MADRID: Spain’s control over Catalonia will be tested on Monday when politicians and civil servants return to work amid uncertainty over whether they will accept direct rule imposed by the central government to stop the region’s independence bid.
Hundreds of thousands of supporters of a unified Spain filled Barcelona’s streets on Sunday in one of the biggest shows of force yet by the so-called silent majority that has watched as regional political leaders push for Catalan independence.
Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy assumed direct control of the region on Friday. He sacked its secessionist government and called a snap election for Dec. 21.
However, some of the most prominent members of the Catalan administration, including its president Carles Puigdemont and vice president Oriol Junqueras, said they did not accept the move and only the people of Catalonia could dismiss them.
The main civic group behind the pro-independence campaign have called for widespread civil disobedience and have given detailed instructions to the around 200,000 civil servants working for the Catalan region of how they should behave.
Most of them start their working day at 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) and, if too many did not turn up or decided not to accept instructions, it would cast important doubts over the Spanish government’s strategy to draw a line under a one-month crisis that has dented economic growth and fueled social unrest.
It is also not clear if senior government officials and lawmakers who declared the region’s independence from Spain on Friday would try to gain access to their offices and if the Catalan police Mossos d’Esquadra would prevent them.
La Vanguardia newspaper said on Sunday members of the Catalan cabinet had left their offices, which were now under the central government’s effective control.
Several Spanish ministers said at the weekend they were convinced civil servants would obey orders and reminded that those who did not could lose their job.
Spain’s interior ministry named a new chief for the regional police on Saturday who has insisted that the 17,000 officers of the force should remain neutral.
Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido praised the Mossos for their work in an open letter on Sunday and urged them to accept temporary direction from Madrid.
“We have opened a new chapter and in this new chapter the Mossos d’Esquadra will become again the police of all the Catalans. This is your duty,” Zoido said in the letter.
Another test of the government’s response will be whether companies stop relocating out of Catalonia in search of stability and legal certainty after several hundred moved out earlier this month.
The government’s move to impose direct rule received the backing of several influential Catalan business lobbies who called on firms to stay in the region.
Spain’s control over Catalonia to be tested on Monday as work resumes
Spain’s control over Catalonia to be tested on Monday as work resumes
Rubio says new governance bodies for Gaza will be in place soon
- Rubio said progress had been made recently in identifying Palestinians to join the technocratic group and that Washington aimed to get the governance bodies in place “very soon,” without offering a specific timeline.
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a new governance structure for Gaza — made up of an international board and a group of Palestinian technocrats — would be in place soon, followed by the deployment of foreign troops, as the US hopes to cement a fragile ceasefire in Israel’s war in the Palestinian enclave.
Rubio, speaking at a year-end news conference, said the status quo was not sustainable in Gaza, where Israel has continued to strike Hamas targets while the group has reasserted its control since the October peace agreement brokered by the US.
“That’s why we have a sense of urgency about bringing phase one to its full completion, which is the establishment of the Board of Peace, and the establishment of the Palestinian technocratic authority or organization that’s going to be on the ground, and then the stabilization force comes closely thereafter,” Rubio said.
Rubio said progress had been made recently in identifying Palestinians to join the technocratic group and that Washington aimed to get the governance bodies in place “very soon,” without offering a specific timeline. Rubio was speaking after the US Central Command hosted a conference in Doha this week with partner nations to plan the International Stabilization Force for Gaza.
Two US officials said last week that international troops could be deployed in the strip as early as next month, following the UN Security Council’s November vote to authorize the force.
It remains unclear how Hamas will be disarmed, and countries considering contributing troops to the ISF are wary that Hamas will engage their soldiers in combat.
Rubio did not specify who would be responsible for disarming Hamas and conceded that countries contributing troops want to know the ISF’s specific mandate and how it will be funded.
“I think we owe them a few more answers before we can ask anybody to commit firmly, but I feel very confident that we have a number of nation states acceptable to all sides in this who are willing to step forward and be a part of that stabilization force,” Rubio said, noting that Pakistan was among the countries that had expressed interest.
Establishing security and governance was key to securing donor funding for reconstruction in Gaza, Rubio added.
“Who’s going to pledge billions of dollars to build things that are going to get blown up again because a war starts?” Rubio said, discussing the possibility of a donor conference to raise reconstruction funds.
“They want to know who’s in charge, and they want to know that there’s security so and that there’ll be long term stability.”
