Good day all. A week ago, I wrote a post comparing the laughable idea of California seceding from the United States with the very real issue of the possibility that Catalonia, a part of Spain, would declare independence, and what the Spanish government was doing to crush them.
Last week, the Spanish government basically took over the province and has sacked the local government and senior law enforcement officials. In response, Catalonia declared their independence from Spain. Now things are starting to boil over. Here are some of the details from The Associated (With terrorists) Press:
Catalonia’s ousted separatist president on Saturday called on Catalans to peacefully oppose Spain’s imposition of direct rule in the region, in a veiled refusal to accept his Cabinet’s dismissal as ordered by central authorities.
Peaceful opposition? Yeah, I don’t see that happening.
Spain took formal direct control of Catalonia on Saturday, dismissing the region’s defiant separatist government, including Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, a day after lawmakers passed a declaration of independence for the prosperous northeastern region. The move came after one of the most tumultuous days in the country’s recent history, as the national parliament in Madrid approved unprecedented constitutional measures to halt the secessionist drive by the regional parliament in Barcelona.
I really don’t know what the laws of Spain are in this sort of situation, but it appears to my uneducated eye, that the Central Spanish government has, for all intents and purposes, declared martial law in the province. Somehow, I really don’t think that’s going to work out the way they think it is.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also dissolved the regional parliament and called a new regional election to be held on Dec. 21.
Now that should be interesting. I wonder if the Central government is going to prevent the current/previous elected officials from running again? Considering just how ham handed they’ve been, (From the little information I’ve been able to find), I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they don’t flat out rig the election.
Hmm, I wonder…Are any members of the American Democrat party over there advising the government on how to rig elections? Well, if Francisco Franco is listed as a voter, we’ll know that the Democrats are over there “Assisting” the Spanish government.
Despite his defiant tone and the use of the official Catalan government emblem, the Catalan and European Union flags but no sign of the Spanish one, some political commentators saw in his mention of “democratic opposition” as laying the groundwork for political campaigning for the regional election in less than two months.
“Our will is to continue working to fulfill the democratic mandates and at the same time seek the maximum stability and tranquility,” Puigdemont said. Separatists argue that a controversial victory in a banned Oct. 1 referendum legitimizes them to split from Spain.
So they are going to try and do this through the ballot box? As I recall, the last time they did this, the Spanish government shut down the polling places. I have a sneaking suspicion that they are going to do everything they can to suppress the pro-independence voters from getting to the polls. As I said, ham handed.
After Spain’s central authorities made the takeover official early Saturday, Puigdemont and the 12 members that until Saturday made up the Catalan Cabinet are no longer paid. Spain’s government has said they could be charged with usurping others’ functions if they refuse to obey, which could throw the region into further turmoil by prolonging a month long standoff.
Now to try and explain this to people in Rio Linda, (As Rush Limbaugh would say), the equivalent in the United States would be President Trump kicking Jerry Brown and the entire legislature of California out of office and installing his own people until a new election could be held.
In comments that were met late Friday with jeers and whistles of disapproval by secession supporters in Barcelona, the main city in Catalonia, Rajoy said that the declaration of independence “not only goes against the law but is a criminal act.” Spanish prosecutors say that top Catalan officials could face rebellion charges as soon as Monday.
Oh that’s going to go over well. Instead of trying to calm things down, those morons in Madrid appear to be ramping things up. I wonder what will happen if they try to raid and arrest these people and the federal Spanish authorities are met with significant local resistance? Sort of like what happened with the Bundy Ranch fiasco a few years ago.
That one was resolved…sort of, without violence. It could have easily gone sideways and resulted in the almost certain massacre of the Federal agents on sight. I don’t think that the citizens in Catalonia have guns, but if things go wrong, I suspect they will “Acquire” them in short order.
Beyond any possible resistance from top Catalan officials, it’s unclear how Rajoy’s government in Madrid will be able to exert its control at lower levels of Catalonia’s vast regional administration.
I have a feeling that the lower level officials, regardless of their feelings about Catalonia’s independence, aren’t going to be to happy being ordered about by some flunky from Madrid. I think the general response might be a Spanish version of this.
Some among Catalonia’s roughly 200,000 civil servants have said they will refuse to obey orders from Madrid. They risk being punished or even fired under the special powers granted to central authorities by the nation’s Senate on Friday.
Can we say “ON STRIKE!!!” Sure we can! That’s the usual way that Bureaucrats in Europe deal with things. Unlike the United States, it’s unheard of for a government union to be broken. It’s just not the way they think over there.
Vice President Soraya Saenz de Santamaria will be Rajoy’s point person in running Catalonia until the new regional election. She will coordinate other ministries that take over functions of Catalonia’s regional departments, including finances and security, and appoint officials to implement orders from Madrid.
Uh huh, that sounds very democratic, doesn’t it? I have no idea what is going to happen in Catalonia, but I suspect it won’t be good. If this were tried in the United States, the odds are that it would fail miserably and it wold be the federal government that was removed from power. But, as we say here, “I don’t have a dog in this hunt.” and so I’ll just sit back and watch from a distance.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
[yasr_visitor_votes size=”large”]
