Catalan Parliament to discuss response to self-rule suspension on Thursday

The Catalan Parliament will hold a plenary session on Thursday to discuss the response to the Spanish government’s intent to suspend Catalonia’s government announced this past weekend. Catalan separatists could thus bring their defiance of the executive in Madrid a step further with a formal declaration of independence a day before the Spanish Senate votes on the suspension on Friday.

The Spanish government plans to trigger Article 155 of the Constitution to suspend all members of the Catalan executive, including president Carles Puigdemont, as well as taking over the police forces and controlling Catalonia’s public media.

Hours after Spanish president Mariano Rajoy announced the measures on Saturday, Puigdemont appeared on TV calling the activation of Article 155 “the worst attack on the institutions and the people of Catalonia since the decrees of the military dictator Francisco Franco.”

Puigdemont announced his government’s plans to bring the issue to be discussed at the Catalan Parliament, but has not made clear his plans to declare independence. In a recent exchange of letters with Rajoy, Puigdemont wrote that “If the Spanish government insists on blocking dialogue and continuing repression, the Catalan parliament may proceed to vote on the formal declaration of independence.”