Foreign Affairs

Spain Moves To Suspend Independent Catalonian Government

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Spanish leaders met Saturday to discuss invoking constitutional powers that would allow the central government to seize control of Catalonia, a breakaway region that voted for independence earlier this month.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he is willing to apply Article 155 of Spain’s 1978 constitution, an unprecedented move that would revoke Catalonia’s autonomy and remove its elected officials.

In a statement released Saturday, the government said it will ask the Spanish senate to implement Article 155 next Friday, due to Catalonia’s “flagrant, obstinate and deliberate noncompliance” with its constitutional obligations. The government said that Catalonia carried out its secession campaign with “rebel, systematic and conscious disobedience.”

Catalonian separatists staged an Oct. 1 referendum, deemed illegal by Spain, in which more than 2 million people voted for independence. Led by regional president Carles Puigdemont, the Catalonian government initially declared independence but later said it was willing to begin talks with the central government.

After a meeting with his cabinet Saturday, Rajoy said he wants the senate to give him authority to dissolve the regional Catalan government and institute new elections as early as January, reports the Associated Press. In the meantime, central government ministers would “restore order” and assume the powers of Catalonian officials, Rajoy said.

Catalonia already enjoys considerable autonomy, with control of its own health care, education and regional police ministries. Madrid has said it might seek to take over the Catalan police force, Mossos D’Esquadra, as well as regional finance and interior ministries.

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