Spain moves to remove Catalonia leaders

The Spanish prime minister has outlined plans to remove Catalonia’s leaders and take control of the separatist region.

Speaking after an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday, Mariano Rajoy stopped short of dissolving the region’s parliament but put forward plans for elections in the region.

The measures must now be approved by Spain’s Senate in the next few days.

The plans come almost three weeks after Catalonia held a disputed independence referendum.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has ignored pleas from the national government to withdraw the independence bid.

Mr Rajoy said the government had no choice but to push to impose direct rule, arguing that the Catalan government’s actions were “contrary to the law and seeking confrontation”.

According to BBC, this will be via Article 155 of Spain’s constitution, which allows it to impose direct rule in a crisis on any of the country’s semi-autonomous regions.

Spain’s Senate will vote within the week, Mr Rajoy said at a press conference. He said it was “not our wish, it was not our intention” to trigger the article.

Spanish law dictates that elections must be held within six months of Article 155 being triggered, but Mr Rajoy said it was imperative that the vote be held much sooner.

How did we get here?

Catalonia’s regional government held a referendum on 1 October to ask residents of the region if they wanted to break away from Spain.

Of the 43% of Catalans said to have taken part, 90% voted in favour of independence. But many anti-independence supporters boycotted the ballot, arguing it was not valid.

Mr Puigdemont and other regional leaders then signed a declaration of independence, but immediately suspended it in order to allow for talks.

He then defied two deadlines set by the national government to clarify Catalonia’s position, and the government announced it would pursue Article 155.