This morning, Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy emailed the Catalan government a requirement to clarify whether or not they have declared independence. This is the first step towards applying article 155 of the Spanish Constitution which would lead to Catalonia's autonomy being revoked. The US financial news agency Bloomberg sees Catalan president Carles Puigdemont's response in the next few days to this requirement as key for the implications it will have, whatever his response ends up being.
“Puigdemont will have nowhere to hide now,” said Angel Talavera, an analyst at Oxford Economics in London, in an interview with Bloomberg. “If he does clarify it’s independence, then Rajoy applies Article 155, and if he doesn’t his coalition may break up and that could lead to elections.”
Bloomberg reports that Mariano Rajoy has increased the pressure on Catalonia "taking the first step in a process that could strip the region’s separatist government of its limited autonomy and impose direct control from Madrid".