Catalonia’s ill-fated bid for independence from Spain

On October 1, the Spanish region of Catalonia held a controversial referendum on independence. Before the vote took place, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled the vote illegal and sent in the national guard to stop it from happening. Despite government opposition, the vote was held, and clashes between voters and police ensued.

Ninety percent of the participants voted in favor of independence, but public surveys say that current support for independence in Catalonia is only 41 percent.

The ousted president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, has apparently fled to Belgium in the wake of the Spanish region’s disastrous bid for independence — just hours after Spanish Attorney General José Manuel Maza called for charges to be filed against Catalonia’s secessionist leaders for sedition and rebellion. If convicted, Puigdemont and his colleagues could face up to 30 years in jail.

Speaking from Brussels on Tuesday morning, Puigdemont spoke to the world in his first major address since Catalonia declared independence from Spain last Friday, throwing the region into chaos. “I am not here to demand political asylum,” Puigdemont told a crowd of reporters at a raucous press conference. “I am here in Brussels as the capital of Europe. I am here in order to act with freedom and safety.”

Friday morning, the regional parliament in the Catalan region of Spain overwhelmingly voted for independence, throwing Spain into the biggest constitutional crisis in its 40-year democratic history.

Under Spanish national law, the vote has made secessionist parliamentarians vulnerable to arrest for sedition. Immediately following the vote, the Spanish parliament in Madrid voted to strip the Catalan regional government of its powers, invoking a never-before-used article of the constitution — Article 155 — which allows Madrid to dissolve the autonomy of a region if the unity of Spain is deemed at risk.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced Saturday that he would set in motion a process to strip Catalonia of its leadership, relieving the regional President Carles Puigdemont of his position. Rajoy will ask the Spanish parliament to dissolve the Catalan parliament and Catalonia will then be asked to hold new elections in the region.

“This is not a suspension of home rule but the dismissal of those who lead the regional government,” Rajoy said.

Spain is bent on stopping a secessionist movement by any means necessary, and made moves Thursday to crush a long-simmering independence bid from Catalan separatists.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced in Madrid on Thursday that the parliament would meet Saturday to begin stripping Catalonia — one of Spain’s wealthiest regions, anchored by Barcelona — of autonomous rule. It is an unprecedented moment for Spain, and the worst political and constitutional crisis the country has seen in four decades. It is also sure to set off a fresh wave of protests and anger in a region already on edge.

The man at the center of the political crisis ripping apart Spain has just attempted to pull off the impossible: both declaring that his native Catalonia has the right to secede from Spain and then immediately making clear that he wouldn’t actually be seceding. Instead, he asked to negotiate with the Spanish central government before demanding independence.

The comments from Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on Tuesday stopped short of the full and unilateral declaration of independence that had been expected since part of his region overwhelmingly voted to break away from Spain earlier this month in a highly controversial independence referendum. Instead, Puigdemont said he was willing to meet with the central government in Madrid “to start dialogue,” and “to arrive at an agreed solution to advance with the demands of the people of Catalonia.”

Residents of Spain’s wealthiest region, Catalonia, who want to remain Spanish and oppose the idea of an independent Catalan nation have long been called the silent majority.

They aren’t quiet now. With Catalan secessionist politicians dangling the possibility of a unilateral declaration of independence on Tuesday, more than 350,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona over the weekend to make clear that they want to remain part of Spain. Protesters waved the Spanish red-and-yellow flag and carried banners emblazoned with the phrase “Let’s get back to common sense” and words like “No to separatism. We are the majority.”

Spain’s wealthiest region held a controversial independence referendum on Sunday that has plunged the country into political chaos — and sparked outright violence.

Catalonia, which has its own distinct culture, history, and language, constitutes about 16 percent of Spain’s population but accounts for roughly 19 percent of Spain’s gross domestic product. For decades, many Catalans (as people from the region are known) have pushed to secede from Spain and create their own independent country.

Two million voters in Catalonia, one of the wealthiest provinces in Spain, voted on Sunday to secede and create a new nation of their own. The Spanish government maintained that the vote was illegal as well as unrepresentative, and there’s zero chance that an independent nation will emerge from the ballot.

But that’s not the only thing you need to understand about the Catalan drive to secede from Spain, which is expected to lead to a formal (if likely ineffectual) declaration of independence on Tuesday. The important thing is to understand that the Spanish government’s brutal crackdown on Sunday’s vote — which included seizing ballot boxes, the beating of unarmed voters and protesters, and the firing of rubber bullets — has made the Spanish state that much more fragile.

Violence broke out early Sunday morning between Spanish police and Catalan separatists attempting to cast a ballot in a referendum on independence from Spain. The clashes took place in cities and towns in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia, which stretches up the Mediterranean coast from below Barcelona to the French border.

According to the Catalan government, at least 337 people were injured by Spanish police, who reportedly used rubber bullets to disperse crowds. Some 11 police officers were reported injured as well.