Madrid Gives Catalonia 5 Day Ultimatum To Clarify If It Declared Independence

With Spain’s prime minister having opened earlier in the day the path for Madrid to use a constitutional “nuclear option” to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy, demanding that the regional government makes clear whether it considers itself independent, moments ago Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gave Catalan President Carles Puigdemont a five day ultimatum to clarify whether he actually declared the region's independence in his speech devoted to the highly controversial referendum, and another 3 to "rectify it."

The news comes after Rajoy said earlier on Wednesday that the cabinet of ministers asked for clarification on the issue of autonomous region's independence.

As reported earlier, Rajoy decided to take the first step towards triggering Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which would give Madrid previously unused powers to take control of Catalonia’s regional government, after an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Rajoy said his formal request for clarity was “necessary when activating Article 155” and would dictate the next steps in the crisis to “offer certainty to the citizens”.
 [zerohedge.com]
 11/10/17
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Related:

• Rajoy to formally ask Puigdemont about independence status

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• The Spanish government has given Catalan President Carles Puigdemont five days to clarify whether he actually declared the region's independence or not in his speech devoted to the highly controversial referendum...