Catalans vow to pursue independence, dismissing king’s ‘mistake’

Bloomberg

Catalonia’s separatist leadership said nothing will stop it setting up an independent republic, dismissing the condemnation of Spanish King Felipe VI as the breakaway region’s president prepared to deliver his own address on Wednesday evening.
Regional government spokes-
man Jordi Turull said the monarch’s criticism of Sunday’s illegal referendum, with no reference to the police violence that saw more than 800 people injured, had given a “free bar” to state forces as they try to shut down the secessionists. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who has said he expects to declare independence within days, is scheduled to speak at 9 p.m. on Catalan television.
The king’s reaction was “a mistake from every point of view,” Turull said in an interview on the regional government’s television channel. He said Catalonia didn’t answer to the monarchy. “It’s a republic or a republic,” he said.
The clash between Madrid and the rebel administration in Barcelona is escalating again after the king, whose word traditionally carries weight in Spain, sought to impose his authority in a televised statement. He condemned the “unacceptable disloyalty” of the Catalan leaders and vowed to keep Spain together.
The parties holding the majority of seats in the regional parliament, Junts pel Si and CUP, has asked Puigdemont to address lawmakers on Monday, a spokesman for the assembly said.
Financial markets reacted to the latest events. Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds rose in each of the past three days, rising to as much as 1.79 percent on Wednesday, the most since March 22. The premium over similar maturity German bonds reached the widest in more than five months.
Shares in Oryzon Genomics SA soared as much as 14 percent after the Barcelona-based drugmaker announced it’s moving its headquarters to Madrid. Catalan lender Banco Sabadell SA fell 4 percent.
Spain is facing its biggest constitutional crisis since the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. The country was later rocked by an attempted coup in 1981 that was faced down by Felipe’s father, King Juan Carlos. The threat of secession by Catalonia, which accounts for a about 20 percent of the country’s entire economic output, is also piling political pressure on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his minority government.

Rubber Bullets
Rajoy is fighting to maintain control after Catalonia claimed 2.3 million voters defied both the central government and the Constitutional Court to cast ballots in a makeshift referendum on independence. Regional police ignored orders to shut down the vote on Sunday.
The National Court in Madrid started investigating possible sedition charges against the Catalan police chief and three leaders of the civic groups that helped organise the vote.
In July, before the situation spiraled out of control, only 35 percent of Catalans thought their region should be independent, according to a regional government poll. But many moderates have been incensed by the scenes of police beating voters with batons and firing rubber bullets into crowds of protesters and the king’s statement may have done little to persuade them that their future lies with Spain.
The numbers voting on Sunday matched participation in a non-binding referendum held in 2014 in much less adverse circumstances and the 2 million who backed independence would have been enough for a comfortable majority in a typical regional election.
Rajoy is struggling to find the political support he wants for an unprecedented move against the separatists, and the king’s intervention may help sway the doubters.
The main opposition Socialists are reluctant to share responsibility for any plan to push out the Catalan leadership, after seeing the prime minister bungle Sunday’s crackdown. Puigdemont has promised a formal announcement to regional lawmakers of the referendum results, triggering a 48-hour countdown to a unilateral declaration of independence. He told the BBC in an interview his government would act at the end of this week or the beginning of next.