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Post by Admin on Oct 22, 2017 18:28:52 GMT
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced Saturday he’ll dissolve Catalonia’s government and exercise direct control over the region of 7.5 million people. The announcement is intended to stop the independence movement in Catalonia, which voted to secede in a referendum this month. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on the roots of Catalan separatism.  Earlier in the day, Puigdemont joined the throngs, which police estimated at 450,000 people, that took to the streets after Rajoy announced his government would invoke rarely used constitutional powers to remove Catalonia's leaders, including Puigdemont.  Demonstrators shouted, "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" and "Rajoy, Rajoy, so you know we are leaving!" |
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Post by Admin on Oct 23, 2017 18:46:54 GMT
The Spanish government aggressively moved to squash Catalonia's growing independence movement Saturday when Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced plans to dissolve the regional government, remove elected leaders as soon as possible and hold new elections.  As nearly half a million people protested in Barcelona, Catalonia's biggest city, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont denounced Rajoy's decision and said, "The Catalan institutions and the people of Catalonia cannot accept this attack." He called for the regional parliament to discuss "the attempt to liquidate our self-government and our democracy, and act accordingly," but Puigdemont stopped short of declaring regional independence, as he threatened to do earlier in the week. |
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Post by Admin on Oct 28, 2017 18:38:52 GMT
Catalonia declared itself an independent republic on Friday. But nobody is sure how long it will last. Within hours of Catalonia’s emotional vote, Spain’s prime minister announced he would dismantle the Catalan government, suspend its ministers, dissolve its upstart parliament, take over the regional police and call home any Catalan diplomats abroad.  The orders were effective immediately. In a Europe where change once took place at a glacial pace, this was the latest surprise in a continent rocked by division and upset, populism and nationalism. |
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Post by Admin on Nov 1, 2017 18:17:28 GMT
 Since Friday’s joyous scenes in Barcelona following the Catalan declaration of independence, the reality has turned somewhat sour for supporters of secession from Spain. The weekend saw Madrid impose direct rule with charges brought against Catalan leaders, some of whom fled to Belgium.  On Tuesday Spain’s Constitutional Court blocked the regional parliament’s declaration. British historian Sir Antony Beevor – an expert on the Spanish civil war, still cited as relevant to today’s events – believes the separatists’ euphoria will be short-lived. |
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Post by Admin on Nov 2, 2017 18:38:37 GMT
“The Catalan independence movement started to realise that they were losing support, and this was their last desperate throw,” he told euronews, citing opinion polls in recent months suggesting a significant shift against independence. “You cannot impose such major changes when you haven’t even got a majority, so this is why I don’t think it’s going to go very much further.” He recognises however that the Spanish government faces risks in enforcing its authority, while arguing that misconceptions exist concerning its exercise of power.  “I think that (prime minister) Rajoy and the Spanish government are in a difficult position,” he said. “Most people outside Spain don’t recognise sufficiently the fact that actually the Spanish judiciary is fiercely independent, so the Madrid government does not have necessarily total control… I don’t think the central government wants to turn them (the Catalans) into victims. This has been the great game which the Catalan independence movement has been trying to play, trying to show itself as almost still the victims of Francist repression, which is preposterous: they had a very large degree of autonomy. |
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