Catalan rebels: Spain will rue hostile power grab

Bloomberg

Catalan separatists say Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into as
he moves to quash their campaign for independence.
As the government in Madrid prepares to deploy its most powerful legal weapons, three leading members of the movement in Barcelona said Rajoy isn’t equipped to achieve his goals and risks a damaging entanglement in hostile terrain. As King Felipe VI said Spain would stand firm against Catalonia’s secession campaign, they reckon they have enough support among the region’s civil service and police to thwart the government’s plan.
Rajoy’s cabinet was supposed to meet in Madrid on Saturday to consider specific measures to reassert control over the rebel region, a process set out in the Spanish Constitution that’s never been tested. Among the top priorities is bringing to heel the Catalan police force and deciding what to do with President Carles Puigdemont. The plan still needs Senate approval, so it could be another two weeks before Spain can act. Rajoy will make a statement after the cabinet meeting, a spokeswoman said by email.
El Pais newspaper reported that Rajoy would strip Puigdemont and his government officials of their powers. Spain could call regional elections in Catalonia on Jan. 28, Ciudadanos official Juan Carlos Girauta told El Independiente news website, saying Rajoy had informed the party of the date.
“This is a minefield for Rajoy,” said Antonio Barroso, an analyst in London at Teneo Intelligence, a company advising on political risk. “The implementation on the ground is a risk for him when the government may face some regional civil servants who don’t cooperate.” The three Catalan officials — one from the parliament, one from the regional executive and one from the grass-roots campaign organization — spoke on condition of anonymity due to the legal threats against
the movement.

TREADING CAREFULLY
It all comes down to Article 155 of the constitution, a short passage that gives the legal green light for Spain to revoke the semi-autonomy of Catalonia. Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said
at a press conference in Madrid that
it would be applied in a “prudent,
proportionate and gradual manner.”
The problem for Rajoy is that the separatists already proved with their makeshift referendum on Oct. 1 that they can ignore edicts from Madrid with a degree of success. That means he will need to back up his ruling with people on the ground, and it didn’t work as planned the last time around.
The Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, ignored orders to shut down polling stations before the illegal vote on Oct. 1. After Rajoy sent in the Civil Guard, images of Spanish police beating would-be voters were broadcast around the world.
Mossos Police Chief Josep Lluis Trapero is a local hero, his face worn on T-shirts at separatist demonstrations. When he returned this week from an interrogation in Madrid, where he’s facing possible sedition charges, staff greeted him with hugs and applause. How the rank-and-file would respond to their boss’s ouster is just one of the questions hanging over Rajoy and his ministers as they gather on Saturday.