Direct Spanish rule to continue if exiled Catalan leader tries to govern from Belgium

 

Direct Spanish rule to continue if exiled Catalan leader tries to govern from Belgium

By
Alejandro López and Paul Mitchell

17 January 2018

Spain’s Popular Party (PP) Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has threatened to extend central government control of Catalonia if former regional premier Carles Puigdemont is reinstalled and attempts to rule from Belgium, where he is in self-imposed exile.

The new Catalan parliament meets today for the first time since the December 21 election, which saw a narrow victory for a coalition of nationalist parties. They will attempt, over the coming days, to reinstall Puigdemont as regional premier and head of a new nationalist government.

Because Puigdemont faces arrest and imprisonment on sedition and rebellion charges should he return to Spain, officials from his Together for Catalonia (JxCat) electoral alliance have suggested a swearing-in ceremony via video link from Belgium, or that someone substitutes for him in the parliament chamber.

Rajoy’s PP government, which has launched one repressive measure after another to prevent any renewal of the “independence” process, is determined to prevent this happening. Speaking at the PP National Committee on Monday, Rajoy warned that the government will appeal “immediately” to the Constitutional Court if there are attempts to swear in Puigdemont as premier while he remains in Belgium. The court would then extend the use of Article 155 of the Constitution, invoked to take control of Catalonia and depose Puigdemont’s secessionist administration after the declaration of independence on October 26.

“There is no margin to be premier at a distance, neither by delegation nor by another type of trap,” Rajoy declared, before repeating that article 155 “will remain in force until the next…

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