Catalonia government dissolved by Spain

Catalonia government dissolved after declaring independence from Spain
By Laura Smith-Spark and Claudia Rebaza, CNN
Updated 0659 GMT (1459 HKT) October 28, 2017

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called new elections and fired the Catalan police chief, as part of an unprecedented package of measures to seize control of the renegade administration in Barcelona.

He said the moves were needed to restore legality, after a political and constitutional crisis that has gripped the country for months.

"In this moment, we need to be serene and careful, but we also need to have confidence that the state has the tools, backed by the law and reason, [to] peacefully and reasonably go back to legality and take away threats to democracy," he said.

Rajoy spoke hours after the Catalan Parliament voted by 70 to 10 to "form the Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state."

The day's dramatic and fast-moving events pushed Spain into uncharted territory, testing the limits of the constitution drawn up after the restoration of democracy in the 1970s.

Dramatic scenes in Barcelona

The stage was set when separatists in the Catalan Parliament tabled a motion to declare independence from Spain, arguing that a disputed referendum on October 1 gave them a mandate to split from Madrid.

Less than an hour later, the Spanish Senate granted the Madrid government powers under Article 155 of the Constitution to sack the Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his ministers.

Spain  Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy 

Rajoy, who has pledged to quash the separatists, called a Cabinet meeting to agree on the measures he would take."Spain is a serious country, a great nation and we will not allow some people to blow up our Constitution," Rajoy told journalists in Madrid.

Urging Spanish citizens to remain calm, he announced that Puigdemont and his ministers would be dismissed, and new elections in Catalonia would be held on December 21.

The office of Spain's prosecutor general meanwhile confirmed it would file a lawsuit for rebellion against Puigdemont, the Catalan government and the members of the parliament board who voted in favor of independence.

It was unclear on Friday how the Spanish government would enforce the measures announced by Rajoy. A tough crackdown could risk a repeat of the violent scenes that played out in Catalonia on October 1, the day of the referendum.

But it seemed unlikely that members of the Catalan government who have fought so hard for independence for years would simply acquiesce to Spanish government forces. Another question was how the local Catalan police force would react if national forces were deployed to the streets of Barcelona.

Speaking in the Catalan Parliament building after the landmark vote, Puigdemont said legitimately elected lawmakers had cast their ballots according to a mandate earned in the October 1 referendum.

But he acknowledged that the path ahead would not be easy. "We are facing a period in which we will need to stay strong and in peace, dignified and civil as we have always been, and I'm sure we will keep being so," he said.

"The institutions and the people together built nations, societies, and a nation cannot be built without one of these elements."

Supporters followed his words with applause and repeated chants of "freedom, freedom."