Advantage for Spain as split hits Catalonia separatist fight

Bloomberg

Catalan separatists failed to heal their divisions in time to establish a com-
mon front for December’s election, boosting Spain’s chances of restoring some normality to the rebel region.
The main parties in favour of independence are set to run on separate platforms December 21 after Esquerra
Republicana ruled out an alliance less than two hours before the midnight on Tuesday deadline for registration.
“We have pushed for a list including
all the sovereign forces because we believe that would be a powerful response to the challenge of the state,” Esquerra spokesman Sergi Sabria said in an emailed statement. “Given the impossibility of forming a really unified list, we will have to seek coordination between different platforms.”
The separatist movement is battling to maintain momentum after a chaotic month that saw its leader, Carles Puigdemont flee to Brussels after Madrid seized direct control of the region. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy invoked extraordinary constitutional powers to restore order in Catalonia after the regional parliament declared independence on Oct. 27.
Pro-independence activists are staging a day of protests across the region on Wednesday in a bid to demonstrate their continued relevance. Catalonia’s transport authority reported 28 roads wholly or partially blocked as of 8:56 a.m. They include seven blockages on the main coastal highway. The Catalan rail network Rodalies Catalunya said services were greatly affected by people invading tracks. La Vanguardia newspaper reported that protesters had blocked the high-speed rail track at Girona.

ROADS BLOCKED
Spanish stocks fell for a sixth straight session, with the benchmark Ibex index losing 0.3 percent at 9:34 a.m. in Madrid. Shares in the UK, Germany and France all rose. Spain’s 10-year bond spread was little changed at 109 basis points, after touching its lowest level in almost three months on Tuesday. The Catalan regional police, known as Mossos d’Esquadra, said officers were working to clear roads. The 17,000-strong force is crucial in implementing the central government’s direct-rule in the region.
While the three main separatist groups agree they want to break away from Spain, they have very different views on how hard to push for it and what the new republic should look like. Those tensions came to the fore over the past month, with the radicals of the CUP demanding Puigdemont deliver an emphatic announcement, regardless of the economic consequences. Puigdemont’s center-right group, the Catalan Democratic Party, wanted a more measured approach to minimize disruption for businesses.
With polls signaling the result of the election is on a knife edge, the separatists’ failure to unify their forces could tip the balance in favor of those who want to remain with Spain. Puigdemont made a last-ditch appeal on Tuesday for the separatists to set aside their differences from his self-imposed exile.