MADRID: Spain said Wednesday it would take the unprecedented step of seeking to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy if the region’s leader does not abandon his independence bid, on the eve of his deadline to give a final answer.
Separatist leader Carles Puigdemont — whose banned independence referendum on October 1 has sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades — has until 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Thursday to tell the central government in Madrid whether or not he is declaring a split from the rest of the country.
Unless he backs down, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Madrid would trigger article 155 of Spain’s constitution, a never before used measure that could allow it to take direct control over semi-autonomous Catalonia.
It could allow Madrid to suspend Puigdemont’s regional government and eventually trigger new elections in Catalonia, but the move would risk further escalating a crisis that has sparked huge street rallies, rattled stock markets and deeply worried Spain’s EU partners.
“All I ask of Mr.Puigdemont is that he acts with good sense,” Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told parliament on Wednesday.
Puigdemont issued a cryptic “suspended” declaration of independence following the referendum, saying he wanted time for talks with the government — a prospect Madrid has rejected.
Rajoy would need Senate approval to trigger article 155, but his conservative Popular Party has a majority there.
Jordi Xucla, a lawmaker from Catalonia’s ruling coalition, told Rajoy in parliament that such a move would be “a serious mistake... its application would be difficult and questionable.”
The latest escalation came after tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona on Tuesday night after a court jailed two influential Catalan separatist leaders, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, pending investigation into sedition charges.
Barcelona police said around 200,000 people massed in the city center calling for the release of the pair known as the “two Jordis,” who spent a second night behind bars Tuesday.
Shouting “freedom” and “independence,” the crowds lit candles, turning the boulevard into a sea of flickering lights.
“They want us to be afraid so we stop thinking of independence, but the opposite will happen. There are more of us every day,” Elias Houariz, a 22-year-old baker, told AFP at the rally.
Cuixart and Sanchez are the leaders of pro-independence citizens’ groups Omnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) respectively, which count tens of thousands of members each and have emerged as influential players in the crisis.
They are accused of whipping up major demonstrations last month in the run-up to the referendum, when protesters blocked Spanish police for hours inside the Catalan administration’s offices as they were raiding the building.
Manchester City’s Catalan manager Pep Guardiola dedicated his team’s 2-1 win over Napoli in the Champions League on Tuesday to the detained pair.
“We have shown in Catalonia that citizenship is bigger than any ideas. We hope they will be released soon,” he said.
Thousands of workers in Barcelona and other cities had also staged a brief walkout earlier Tuesday in protest at the detentions.
Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero has also been charged with sedition — a crime that carries up to 15 years’ jail time — accused of failing to stop the referendum going ahead.
With its own language and culture, Catalonia is proud of its autonomy but its 7.5 million people are deeply divided over independence.
Puigdemont claims the referendum resulted in a 90 percent “Yes” vote, but the turnout was only 43 percent as many supporters of Spanish unity stayed away.
Separatists argue that wealthy Catalonia, which represents about a fifth of Spain’s economic output, does too much to prop up the rest of the country and would be better off going it alone.
But opponents say the region has more clout as part of a bigger Spain and that the instability could be disastrous for its economy.
Madrid announced Monday that it was cutting its economic growth forecast for next year from 2.6 to 2.3 percent, pointing blame at the Catalan crisis.
The standoff has sparked a business exodus, with nearly 700 companies moving their legal headquarters out of Catalonia in a bid to minimize the instability.
Spain threatens Catalan separatists as deadline looms
Spain threatens Catalan separatists as deadline looms
Burkina jihadist attacks on army leave at least 10 dead
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast: Suspected Islamist militants attacked an army unit in northern Burkina Faso Sunday, the latest in a series of alleged jihadist attacks that have killed at least 10 people in four days, security sources told AFP.
The west African country, ruled by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has been plagued with violence from militants allied to Al-Qaeda or the Daesh group for more than a decade.
Social media has been awash with speculation that the spate of attacks may have killed dozens of soldiers, but AFP has been unable to independently verify those claims.
The junta, which seized power on the promise to crack down on the violence, has ceased to communicate on jihadist attacks.
On Sunday, militants carried out a major attack on a military detachment in the northern town of Nare, two security sources told AFP.
The previous day, the Burkinabe army’s unit in the northern city of Titao was “targeted by a group of several hundred terrorists,” one of the sources said.
While the source did not give a death toll for either attack, they said part of the military base in Titao had been destroyed.
The interior minister of Ghana, which borders Burkina Faso to the south, said the government had “received disturbing information from Burkina Faso of a truck carrying tomato traders from Ghana which was caught in a terrorist attack in Titao.”
Jihadist ‘coordination’
According to the same security source, another army base in Tandjari, in the east of the country, was also attacked Saturday, and several officers killed.
“This series of attacks is not a coincidence,” the source said. “There seems to be coordination among the jihadists.”
A separate security source told AFP that a “terrorist group attacked the (military) detachment in Bilanga,” in the east of the country, on Thursday.
“Much of the detachment was ransacked,” the source said, giving a toll of “about 10 deaths” among the soldiers and civilian volunteers fighting alongside the army.
A local source confirmed the attack, adding there was damage in the town of Bilanga, and that the assailants had stayed at the scene until the following day.
Despite the junta’s vow to restore security, Burkina Faso remains caught in a spiral of violence.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the unrest has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers since 2015 — and more than half of those deaths have come in the past three years.
