Spain urges president to resist calls to declare Catalan republic

The Spanish government has urged Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to ignore pressure from his pro-independence allies to proclaim a new Catalan republic. On Friday, Spanish vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, appealed to Puigdemont to return to “legality” by confirming he did not make a declaration of independence on Tuesday. Puigdemont consulted ministers and representatives of his pro-independence allies on Friday, after the far-left CUP party sent a letter urging the president to lift the suspension on putting Catalan independence into effect.

For Sáenz de Santamaría, if Puigdemont were to rule out independence, he could then appear in the Spanish Parliament to argue his case for a change in Catalonia’s status. Puigdemont, said Sáenz de Santamaría, has “the chance to recover institutional normality and put an end to the instability.” Yet, doing so would mean responding negatively to Spanish president Mariano Rajoy’s ultimatum about whether the Catalan leader did or did not declare independence in the Catalan parliament on Tuesday. Any other response would lead to activation of article 155 of the Constitution and suspension of Catalonia’s self-rule.

Stepping back from the brink

It was a message reiterated by the Spanish government delegate to Catalonia, Enric Millo, who on Friday also urged the Catalan president to resist “pressure from the ANC, Òmnium and CUP” and to take the “last opportunity for dialogue.” Interviewed on Ràdio 4-RNE, Millo described Rajoy’s ultimatum as “an open door to dialogue” that has delayed the implementation of article 155. According to Millo, the Spanish government “wants to see the ambiguity as stepping back from the brink, which is why the government’s immediate response was not to apply article 155.”  

Constitutional reform

As for Spain’s main opposition party, PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez gave his full backing to the Spanish government in “the territorial crisis that has taken place in the past few days in Catalonia.” In a letter to the PSOE membership, the socialist leader stated that the party will always take the side of the state when faced with “any threat against the constitutional order.” However, Sánchez’s support for Rajoy comes with the understanding that constitutional reform will follow. “The Spain of 2017 is not the Spain of 1978,” said Sánchez, who argued that “a new era needs a new constitution.”