Madrid is planning to trigger the article that will allow the suspension of Catalonia’s political autonomy. This is planned for Saturday, after the break-away region’s leader missed a deadline to clarify his hitherto ambiguous declaration of independence.
The Catalan leader, Carles Puigdemont, was given a deadline of 10.30am on Thursday to make clear whether Catalonia had declared independence from Spain, or not.
Puigdemont did declare independence days after the October 1st referendum but immediately suspended it to put pressure on Madrid to go to mediation.
Having had no answer, Madrid confirmed today that therefore it is going to invoke the dreaded nuclear option of Article 155 of Spain’s 1978 constitution, enabling Prime Minister Rajoy to take administrative control of Catalonia.
On Wednesday night, Puigdemont told his party faithful that he would not back down and that he would press ahead with a more formal declaration of independence if Rajoy does suspend Catalonia’s autonomy, as the Spanish PM has threatened.
