"We will prevent the independence of Catalonia. We will take the measures necessary. Secession will not occur and the Spanish government will prevent it." This was the comment made by the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, during the Leadership Committee meeting of his PP (Popular Party) this Monday, the day before Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is scheduled to appear before the Catalan Parliament, according to PP's spokesperson Pablo Casado. Casado did not want to give more details, however, like what the measures might be or whether the support of the opposition PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) would be necessary to invoke article 155 of the Spanish Constitution (which would allow the central government to revoke Catalan autonomy). He did say that PP hopes to "remain together" with PSOE. What he did say was that, if Puigdemont declares independence tomorrow, he could "end up like the one who declared it 83 years ago". The reference is to former Catalan president Lluís Companys who, in 1934, declared the independence of Catalonia for which he ended up arrested and imprisoned.
El PP amenaça Puigdemont que pot acabar com Companys, per @EstefMolina_ https://t.co/Wr5bf0m9hb pic.twitter.com/L5lfrBOY1A
— ElNacional .cat (@elnacionalcat) 9 of October 2017
The spokesperson later sought to correct himself, saying that he was speaking about Companys' imprisonment and not his tragic end in 1940: execution by firing squad. He then undid some of this, saying that "the only fascists are the separatists" and that "Puigdemont has become a squatter in the Catalan government and the CUP [Popular Unity Candidacy] post-truth junkies". He also warned the Catalan president to "talk with his lawyer", as he said former Basque leader Juan José Ibarretxe did, saying that if he doesn't renounce the independence plan he could end up facing 7 years in prison.
He then called on the whole government to drop the independence project without waiting for anything in exchange. "There is nothing do negotiate", he said, with those who he labelled "terrorists", in exchange for them "stopping breaking the law". He explicitly compared Puigdemont and vice-president Oriol Junqueras with the architects of the 23rd February 1981 attempted coup d'état, Tejero and Armada.
In terms of making pacts, he said there will be no bilaterality with Catalonia, that it will receive the same treatment as the other autonomous communities. "It isn't the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. There are few things left to transfer to the autonomous communities. If they wanted to talk about financing, they should have come to the presidents' conference," he said.
Casado also discussed the pro-union demonstration that took place in Barcelona this Sunday, saying that there were "a million people" in attendance, an argument against Catalan president Carles Puigdemont if he were to declare independence in the name of all Catalans. It "will prevent a 'Catalan people' from being talked about ever again [as a unified entity]. It shows that the independence supporters have managed to fracture Catalan society. We weren't silent, we're silenced by the media," he said in evaluation.
As another argument against plans for independence, Casado emphasised the number of companies that have changed their registered offices in recent days. "They're lying when they say that nothing would happen to Catalonia if there's a sedition process. We strongly regret it, and it's not a result of the decree [by the cabinet last week, which makes the change easier for companies to make]. They said they wanted to be the Denmark of Europe [sic] and now they will be the Kosovo. Their credit ranking is at the level of the Gambia," he said.
The international context was also used by the PP as an argument, saying that Europe doesn't want more borders because this would open the door to other regions like Corsica in France, Veneto in Italy or Bavaria in Germany and would have economic consequences for the whole Union. "We don't want a Balkanisation of Spain, which would be a Balkanisation of Europe, which would have catastrophic consequences. Now maybe they want printers to print bank notes because it doesn't matter, if a civil servant they have blackmailed leaves it doesn't matter. Maybe the ones who have to leave are them."