Catalan party threatens 'mass' civil disobedience

BARCELONA - Agence France-Presse

A far-left Catalan party yesterday threatened "massive civil disobedience" if Spain dismisses the region's government to stave off its threat to declare independence.

The Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) party denounced Madrid's plans as the "biggest aggression" against the Catalan people since the Franco dictatorship.

"This aggression will receive a response in the form of massive civil disobedience," said the party in a statement.
The CUP's threat upped the stakes in the standoff over Catalan independence.

Half a million angry separatists took to the streets of Barcelona on Oct. 21 after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced he would remove Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his executive.

Rajoy said Madrid would take control of ministries under unprecedented measures to stop the region breaking away.
The CUP is a key ally of the ruling separatist coalition in the regional parliament.

"What happens now, with everyone in agreement and unity, is that we will announce what we will do and how," Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull said.

He denounced what he called "a fully-fledged coup against Catalan institutions.”

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said yesterday Puigdemont would lose all his powers once the measures were approved.

The crisis has rattled a EU that is already grappling with Brexit. Against the backdrop of Catalonia's push for independence, two of Italy's wealthiest regions on Oct. 22 voted in favour of greater autonomy.

The referendums in Veneto and Lombardy are not binding and the organizers stressed they were seeking greater autonomy and to reduce their regions' tax contributions to Rome rather than looking to secede.