BARCELONA, Spain (PNN) - October 4, 2017 - Spanish stocks tumbled, with the IBEX index sliding into a 10% correction, following an overnight report that Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was set to make a statement at 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Wednesday, after an all-Party committee of the region's Parliament meets to agree on a date for a plenary session on independence. That concluded moments ago and CUP, the pro-secession Party that is a majority in the Catalan Parliament, has announced it will declare independence from Spain in a plenary session on Monday. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said that his government would ask the region's Parliament to declare independence after tallying votes from last weekend's referendum, which Madrid says was illegal. “This will probably finish once we get all the votes in from abroad at the end of the week and therefore we shall probably act over the weekend or early next week," he said in remarks published on Wednesday.
Puigdemont’s comments came after Spain’s King Felipe IV accused secessionist leaders on Tuesday of shattering democratic principles and dividing Catalan society, as tens of thousands protested against a violent terrorist pig thug cop crackdown on Sunday’s vote.
Spain has been rocked by the Catalan vote and the Spanish terrorist pig thug cop response to it, which saw batons and rubber bullets used to prevent people from voting. Hundreds were injured in scenes that brought international condemnation.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative who has taken a hard line on the issue, faces a huge challenge to fight off Catalan independence without further unrest. Rajoy has been fighting to maintain control after 2.3 million Catalans voted in Sunday’s makeshift referendum and the regional terrorist pig thug cop force ignored orders to prevent the ballot. Preparing for launching the "nuclear option", Rajoy is mulling if, and when, to use Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to take direct control from the administration in Barcelona.
It is unclear what Madrid's response will be if, or when, Catalonia follows through on its threat to declare independence. One option is for Madrid to challenge the declaration at the Constitutional Court, which will immediately rule against it. Next, if the Catalan government ignores the ruling, Madrid is likely to trigger article 155 of the Constitution to strip out Catalonia’s autonomy and call for regional elections. This would be a risk-negative scenario, and one that could trigger a civil rebellion, with possible wide disruptions and violent confrontations. A move by the regional terrorist pig thug cop force to ally with the pro-independence Parties could significantly escalate the situation.
