A cold reality dawns in Catalonia after Spain quashes independence

Bloomberg

A moment of triumph, the declaration of Europe’s newest independent state, has quickly become the cold reality of what Catalonia’s separatists were always likely to face in their historic
collision with Spain.
Within hours of the parliament in Barcelona voting to break away, the would-be Catalan Republic was hit by the might of the Spanish state. Rather than leaving Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his deputies running their own affairs, it’s left them with little real power and facing potential arrest in coming days as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s authorities move in.
“They tried to stage a kidnap and steal part of the community from the people,” Rajoy said in a televised national address. “Now it’s about trying to minimize the damage.” The Catalan government is no more in the eyes of Spain, and indeed the European Union. Right after Catalan lawmakers victoriously sang their anthem, Rajoy used the power granted to him by the senate to start bringing to an end the country’s worst constitutional crisis for decades.
Elections, which Puigdemont had wanted to call to defuse the situation only to balk as the separatist hard
core engulfed him, will now come on December 21 after Rajoy dissolved the Catalan Parliament.
The prime minister, using the measures approved, delegated his deputy, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, to take on the role of head of the Catalan regional government. Spain’s interior ministry named Ferran Lopez chief of the regional Catalan police, according to an emailed statement on Saturday from the ministry.
“Puigdemont is no longer the regional president,” Enric Millo, the central government’s representative in Catalonia, said on Catalunya Radio on Saturday. “The top authority in Catalonia now is the Spanish prime minister.”
The regional economy, which accounts for about a fifth of Spanish gross domestic product, is also under threat as more companies up sticks amid the threat of civil unrest. A business of
German insurance giant Allianz AG added its name to the list of hundreds shifting out of Catalonia.
“It’s an enormous mess and utterly incomprehensible,” said Jordi Alberich, director general of Cercle d’Economia, a Barcelona-based business association.