Over the weekend, the Spanish government moved to assert direct rule over Catalonia. This followed Madrid’s announcement on Friday that it would apply Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to seize Catalonia, dissolve its parliament and hold new elections. With Catalan nationalist officials in Barcelona announcing plans to defy Madrid after declaring independence on Friday, a crackdown by the Spanish[Read More…]

Before the two-day debate opening today in the Spanish Senate on implementing Article 155 of the Spanish constitution to strip the Catalan regional government of its powers, Catalan officials signalled yesterday that they plan to declare independence from Spain. The invocation of Article 155 had been decided by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s cabinet on Saturday. It would install an unelected[Read More…]

There are numerous unconfirmed reports of troops being sent to Catalonia and nearby regions ahead of a possible unilateral declaration on independence early next week. Spain’s political establishment is openly talking of invoking Article 116 of the Spanish constitution, laying the basis for the imposition of martial law. According to military sources cited in the right-wing newspaper OkDiario, troops are being[Read More…]