The hits are coming fast for the Catalonia region, not unlike a less-boring Floyd Mayweather fight.
Early yesterday, Spain announced it was "ready to arrest Catalan leader immediately if independence declared." Reportedly, Spain's national police force had already transferred "elite" officer to Catalonia and had a "raid" in the planning stages. Prior to yesterday's speech, armed police cordoned off the Catalan parliament.
Catalan President Puigdemont went on in subsequent speech to: "call for weeks of dialog, suspending the independence referendum result." A pretty diplomatic response that it would appear, on first glance, was folding to Spanish pressure, despite a nod to having a mandate for independence anyway.
Oddly enough, Spain decided to interpret this in what appears to be the deliberately opposite way from which it was intended. In a statement, Spain noted that "Catalonia has declared deferred independence," and "(they) consider Puigdemont's speech to be a declaration of independence."
Overnight, Spain appears to be seeking a formal confirmation, as according to Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy: "Cabinet has agreed to notify the Catalan government [so that it may] confirm if it has declared independence."
The latest news has Madrid giving Barcelona (Catalonia) a 5 day ultimatum to "clarify if it has declared independence."
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As a Catalan citizen I'm really fed up with the situation. I hope we can ever be released from this spanish government of clowns doing nothing. We don't deserve this treatment by Madrid and I'm 100% with my President, Mr.Puigdemont. They call themselves democrats but they are only disguised tyrants unwilling to dialog with the common people. Bastards, the catalans will prevail!!!
Thanks for reporting so objectively the situation.
Cheers
Thank you for a valuable first-hand perspective. Maximally upvoted.
I'm glad you found my reporting fair! Being that I'm across the pond, I'm sort of limited in my first-hand sources.
You synthesized pretty well the situation so sometimes people can assess better from the distance than being in the place of the event.
Thanks for the super-upvote
Thank you for the compliment!
Sounds to me like the Spanish government has already made up it's mind and is just going to declare whatever they want to be "reality" as a justification for their inevitable actions, i.e the use of force.
Sounds like a pretty standard playbook.
I'm going to point you to my recent Taylor Swift article... it's more up the humor alley, whereas this topic is a bummer.
This is how all declarations of freedom and independence will be met. When did we give it up and can we get it back?
Same as it ever was, I guess.
It's no surprise Spain doesn't want to give up their cash cow.
Governments never do!
Dang politics is a game of power and words. I hate it, one can say something and someone can interpret it differently.
I am curious how this will play out..
" one can say something and someone can interpret it differently."
Especially when doing so is useful to one's agenda!
Spanish government must consider what people of catalonia want.
P:s there should be an election
We can only hope, on both of those counts.
Really interesting what is happening in Spain right now. Looks like all world governments are having a rough time right now. (Making pop corn).
"(Making pop corn)."
You and MJ both!
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A fair point - there's no real way to respond to this "ultimatum" without bowing to Spain's authority by even acknowledging it.