Catalan separatists Monday threatened "mass civil disobedience" if Madrid carries out threats to depose their leaders, as tensions mounted over a bid to sever the region from Spain. Attitudes hardened at the start of a make-or-break week for Spain's deepest political crisis in decades, with firefighters, teachers and students also warning of strikes and protests.
Madrid stood firm on its plans to replace the government of the semi-autonomous region whose inhabitants voted "Yes" in a banned independence referendum on October 1. Catalonia's separatist parties, in turn, called a special session of the regional parliament for Thursday to devise a response.
Observers fear this may amount to a unilateral declaration of independence that will spark unrest in the wealthy, northeastern territory and further afield.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his team may be out of their jobs as soon as this weekend, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria insisted.
A meeting of the Senate, in which Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party holds a majority, is expected to officially suspend the territory's limited self-rule by Friday. "He (Puigdemont) will no longer be able to sign anything, he will no longer be able to take decisions, he will no longer receive a salary," Saenz de Santamaria told radio Onda Cero. 'Institutional violence'
Madrid's post-referendum clampdown prompted the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), which backs Puigdemont's coalition, to accuse Madrid of the "biggest assault" on the Catalan people since Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Franco - who ruled from 1939 until 1975 - suppressed Catalonia's autonomy, language and culture. "This assault will receive a response in the form of massive civil disobedience," warned the CUP, a key regional power broker.
Lluis Corominas, spokesman of the Together for Yes ruling coalition, branded the Spanish response "a case of unprecedented institutional violence. "Spain... is not a democracy. Spain is acting like a dictatorship," he told journalists in Barcelona. "They impose the laws upon us through judges and prosecutors, they impose the law upon us through the police. We have been occupied for weeks. They want to scare us, with the police, with the justice, with charges for sedition, charges for rebellion."
To stop Catalonia breaking away, Madrid will rely on never-before-used powers in an article of the constitution meant to safeguard "the general interests of Spain". Until now, the region controlled its own policing, education and healthcare, but discontent has grown since the economic crisis by Catalans demanding more control over their own finances.
Madrid could wrest away control of the Catalan police force, replace the heads of its public news outlets, and take over the entirety of the regional government's finances. But analysts say Madrid faces an uphill battle, especially if the regional government refuses to step down, and civil servants defy orders from central authorities.
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