Catalonia's leaders fight off direct rule from Madrid

Reuters ^ | October 21, 2017 | Julien Toyer

[sparklite2]

MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalonia’s leaders said on Saturday they would not accept direct rule imposed on the region by the Spanish government, as a political crisis that has rattled the economy and raised fears of prolonged unrest showed no signs of easing.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced earlier on Saturday he would invoke special constitutional powers to fire the regional government and force a new election to counter the region’s move towards independence.

It is the first time since Spain’s return to democracy that the central government has used its powers to seize control of a regional administration.

[chajin]

I tried to set up a Catalonia space once, but the dog kept coming into it anyway.

[sparklite2]

That took me a minute...well done.

[farming pharmer]

Can this be done to California?

[sparklite2]

I don’t see why not;
they’re almost spelled the same.

[GoldenPup]

Shooting civil war breaking out in 4, 3, 2, 1.

[armourenthusiast]

I saw the movie and there was something about Earnest Hemingway and 6 toed cats.

[little jeremiah]

If anyone wants more info, ping me and I’ll locate the source. The push for secession is funded by Qatar and spearheaded by ultra hardcore Marxists.

IOW, the ones pushing this are the exact opposite of well motivated.

[sparklite2]

If the PM isn’t careful, he’ll end
up all hat and no Catalonia.

[Nextrush]

I just posted a set of headlines from the Trump hating media out there pinning Catalonia on Russia.

The Washington Post headline October 2nd was “Catalonia Held A Referendum, Russia Won”

And there’s plenty more when you Google “Catalonia Russia”

[little jeremiah]

It’s not Russia, it’s Qatar moslems and Spanish communists.

[little jeremiah]

I'll see how much of this I can copy and paste, considering I'm not fast or good with html. Best to go read the whole thing. Here is the thread, and the author is a native Spanish speaker, writer, fromer hardcores leftist himself, born in S. America IIRC, currenlty a US resident and also I believe a naturalized US citizen. He is a brilliant and knowledgeable man. The discussion on Calalonia starts at his comment (5, and I will copy as much as I can at the moment. Later I will try to copy the rest.

Saul Montes-Bradley‏ @Debradelai

https://twitter.com/Debradelai/status/913978014131740672

(11) The problem is far more recent than people realize.
As recently as 2006, there was no independence movement to speak of in Catalonia.

(12) There sure were “autonomists;” and not a few crazies.
But in poll after poll, those who advocated the independence of Catalonia...

(13) .. did not top 14%. Imagine that! Almost as many believe in UFO abductions.
http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20161230/412969825085/ceo-historia-proceso-catalunya-independencia.html

(14) In fact, according to the Centre d’estudis d’opinió (CEO), a Catalan government office, 71.6% of Catalans...

(15) ...wanted to remain either an autonomous region or a state WITHIN Spain, and 8.1% wanted to remain a Spanish region.

(16) Think about that: 79.7% of Catalans where in favor of varying degrees of autonomy or lack thereof, but always as a part of Spain.

(17) Even in 2009, when the violent economic crisis that befell Europe affected Spain with singular virulence...

(18) discontent only managed to bring the indepes to a whooping 21.6%. Nearly 80% of Catalans consistently rejected any idea of independence

(19) By 2012, when austerity measures affected Catalonia certainly no more and arguably quite less than the rest of Spain,

(20) the political discourse blaming Madrid for what was certainly not Madrid’s doing, helped indepes increase their base to a whooping 29%.

(21) It was a handy way to distract from the 3rd world level of corruption in the Catalan government. (Vide Pujol, Andorra accounts, etc.)

(22) Apparently, the central government was to blame for the ingrained corruption in the autonomous government, especially among indepes.

(23) Even now, after money flowed like a river since 2012, they can barely crack 40%.

And that is actually divided into ... get this ...

24) no more that 29% for the Catalan people at large raising to 50% amongst the more well-to-do. Sound familiar?

(25) And where does the money flow from?
Try from Qatar to Jaume Roures to Oriol Junqueras, Puigdemont, and Podemos.

https://www.elespanol.com/deportes/futbol/20170926/249726071_0.amp.html

(26) The whole cast of characters was there, including Mohammed al-Kuwari, right hand man of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar

(27) What where they doing? Participating in a secret meeting organized by Oriol Soler in the house of Jaume Roures, the Catalan Soros,

(28) where Iglesias and Oriol Junqueras worked out a post October 1st agreement.
A who's who of assholery.

(29) How do we know?
PM Rajoy demanded explanations from Iglesias in the Spanish house of Deputies.
Not that he got any.

30) Jaume Roures makes no bones about his trotskyite ideology.
“I make money to serve my ideology” he declared to Libération in 2009.

[sparklite2]

Thanks for that perspective. Still,
I think sending in troops to break up
a peaceful referendum isn’t the way
to keep the ‘indepes’ from growing
in influence.

[mewzilla]

FWIW, I doubt Rajoy is calling the shots...

[sparklite2]

Who do you think is calling the shots?

[little jeremiah]

There is info that much of that was staged. Commies and moslems have no problem with that. Check out his twitter. Anyway, here's the rest of that thread, more important info.

From his twitter today:

BBC twitter:

Spain FM: 'Many police violence pictures fake'

Saul Montes-Bradley‏ @Debradelai Sep 29

(30) Jaume Roures makes no bones about his trotskyite ideology.
“I make money to serve my ideology” he declared to Libération in 2009.

(31) Soon after that meeting, on 6 September, a session of the Catalan Parliament approved the call to an independence referendum.

(32) Opposition parties boycotted the meeting and another party abstained.

(33) Catalonia’s own statutes require a TWO THIRDS majority for any law to change the status of Catalonia...

(34) And they did not come close, rendering the call for a referendum illegal per Catalan law.
Null and void.

(35) The Spanish Constitution is no less clear.
This whole thing is not a democratic exercise,

(36) but a coordinated effort by a committed cabal to provoke a crisis.
Done in a most UNDEMOCRATIC and, indeed, ILLEGAL fashion.

(37) To make matters more interesting, there is no census; there are no voter lists; no Electoral Commission…
just stormtroopers.

(38) Two days ago, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls hit it on the nose.
This has nothing to do with Spain or Catalonia.

(39) The independence of Catalonia, he said, “means in a certain way the end of what Europe is,”

(40) Three weeks ago we got further hints of who’s behind this attempt at the balkanization of Spain and, as PM Valls stated, Europe.