Catalonia crisis hits home in Belgium

The unity of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel's government rests on a deal between Liberals and nationalists | Olivier Hoslet/EPA

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont turns up in Brussels, unsettling local politics.
By LAURENS CERULUS 10/30/17, 10:07 PM CET Updated 10/30/17, 11:17 PM CET

Barcelona’s feverish politics are giving Brussels a cold.

The reports of the ousted Catalan leader coming to Belgium and seeking refuge on Monday threatened to upset a delicate political balance between Flemish nationalists and other government parties.

As the crisis in Catalonia has played out, it has divided Belgian politics. Flemish nationalists who have at times called for the breakup of Belgium sided openly with the separatists in northeastern Spain, which makes their coalition partners in the federal government anxious.

Those divisions came out into the open over the weekend and into Monday. After Madrid filed criminal charges against separatist leader Carles Puigdemont Sunday following the regional parliament’s unilateral declaration of independence, a prominent member of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a Belgian nationalist party that belongs to the four-party ruling coalition, said the ousted Catalan president could seek asylum in Belgium.

The next day, Spanish media reported that the separatist leader had arrived in Brussels along with five Cabinet members to take up the offer. A European Parliament source confirmed to POLITICO the Catalan leader was in Belgium.

The ensuing kerfuffle upset the uneasy peace between the four parties that Prime Minister Charles Michel, a French-speaking liberal, has managed for the past three years. It also gave a preview of the likely tenor of the next election campaign, due in 2019.

Sympathy for the Catalans

The N-VA pushed back against suggestions the proposition to the former Catalan leader from Theo Francken, the secretary of state for asylum and migration, represented its official policy. A spokesperson for the N-VA, Joachim Pohlmann, told POLITICO that “in case Mr. Puigdemont is in Brussels, he’s certainly not here at the invitation of the N-VA.”

Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken said the ousted Catalan president could seek asylum in Belgium | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
Jan Jambon, the interior minister and deputy prime minister from the N-VA, was not aware Puigdemont was coming to Brussels, his spokesman Olivier Van Raemdonck said. “Everyone knows Jan Jambon and the N-VA are sympathetic towards the Catalans. But that’s something completely different than sitting down with the man as a member of the federal government,” he added.

Still, Francken’s original suggestion to harbor the Catalan leader — echoed on Twitter by the minister later as well — is read as a frank endorsement of Catalonia’s separatist agenda.

That’s a problem for Michel, because the unity of his government rests on a deal between liberals and nationalists, under which the nationalists have put their separatist agenda on ice.

Now that Flemish nationalists are waving the separatist flag again, Michel faces a risk of seeing a Spanish-style crisis break out in Belgium.

On Sunday, he pushed back against Francken by asking him “not to add fuel to the fire.” Belgian officials stressed that the junior minister was not speaking for the Belgian government.

“We really shouldn’t be importing Spanish problems,” said a government official, asking not to be named due to the issue’s sensitivity.

Whither the Flemish nationalists

If Michel is under pressure, the nationalists are also in a tricky position.

Less than a year ago, Interior Minister Jambon implied that recognizing a Catalan independent state would be worth risking the survival of the current coalition government for. The N-VA’s vice president, MEP Sander Loones, then told De Morgen that “it’s a key principle for us that peoples have the democratic right to define their own fate, also within the EU.”

Now, having rebranded itself as a conservative Belgian force, the party is once again flirting with pro-independence demands in the run-up to the 2019 election.

Siding with the Catalan leader’s request for asylum would pit the N-VA against its coalition partners, especially the French-speaking liberal MR party of Prime Minister Michel.

“The situation in Catalonia, this is difficult to just let something like that pass by” — Dave Sinardet
Michel’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Puigdemont on Monday sought legal advice from Belgian lawyer Paul Bekaert, a specialist in human rights law who has defended Basque militants’ requests for citizenship in the past, news agency Belga wrote. Bekaert said he would defend Puigdemont.

If the Catalan leader is to get asylum under Belgian law, he would have to prove that he is in serious and imminent danger in Spain, that his prosecution is disproportionate and that it violates international human rights principles.

Francken’s off-the-cuff suggestion “means a member of the government, is openly and publicly questioning the rule of law in Spain,” said Dave Sinardet, a Belgian political analyst and academic who studies separatist movements globally. He said “in that sense, it is a far-reaching incident.”

But the political temptation may be too great for the Flemish nationalists, Sinardet said: “The situation in Catalonia, this is difficult to just let something like that pass by.”

Harry Cooper contributed to this article.

India's biggest tax reform gets mixed reactions

Kurdish leader Barzani resigns

Kurdish leader Barzani resigns after independence vote backfires
Raya Jalabi, Maher Chmaytelli

ERBIL/BAGHDAD Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said he would give up his position as president on Nov. 1, after an independence referendum he championed backfired and triggered a regional crisis.

There was high drama at the Kurdish parliament, which was stormed by armed protesters as it met to approve the veteran leader’s resignation as Kurdish president. Some MPs were barricaded in their offices on Sunday evening.

In a televised address, his first since Iraqi forces launched a surprise offensive to recapture Kurdish-held territory on Oct. 16, Barzani confirmed that he would not extend his presidential term after Nov. 1 “under any conditions”.

“I am the same Masoud Barzani, I am a Peshmerga (Kurdish fighter) and will continue to help my people in their struggle for independence,” said Barzani, who has campaigned for Kurdish self-determination for nearly four decades.

The address followed a letter he sent to parliament in which he asked members to take measures to fill the resulting power vacuum.

The region’s parliament met in the Kurdish capital Erbil on Sunday to discuss the letter. A majority of 70 Kurdish MPs voted to accept Barzani’s request and 23 opposed it, Kurdish TV channels Rudaw and Kurdistan 24 said.

Demonstrators, some carrying clubs and guns, stormed the parliament building as the session was in progress.

Gunshots were heard. Some protesters outside the building said they wanted to “punish” MPs who they said had “insulted” Barzani. Some attacked journalists at the scene.

A Kurdish official had told Reuters on Saturday that Barzani had decided to hand over the presidency without waiting for elections that had been set for Nov. 1 but which have now been delayed by eight months.

The region, which had enjoyed unprecedented autonomy for years, has been in turmoil since the independence referendum a month ago prompted military and economic retaliation from Iraq’s central government in Baghdad.

In his address, Barzani vigorously defended his decision to hold the Sept. 25 referendum, the results of which “can never be erased”, he said. The vote was overwhelmingly for independence and triggered the military action by the Baghdad government and threats from neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

He added that the Iraqi attack on Kirkuk and other Kurdish held territory vindicated his position that Baghdad no longer believed in federalism and instead wanted to curtail Kurdish rights.

U.S. CONDEMNED

Barzani condemned the United States for failing to back the Kurds. “We tried to stop bloodshed but the Iraqi forces and Popular Mobilization Front (Shi‘ite militias) kept advancing, using U.S. weapons,” he said.

“Our people should now question, whether the U.S. was aware of Iraq’s attack and why they did not prevent it.”

Asked for reaction to Barzani’s resignation, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said: “I would refer you to Kurdistan officials for information on President Barzani. Also, we are not going to get into any private diplomatic discussions.”

Barzani has been criticised by Kurdish opponents for the loss of the city of Kirkuk, oil-rich and considered by many Kurds to be their spiritual home.

His resignation could help facilitate a reconciliation between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iraq’s central government, whose retaliatory measures since the referendum have transformed the balance of power in the north.

Barzani has led the KRG since it was established in 2005. His second term expired in 2013 but was extended without elections being held as Islamic State militants swept across vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces, Iranian-backed paramilitaries and Kurdish fighters fought alongside each other to defeat Islamic State but the alliance has faltered since the militants were largely defeated in the country.

After the Kurdish vote, Iraqi troops were ordered by the country’s prime minister Haider al-Abadi to take control of areas claimed by both Baghdad and the KRG.

Abadi also wants to take control of the border crossings between the Kurdish region and Turkey, Iran and Syria, including one through which an oil export pipeline crosses into Turkey, carrying Iraqi and Kurdish crude oil.

The fall of Kirkuk - a multi-ethnic city which lies outside the KRG’s official boundaries - to Iraqi forces on Oct. 16 was a major symbolic and financial blow to the Kurds’ independence drive because it halved the region’s oil export revenue.

Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga started a second round of talks on Sunday to resolve a conflict over control of the Kurdistan region’s border crossings, Iraqi state TV said.

A first round was held on Friday and Saturday, with Abadi ordering a 24-hour suspension on Friday of military operations against Kurdish forces.

He demanded on Thursday that the Kurds declare their referendum void, rejecting the KRG offer to suspend its independence push to resolve a crisis through talks, saying in a statement: “We won’t accept anything but its cancellation and the respect of the constitution.”

Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli and Raya Jalabi; Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson in Washington; Editing by Andrew Roche and Mary Milliken  Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

மற்றொரு `தேசியத் தலைவர்` மனமுடைந்து போனார்!

'Nobody stood with the Kurds' says bitter Barzani
Reuters Staff

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani gave a bitter speech on Sunday to announce his resignation, saying no one outside the Kurds’ home region had stood up to support their right of self-determination. 

Barzani made a televised speech after the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament approved his request not to extend his term beyond Nov. 1, after an independence referendum he championed last month backfired and triggered military and economic retaliation against the Kurdish region he has been leading since 2005.

“Three million votes for Kurdistan independence created history and cannot be erased,” he said, referring to the referendum held on Sept. 25.

“Nobody stood up with us other than our mountains,” he said, speaking with Kurdish and Iraqi flags behind him.

He criticised the United States for allowing Abrams tanks supplied to Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants to be used against the Kurds. He said American weapons were also used in attacks by Iranian-backed paramilitaries.

“Without the help of Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters), Iraqi forces could not have liberated Mosul from ISIS alone,” he said, referring to Islamic State’s former stronghold in northern Iraq.

“Why would Washington want to punish Kurdistan?”

(Asked the 71 year old Kurdish National Leader!-ENB)

He said followers of rival Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, who died in early October, had been guilty of “high treason” for handing over the oil city of Kirkuk to Iraqi forces without a fight two weeks ago.

He said the Iraqi offensives since Oct. 16 and the refusal of the Iraqi government to agree to dialogue vindicated his view that “Iraq no longer believes in Kurdish rights”.

Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Andrew Roche Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
===========================

கற்றலோனிய பிரிவினை ஏகாதிபத்தியவாதிகளின் நிலை

European Union 

Has backed Madrid in its handling of the crisis, which Rajoy has insisted is an internal matter.

The UK and Germany, 

Not recognize Catalonia's independence declaration.

France:

Does not recognize the declaration of independence.

United States

"Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government's constitutional measures* to keep Spain strong and united," 

* Article 155

'உரு` ஈழக் கலைப்பட கலந்துரையாடல் - லண்டன்

“உரு” என்றால் சாமியாடல், ஒரு மாதிரிச் சாமிப்போக்கு, இலேசான மனோவியாதி என்றெல்லாம் பொருள் கொள்வர்.

உருக்கொள்ளல் என்றால் உன்னதமான ஆவேசம் , உண்மையின் சுடர் தேடி ஓடும் ஒரு ஆவேச ஓட்டம் என்றே பொருள் கொள்ளவேண்டும்.

“ஆட்கொணர்வு மனு” என்ற சட்டவாதம் செல்லாக்காசாகிய ஒரு நிலத்தில் “உருக்கொள்ளல்” தவிர்க்கமுடியாத ஒன்றாகும்.

சர்வதேச யுத்த நியமங்களை அலட்சியப்படுத்திய யுத்த வெறியர்களின் ஆட்சி மக்களை உருக்கொள்ளவே தூண்டும்.

யுத்தக்குற்றவாளிகள் ஆட்சிபீடங்களை அலங்கரிக்கின்ற

நாட்டில் தாய்மாரின் கண்ணீர்  நதிக்கு அணை கட்ட வெகுசனங்களின் எழுச்சியே ஒற்றைப்பாதை.....

ஈழதேசம் எங்கும் கேட்கப்படும்

“இராணுவத்திடம் கையளிக்கப்பட எம் உறவுகள் எங்கே”

என்ற கேள்விக்கான பதில் இன்னமும்

“அவர்கள் விடுதலைப்புலிகள் அவர்களை விடுதலை செய்யமுடியாது”

என்ற யுத்தக் குற்றவாளிகளின் வெறிக்கூச்சலாகவே இருக்கின்றது.

இரஞ்சகுமாரின் “கோசலை” சிறுகதை, வீட்டை மறந்து , நாட்டு மக்களுக்காய் காணாமல் போன பிள்ளைகளை வீடு என்ற குருவிக்கூட்டில் குஞ்சுகள் கூடி வாழ்ந்த நினைவுகளின் தாலாட்டில் மீளக் கண்டு தாயானவள் நாட்கள் நடைபோடும்.

“உரு” மகனின் மாறா நினைவுகளின் தடங்களில் தொடங்குகின்றது.

தாயன்பு உலகை எனக்கு காட்டிய ஒளிவிளக்கு என்று கொண்டாடிய பிள்ளையின் கவிவரிகள் இப்போது அன்னையின் கண்ணீர்த் தணல்கள்.

பிதிர்க்கடன்கள் மீதான நம்பிக்கை காலங்காலமாக வழங்கி வந்த மண்ணில் ,

“வீழ்ந்தது உன் கர்ப்பத்தவம்” என்ற செய்தியைக்கூட சொல்ல எல்லாம் வென்ற அரசு மறுக்கின்றது.

யுத்தம் வெல்லப்பட்டு கிட்டத்தட்ட பத்தாண்டுகள் ஆன பின்பும் துட்டகெமுனுக்களுக்கு எல்லாளர்களுக்கு ஒரு வணக்கம் வைக்கக்கூட மனசில்லை அவ்வளவு கர்வம். அத்துணை அகங்காரம்.

“வென்றிலன் என்ற போதும் வேதமுள்ளளவும் யானும் நின்றுளன் அன்றோ”

என கம்பராமாயண யுத்த காண்டத்தில் இராவணன் இறுமாந்தது போல

ஈழதேசத்தவரும்

நச்சுவாயுத் தாக்குதலாலும், நரக வேதனைகளாலும் தங்களது கோரிக்கையின் நியாயம் சற்றேனும் குன்றிவிடாத வைராக்கியத்தில் காலூன்றி நிற்பதனால் வந்த கோபாக்கினியோ என்னவோ?

அரசு தனது பொறுப்பில் நின்று வழுவி நிற்பதானால் கால ஓட்டம் நின்று விடுமா என்ன? 

வாழ்வின் ஓட்ட த்துக்கும் தேடல்கள், ஆசுவாசங்கள் அவசியம்தானே...? சர்வரோக நிவாரணியாக விபூதியும், பக்தர்கள் முகம் பார்த்தே துயரறியும் 

மனோதத்துவ பூசாரிகளும் தங்கள் கடமையை நிறைவேற்றவே செய்வர்.

அதிரடியாக கிளம்புவது

“பனையாலை விழுந்தவனை மாடேறி மிதிச்ச கதை”

குருதிப்புனலில் கூட குன்றிமணி தங்கம் காண ஈனர்கள் புறப்பட்டால்

தாய்மனசு அதற்கும் தங்கம் கொடுக்கும் அன்றோ...

ஆனால் “தாயறியாத சேயுமுண்டோ”

என்ற மகுட வாக்கியத்தை மண் தின்னிகள் கொள்ளைவெறியில் மறந்துவிடுவதே அந்தக் குடும்பத்தின் எஞ்சிய சேகரங்களை

காக்கும் கவசமாகின்றது.

இத் திரைக் கதறலை காண்பதுவும்

பரப்புவதும், பரம்புவதும்

“அடம்பன் கொடியும் திரண்டால் மிடுக்கு” என்று காணாமல் போன உங்கள் காவல் தெய்வங்களுக்காய் அணி நிரை தோற்பதும் உங்கள் கடன்... காலம் உங்களிடம் கையளித்த மணிவிளக்கு...

“உரு” க் கொள்ளுங்கள்.

“உரு” ப் படுங்கள்.

--------------------------------------------------------------

'உரு` வாகுங்கள்

---------------------------------------------------------------

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."

கற்றலானிய குடியரசு மலர்க!

Catalonia's parliament backs independence-Spanish senate voted to direct rule.

Catalonia's parliament backs independence;
Spanish senate voted to impose direct rule.

After jubilant scenes in Barcelona, Spain's prime minister calls for calm amid the country's worst political crisis in decades.

Friday 27 October 2017 16:22, UK,

Catalonia's parliament has voted to declare independence from Spain, shortly before Madrid voted to impose direct rule on the region.

Tens of thousands of independence supporters chanted their joyous support as they gathered near the Catalan parliament in Barcelona.

Watching events from inside on two giant screens, they clapped and shouted "independence" in Catalan.

The motion - boycotted by opposition parties - said Catalonia was an independent, sovereign and social democratic state, and called on other countries and institutions to recognise it.

Not long afterwards, the Spanish senate voted to impose direct rule.

The main secessionist group in Catalonia asked civil servants to respond to orders from Madrid with "peaceful resistance".

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont urged supporters to "maintain the momentum" in a peaceful way.

But in a sign of the seriousness with which Madrid is taking the vote for independence, Spain's top prosecutor may seek rebellion charges against those responsible for it, a spokesman said.

Minutes after the vote in Barcelona, Spain's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, called for "calm from all Spaniards".

"The rule of law will restore legality in Catalonia," he tweeted.

Mr Rajoy has called a cabinet meeting for 6pm UK time.

Options open to him include sacking the government in Barcelona and taking direct control of the Catalan police.

Speaking outside the senate, Mr Rajoy said Catalan politicians had done "something that is not possible - declare independence".

The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said the EU would continue to deal with Spain only.

"For EU nothing changes," he said.

"Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force."

Shares in Catalan banks fell after the result of the Barcelona vote became clear.

Catalonia’s leader again refused to declare independence. Now it’s up to parliament.

Catalonia’s leader again refused to declare independence. Now it’s up to parliament.

By William Booth and Pamela Rolfe October 26 at 3:26 PM

As confusion swirled around the fate of Spain’s wealthiest region, Catalonia’s secessionist leader declined to renew his call for a declaration of independence — and ruled out holding snap elections, defying predictions made just hours earlier.

As deadlines loomed and threats from Madrid of a takeover mounted, Catalonia’s pro-independence president, Carles Puigdemont, first scheduled, then canceled, then rescheduled his announcement about what would happen next.

Finally, in late afternoon, Puigdemont appeared in the government palace and said the regional parliament must decide what will happen next — a sign that his governing coalition may be unraveling.

The Catalan parliament was scheduled to debate at noon Friday.

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont says he has decided against calling a snap election in Catalonia. (Reuters)

If the parliament declares independence, it is likely that the central government in Madrid would act quickly to suspend the regional body and take over authority of the government in Barcelona.

Meaning? Catalonia’s chaotic bid to carve an independent republic out of Spain isn’t over yet.

Puigdemont’s words Thursday clearly upset many of his constituents, who believed they were getting close to forming a new republic.

“They don’t care about the people, because we already voted for independence,” said Joana Romera, 25, a university student who had come to the Catalan government palace to hear what Puigdemont had to say.

“At the end, it’s always the politicians who decide,” she said, flashing disappointment and anger. “We’re in the same situation as before.”

Puigdemont denounced what he described as heavy-handed tactics by the central government in Madrid.

“I have considered the possibility of calling elections,” Puigdemont said. But he ruled it out because “there are not enough guarantees” from the central government not to seize control of the region.

All eyes turn now to the parliaments in Barcelona and Madrid.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has pressed to take control of the Catalan government, including its police, public media and finances.

Rajoy last week promised to invoke Article 155 of the Spanish constitution designed to rein in a renegade region “to restore institutional legality and normality.”

Puigdemont reportedly sought a promise from Rajoy that the Spanish senate would not vote on Article 155 — a “nuclear option” that has never been tried. The Spanish parliament is expected to make a decision on the takeover Friday.

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the deputy prime minister in the central government, told the senate on Thursday that “secessionism’s trip to nowhere must reach its point of return, a return to lawfulness.”

She pressed for the implementation of Article 155, calling the pro-independence leaders “beyond the law.”

“By refusing to comply with the law, they have sown mistrust,” she said. “The damage to social harmony is overwhelming; the damage to trust is very deep. They have taken institutional problems down into the streets of Catalonia and into the homes of Catalans.”

Inés Arrimadas, a leader of the Citizens party, which serves in the opposition in Barcelona, displayed a frustration felt by many.

“Not even Kafka’s trial was as Kafkaesque as this process,” she said. “That’s enough, Mr. Puigdemont. How much longer are we Catalans going to have to deal with this?”

Addressing Puigdemont, she said: “You use the name of the Catalans. But we Catalans are divided. And you are hurting Catalonia.”

As rumors swirled that Puigdemont was about to walk away from a declaration of independence, his former supporters denounced him on social media and the streets as a coward and a traitor.

A former ally called him a Judas on Twitter.

Mireia Boya Busquet, a leader of a leftist pro-independence party, said: “Don't let them steal our republic in backroom deals. Bring it to the streets. Where it started, and will win, despite everything.”

Fellow party members said they would defect — and Puigdemont’s vice president reportedly threatened to resign.

The separatists in Catalonia, led by Puigdemont, staged a referendum this month despite the fact that the courts had declared it unconstitutional.

More than 2 million people cast ballots for independence, though the turnout for the referendum was around 40 percent of eligible voters.

In Madrid, people called the flip-flopping and vagueness in Catalonia “agonizing” and “unprofessional.”

But many suspected the drama was part of a long political negotiation between Barcelona and Madrid.

“Neither of the sides wants to go through to the most extreme scenario,” said Ignacio Escolar, editor in chief of El Diario newspaper. “Otherwise they already would have done it. I think we are in the last minutes of a negotiation that has time all the way up through the end of the senate’s session tomorrow.”


Rolfe reported from Madrid. Raul Gallego Abellan contributed to this report.