Catalonia faces Spain's wrath

Spain moved on Saturday to assert direct rule over Catalonia, replacing its executive and top officials to quash an independence drive that has pushed the country into uncharted waters and sent shock waves through Europe.

As thousands rallied in Madrid in support for Spanish unity, a government notice officially deposed regional leader Carles Puigdemont and his deputy Oriol Junqueras. Spain’s Deputy PM Soraya Saenz de Santamaria was placed in charge of administering the region. It is the first time the central government has curtailed autonomy in the region since dictator Francisco Franco’s repressive 1939-75 rule.

Madrid also fired regional police chief Josep Lluis Trapero, seen as an ally of Catalonia’s separatist leaders, and put the interior ministry in charge of his department in a move likely to further escalate tensions in Spain’s worst political crisis in decades. Some 3,000 people gathered on Madrid’s central Plaza Colon, waving the Spanish flag, shouting  “Prison for Puigdemont.” 

Moving to quash what he termed an “escalation of disobedience”, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy assumed sweeping powers granted to him by the senate under a never-before-used constitutional article designed to rein in rebels among Spain’s 17 regions. He fired the government and Parliament and called December 21 elections to replace them.