The Spanish government is to hold an emergency meeting to stop a potential investiture of Carles Puigdemont. The announcement was made by the central government's delegate to Catalonia, Enric Millo, who explained that prime minister Mariano Rajoy will convene his cabinet in the coming hours to appeal a bill passed last Friday by the Catalan Parliament to enable the investiture to the Constitutional Court. The independence movement plans to try and reinvest him as president before 14th May.
Millo said that the possibility of Puigdemont being invested "is zero". About the possibility of a provisional president, whilst Puigdemont keeps the real leadership, he said that "we cannot imagine the investiture of a puppet president", that "it would show such scorn for the institutions".
Nor have they, Millo says, discounted applying article 155 of the Constitution again, if the new Catalan government doesn't obey the "constitutional and statutory framework", if it is inclined to "break the law". He didn't go further into this, however. That said, they don't plan on any other actions.
Triumphal evaluation
The Spanish government delegate has this Monday presented a report on the Spanish government's actions in Catalonia during 2017. A year marked first by the intervention in the Catalan government's finances and then by the suspension of autonomy via article 155. He argued that the application of this article has allowed them to "normalise" the situation in Catalonia. He took advantage of the opportunity to defend the state's presence in the autonomous community: "these are the state's structures".
He claimed they have fulfilled all the "commitments" they made, namely a "greater presence" by the state in Catalonia, the recovery of a "multilateral dialogue" with all parties involved, the defence of the law and the carrying out "professionally and rigorously" of their role. He said that, although the decisions weren't easy, it has allowed for the "reactivation" of the Catalan government which he described as having blocked itself.
Millo emphasised that, following the application of article 155, 1.1 billion euros (£1.0 billion, $1.3 million) have been paid to Catalan towns and villages, 1.5 billion euros to providers and 5.8 billion euros will be approved through the Regional Liquidity Fund.
Dialogue?
The PP leader said that the "Spanish government's wish for dialogue from the beginning" was not returned by the Catalan government.. This situation, he continued, resulted in the "abolition" of the Spanish Constitution and Catalan Statute of Autonomy on 6th and 7th September last year, and in the "simulation of the illegal referendum". He concluded that article 155 helped them "recover autonomy, reestablish democracy and open the Parliament again".
Despite the letter the Parliament's speaker, Roger Torrent, sent to Mariano Rajoy asking for a meeting, Millo said he had never extended a hand for dialogue. He expressed a wish to meet with both Torrent and the future government.