The Spanish Constitutional Court has suspended the motion of Catalonia with which the Catalan Parliament started the process of independence from Madrid. The Court thus accepted an appeal by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy who is inflaming the Spanish electoral campaign with a resounding no to the Catalan secession demands: "I will not allow - he argued - the unity of Spain to be broken". Rajoy has the support not only of his party, the EPP, but also of the PSOE and Ciudadanos, while Podemos has distanced itself.
The Catalans' reply to the Court's stoppage lasts: "We only obey our Parliament" but the Constitutional Court has warned the Catalan president Artur Mas that the independence leaders risk prosecution and dismissal.
The Court has five months to rule on the merits of the questions raised by the Catalan motion but in the meantime the clash between Madrid and Barcelona enlivens the electoral campaign in view of the vote in December.
