wasn’t very optimistic” about Puigdemont’s response because he has already taken the region to a state of confrontation that had resulted in more than 400 firms being “expelled” to other parts of Spain.
Catalan Parliament
In a speech to the Catalan parliament on Oct. 10, Puigdemont claimed the right to declare independence but stepped back from putting it into effect as he called for dialogue. Rajoy responded the next day by demanding that he clarify his position on the independence declaration or face a possible suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy from Oct.
Spain’s benchmark IBEX 35 stock index was little changed at 11:17 a. in Madrid, after losing 2.3 percent between an Oct. 1 referendum on independence illegal under Spanish law and Puigdemont’s address to lawmakers. Puigdemont must now decide whether to take the path of further confrontation with Madrid or risk losing his allies in Barcelona.
“Neither CUP nor the ANC lead the government of Catalonia,” former Catalan President Artur Mas said in an interview with regional broadcaster TV3. “There is a government and a president that have to take the decisions, the Catalan parliament is something else. The government can receive advice, recommendations, pressure, but it’s still the government that takes decisions.”
— With assistance by Thomas Gualtieri.
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