More Complexity Ahead If Catalonia Doesn’t Declare Independence

Posted: October 26th, 2017

By Marc Gafarot

Marc Gafarot is an international relations and public affairs consultant. He has worked in the field of International Processes of Secession and International Cooperation at CIDOB. As a journalist and political commentator, he has worked from London for Bloomberg LP, in Latin America for Summit Communications and served as a Parliamentary Adviser at the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. Gafarot has also worked from Barcelona as head of International Relations for Fundació CATmón and for the English-language magazine, Catalan International View.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced this weekend that his government would invoke Article 155 to depose the current regional government and impose direct rule over Catalonia until new elections can be held in six months. On Friday, the Spanish senate will vote on this response to the Catalonian independence referendum held on October 1. While Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is expected to make an announcement at a Catalonian parliamentary session today. The Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge spoke with Marc Gafarot, a Public Affairs consultant and expert on secessionist movements based in Barcelona, about how this crisis may play into the political goals of some leaders in Madrid.

The Cipher Brief: How has the Spanish government’s decision to invoke Article 155 of the Constitution and begin the process towards imposing direct rule changed the Catalonian crisis, and what happens now?

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