The Spanish government is to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy and impose direct rule after the region’s president refused to abandon the push for independence that has triggered Spain’s biggest political crisis for 40 years.
The announcement of the unprecedented measure came after the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, threatened a unilateral declaration of independence if the Spanish government did not agree to talks on the issue.
In a statement on Thursday morning, the Spanish government said Puigdemont had ignored its calls to drop his independence plans and had once again failed to confirm whether independence had actually been declared.
As a result, it said, article 155 of the Spanish constitution would be invoked to begin the process of suspending the region’s self-rule.
“At an emergency meeting on Saturday, the cabinet will approve measures to be put before the senate to protect the general interest of Spaniards, including the citizens of Catalonia, and to restore constitutional order in the autonomous community,” it said.
Madrid also criticised the Catalan government for “deliberately and systematically seeking institutional confrontation, despite the serious damage it is causing to coexistence and Catalonia’s economy”.
In a letter to the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, earlier on Thursday – the deadline set by Madrid for the region to abandon its independence plans – Puigdemont said discussions were the only way to resolve the crisis.
The Catalan president accused Spanish authorities of seeking to repress the independence movement after a national court judge denied two of its leaders bail this week, and said that using article 155 would force his hand.
Although he signed a declaration of independence on 10 October, Puigdemont has proposed that its effects be suspended for two months while both sides open dialogue aimed at ending the standoff.
“The suspension [of the independence declaration] is still in place. The [Spanish] state is entitled to decide to apply article 155 if it secures the senate’s approval,” he wrote.
“But despite all our efforts and our desire for dialogue, the fact that the only reply we have been given is that autonomy will be suspended suggests that you do not understand the problem and do not wish to talk.
“If the [Spanish] government persists in hindering dialogue and continues with its repression, the Catalan parliament could, if it deems appropriate, proceed to vote on the formal declaration of independence, which it did not do on 10 October.”
Puigdemont argues the unilateral independence referendum held on 1 October – in which 90% of participants opted for independence – has given his government the mandate to forge a sovereign state. However, according to Catalan government figures, the turnout was only about 43%.
Senior European officials have so far insisted that the secession issue is an internal matter for Spain, and limited their interventions to calls for dialogue.
Speaking at the European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday, however, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the event would be “marked by a message of unity around member states amid the crises they could face; unity around Spain”.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, also backed the Spanish government’s position, saying: “We hope there are solutions found on the basis of the Spanish constitution.”
According to article 155, which has never been used, the Spanish government will need to submit its proposals to the senate for debate and approval. As a result, it will be at least a few days before concrete steps are taken.
A Spanish government spokesman said this week that article 155 had been designed not to remove Catalonia’s autonomy, but to ensure its autonomous government adhered to the law.
“We have envisaged a range of scenarios and will apply 155 accordingly,” he said. “It’s not a question of applying it in its entirety or of taking over every government function or department. Clearly the Catalan government would lose many of its powers, though not all. It’s a case of using a scalpel, not an axe.”
Its application could still be avoided in theory if the Catalan government were to call a snap regional election without confirming independence. But on Wednesday, the Catalan foreign minister, Raül Romeva, said: “Elections from our perspective are not an option.”
Rajoy issued a last-minute call on Wednesday for Puigdemont to calm the situation and act in the interests of all Spaniards and Catalans. Speaking in parliament, he asked the Catalan president’s colleagues to persuade him “not to make any more problems” that would “oblige the government to make decisions that would be better never to make”.
Tensions in the already fraught impasse rose further this week after a judge at Spain’s national court denied bail to two prominent Catalan independence leaders who are being investigated for alleged sedition.
Jordi Sánchez, the president of the Catalan national assembly (ANC), and Jordi Cuixart, the president of the Catalan association Òmnium Cultural, are accused of using huge demonstrations to try to prevent Spanish police officers from following a judge’s orders to halt the referendum.
Their detention prompted large protests across Catalonia on Tuesday. Spain’s constitutional court announced on the same day that it had annulled the Catalan law paving the way for the referendum, saying the right to “promote and enact the unilateral secession” of a part of the country was not recognised in the Spanish constitution.
According to the Catalan government, about 2.3 million of Catalonia’s 5.3 million registered voters took part in the referendum. It says 770,000 votes were lost after Spanish police stepped in to try to halt the vote.
