Spanish PM to halt Catalan separatists

The Spanish government has secured opposition support to dissolve Catalonia's parliament and hold new elections there to defuse a push for independence.

کد خبر: ۷۴۰۲۷۴

تاریخ: ۲۹ مهر ۱۳۹۶ - ۰۸:۳۶

Spain's prime minister says his government will unveil specific measures to halt Catalonia's independence bid but refused to confirm if that included plans to hold a regional election in January.

The opposition Socialists are supporting the conservative government's effort to rein in the country's deepest political crisis in decades.

The Socialists' main negotiator, Carmen Calvo, said earlier on Friday that an early election in the prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia had been agreed upon as part of the deal.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, commenting on the unprecedented constitutional step his government is taking to assume control of Catalonia, said on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Brussels that "the goal is double: the return to legality and the recovery of institutional normalcy".

The move is likely to further inflame tensions between Spain and Catalonia's pro-independence activists.

Catalonia's government says it has the mandate to secede from Spain after it held a disputed referendum on October 1. It certainly does not want a new regional election.

The central government will hold a special Cabinet session on Saturday to begin activating Article 155 of Spain's 1978 Constitution, which lets central authorities take over all or some of the powers of any of the country's 17 autonomous regions.

The measure, which has never been used since democracy was restored after General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, needs to be approved by the Senate.

Rajoy's conservative Popular Party has an absolute majority in the Senate, so it should pass easily as early as October 27.

King Felipe VI, meanwhile, threw his weight behind efforts to block Catalan independence, saying at a public event on Friday night that Catalonia "is and will be an essential part" of Spain.

"Spain will deal with this unacceptable attempt at secession by using the Constitution," Felipe said in a speech in Oviedo, in northern Spain's Asturias region.