Catalan crisis could send shockwaves through rest of Europe

Jordi Turell, regional spokesman said “doing nothing doesn’t figure in our plans” and rejected fresh elections as a way to break the standoff.

Spain’s decision to impose direct rule on Catalonia could draw the region's president into unilaterally declaring independence this week, as the secessionist battle descended into personal rancour. Regional spokesman Jordi Turull said “doing nothing doesn’t figure in our plans” and rejected fresh elections as a way to break the standoff. Any declaration – which Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has signed but suspended – could pit the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, against the thousands of Spanish Guardia Civil and national police officers deployed in Catalonia. If Puigdemont holds back, many Catalans – including police and civil servants – may decide not to obey orders from Madrid.

Spain’s “Maybot-style” PM Mariano Rajoy has personally criticised former journalist Puigdemont, who in turn has likened Rajoy to Franco. How this crisis plays out could influence similar struggles across Europe, said foreign affairs columnist, Simon Tisdall.

On Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced his plans to dissolve the Catalan parliament, under a never-before-used article of the Constitution, vowing to remove the region's elected leaders as soon as possible and hold new elections.

It is the most serious threat Rajoy has made since Catalonia held an independence referendum on 1 October, triggering Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

Madrid dismissed the vote as illegal but Catalan leaders saw it as a mandate to announce a split from the country.

On Sunday, Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis gave a glimpse into what Catalonia under direct rule might look like.

"We are going to establish the authorities who are going to rule the day-to-day affairs of Catalonia according to the Catalan laws and norms," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr.

He called on the Catalan people to ignore the current regional authorities, including the police, once Madrid declared direct rule and said that new elections should bring in new leaders.

Protesters hold signs reading 'Freedom for the two Jordis' on Saturday, referring to two jailed Catalan activists (Photo: CNN)

"They wont have any legal authority, so they will be equal to a group of rebels trying to impose their own arbitrariness on the people of Catalonia," he said.

He said that the regional police could resume their duties once they had been placed under the authority of Madrid or newly elected Catalan leaders.

Dastis denied that Madrid would need to send in large numbers of police or the military to impose direct rule.

"We hope the regional police, once put under the control of people who respect and who uphold the Catalan rules and Spanish rules, everything will be fine."

On Saturday, nearly half a million people protested in Barcelona, Catalonia's biggest city.

Demonstrators shouted "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" and "Rajoy, Rajoy, so you know we are leaving!"

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was among the throngs, but he stopped short of declaring independence, as he had threatened to do earlier in the week.

"The Catalan institutions and the people of Catalonia cannot accept this attack," he said later in a televised statement, accusing Madrid of seeking the "humiliation" of the Catalan people.

"What is being done with Catalonia is directly an attack on democracy that opens the door to other abuses of the same kind anywhere, not just in Catalonia."