No sign of Catalan leader as Spanish officials take back control

Bloomberg

Carles Puigdemont, the self-styled “president of the Catalan Republic,” failed to show his face at the government’s headquarters on Monday as Spanish officials tightened their grip on the rebel region.
A few ousted Catalan officials posted pictures on social media of their arrival at work in a show of defiance after being fired by the Spanish government on Friday. Puigdemont posted an undated picture from inside the regional government headquarters on Instagram but made no public appearance as reporters swarmed around his office.
Spanish stocks and bonds jumped on signs that normality is returning to the country’s biggest regional economy. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appeared to be gaining the upper hand after responding to a declaration of independence by taking over the regional government. Hundreds of thousands of Catalans flooded the center of Barcelona to protest against independence on Sunday as a poll showed just 34 percent of Catalans backed breaking away.
“It looks like Rajoy has played the short-term game here in a very clever way,” said Lluis Orriols, a political scientist at Carlos III University in Madrid. “Taking control of the government and calling elections for December makes it very hard for the independence movement to respond.”
The spread between Spanish and German bonds 10-year bonds narrowed 5 basis points to 115 at 10:32 a.m. while Spain’s benchmark stock index was up 1.4 percent, outperforming the rest of Europe.

CATALAN RESISTANCE
Josep Rull, a former member of Puigdemont’s cabinet, posted a picture on Twitter of him working at his desk. He left a short time later after police informed him that he was committing a crime, El Mundo reported. A press officer for the Catalan government had said she couldn’t confirm if Puigdemont had been or would be at the office on Monday.
“We continue to work,” Carme Forcadell, the speaker of the dissolved Catalan Parliament, tweeted on Monday, attaching a video of her arrival at the parliament building. She later left the building, Catalan broadcaster TV3 reported.
The new head of the Catalan police force is in Madrid to meet with his political masters at the Spanish interior ministry. Catalonia has its own police force as part of its semi-autonomous status and the former commander faces potential criminal charges for his role in allowing the illegal independence referendum to happen.

CHARGES PREPARED
Deputy Minister for Territorial Administration Roberto Bermudez de Castro will arrive at the regional government’s headquarters on Monday to execute the central government’s orders, El Periodico de Catalunya, a Barcelona-based daily reported. Spain’s top prosecutor plans to start the process on Monday to charge Puigdemont for offences that will probably include rebellion.
Puigdemont called for “democratic
opposition” in a recorded television speech broadcast on Saturday, while
a leading activist, Jordi Sanchez, issued
a statement from jail advocating
“Gandhi-style resistance.”
But support for independence may be declining, a Sigma Dos poll for El Mundo showed on Monday. While 76 percent of Catalans said they want an official referendum, just 34 percent said they were in favor of breaking away from Spain. The survey was conducted between 0ct. 23 and Oct. 26 — before the regional parliament declared independence last Friday.
Rajoy responded with an unprecedented barrage of measures to restore control of Catalonia after being handed extraordinary powers by the Senate earlier in the day. He fired the entire Catalan government, dissolved the regional parliament, placed its administration under
direct control of his deputy, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, and called elections in the region for December 21.