Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has decided to activate the procedure that will trigger the application of article 155 of the Constitution to Catalonia. He announced it himself shortly after 12 at the end of the extraordinary government meeting in Moncloa. In the afternoon he will report to Parliament.
In his message, Rajoy left little room for negotiation but specified that he had asked the Catalan government led by Carles Puidgemont to clarify whether independence was formally declared or not, and to get out of the state of confusion - these are the words of the Spanish premier - in which the country was found after the meeting of the Barcelona Parliament on a Tuesday evening. This is the condition to stop the procedure or open the doors to the implementation of the article envisaged by the Spanish constitution, a real taboo, never activated so far.
In practice, Rajoy threatened to resort to article 155 - which allows the government powers of intervention to guarantee national unity - but stalled, throwing the ball back onto the opponent's turf. But the "suspended independence" declared by Puidgemont - who publicly signed the declaration of separation from Madrid - had already seemed the widest possible mediation by the Catalan government, divided internally, between the hawks in favor of immediate independence and the doves more open to dialogue.
Rajoy does not leave much room for Puidgemont, it will be seen in the next few days where they will take their respective positions. The Madrid Stock Exchange opened higher Wednesday morning and was up 1,5% at 12,30 following Rajoy's statement.
