The application of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution in Catalonia has resulted in practical terms in a change of the entire senior leadership of the Catalan government. According to the latest figures published by Servidors.cat, 259 public workers have been fired from their jobs over these almost seven months of intervention in the Catalan institutions. The Spanish government has fired a variety of officials from various levels of the administration, the majority with political roles and from the ministry the most affected by article 155: Economy.
The body distinguishes three types of damage when it comes to article 155: those which have affected specific people, those which have affected the institutions and public bodies which have been dissolved, and the other damage caused in terms of the loss or suspension of initiatives, investments or grants which depend on the Catalan administration.
NB: The above figures include all those ever affected so, for example: all those imprisoned since article 155, including those now out on bail.
The updated statistics shows that, besides the firings, there are seven pro-independence leaders in exile and nine in prison. The intervention has also led to the elimination of 24 bodies, whilst four more have been taken over.
They also detail the extent to which parliamentary activity has stopped too and the effects that that has had on bills to have been passed by the Parliament. Some seventy laws have been affected by the intervention in Catalan autonomy.
The body Servidors.cat (Association of Public Servants of Catalonia) is a group of workers of the Catalan public administration opposed to article 155, which has taken responsibility for recording the effects of the direct control by the Spanish government on the Catalan institutions. The association keeps an inventory of the long list of its effects on Catalonia which it will send to president Torra's new government.
The end of the intervention?
The report comes the day after Quim Torra was sworn in as president of Catalonia, a pre-requisite to forming a new Catalan government. According to the original agreement of the Spanish cabinet and Senate, article 155 would be lifted with the nomination of a new Catalan executive. Recently, however, there have been various voices from PP and Cs suggesting that the intervention in Catalan autonomy could take another form afterwards.
Servidors.cat have criticised this plan, noting that PP and PSOE have agreed to maintain control of the Catalan government's finances, despite the new ministers. The central treasury will continue to control its accounts, despite the opposition of pro-independence parties, under the justification that it started before the 1st October and the referendum.
Those affected
El Nacional has created an interactive table listing all the individuals affected by the application of article 155 by being fired, imprisoned, or deciding to go into exile. As well as president Carles Puigdemont, vice-president Oriol Junqueras and their ministers, there are also more than two hundred others from the administration.
The below table is searchable by name (nom), role (càrrec) and/or the effects they suffered from article 155 (fired/prison/exile).
Data from Servidors.cat, 18th May 2018 / Table: A. A.