Barcelona: Catalan separatists Monday threatened “mass civil disobedience” against the Spanish government if it fulfils its vow to depose the region’s secessionist leader to stifle his drive for independence.
Firefighters, teachers and students weighed into the dispute, warning of strikes and protests, at the start of a crucial week in Spain’s deepest political crisis in decades.
Madrid has said it will suspend the powers of the semi-autonomous region, where separatist leaders held a banned independence referendum on October 1. Catalonia’s separatist parties announced they would hold a full session Thursday to decide their response.
That could be an opportunity for the region to follow through on threats to declare unilateral independence from Spain, a prospect that has raised fears of unrest. The Senate is set to suspend the territory’s limited self-rule in a meeting expected Friday.
Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Catalan President Carles Puigdemont will be out of a job as soon as this weekend.
“He will no longer be able to sign anything, he will no longer be able to take decisions, he will no longer receive a salary,” Saenz de Santamaria told radio Onda Cero.