Spain tightens control over Catalan spending as tensions soar

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Spain's central government launched its latest salvo against Catalonia on Friday, tightening control over regional spending and brushing aside a last-ditch separatist demand for dialogue to allow a banned referendum.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was due later Friday in the Catalan capital of Barcelona to rally his troops against a backdrop of soaring tensions over separatist leaders' plans to hold the outlawed independence vote on October 1.

People attend the official launch of Catalonia's main separatist parties' campaign for an independence referendum at the Tarraco arena in Tarragona on September 14, 2017. /AFP Photo

State authorities have piled pressure on Catalonia, threatening to arrest mayors if they facilitate the referendum and ordering police to seize any item that could be used in the vote in a region sharply divided over whether it wants independence or not.

But separatists have reacted with defiance.

On Thursday evening, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and other regional players launched their campaign for the referendum in front of a crowd of thousands of cheering supporters in the coastal city of Tarragona, ignoring warnings that the event was "illegal."

In an open letter distributed to domestic and foreign media on Friday, Puigdemont and other leaders including Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau denounced "unprecedented repression" by Madrid.

"Esteladas" (Catalan pro-independence flags) and a banner reading "Yes" hang during the official launch of the Catalan main separatist parties' campaign for an independence referendum, at the Tarraco arena in Tarragona on September 14, 2017. /AFP Photo

They also asked Rajoy and the Spanish king for a last-ditch dialogue, but were promptly rebuked.

"It's ironic coming from those who have refused dialogue save for a very specific issue – the only one they care about – the independence referendum," government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told reporters.

Upping the ante in the war of words between both sides, Puigdemont even likened the struggle for Catalan independence to the bloody 1936-9 civil war in an interview with Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung – touching on a painful piece of Spanish history.

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Source(s): AFP