from Zero Hedge
With Spain’s prime minister having opened earlier in the day the path for Madrid to use a constitutional “nuclear option” to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy, demanding that the regional government makes clear whether it considers itself independent, moments ago Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gave Catalan President Carles Puigdemont a five day ultimatum to clarify whether he actually declared the region’s independence in his speech devoted to the highly controversial referendum, and another 3 to “rectify it.”
Spain’s leader said that it’s important for Catalonia’s leader to get his answer right on whether he declared independence or not. Rajoy, addressing Spain’s parliament, says that that Catalan president Carles Puigdemont “just needs to say he didn’t declare independence.”
The latest development comes after Rajoy said earlier on Wednesday that the cabinet of ministers asked for clarification on the issue of autonomous region’s independence. As reported earlier, Rajoy decided to take the first step towards triggering Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which would give Madrid previously unused powers to take control of Catalonia’s regional government, after an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Rajoy said his formal request for clarity was “necessary when activating Article 155” and would dictate the next steps in the crisis to “offer certainty to the citizens”.
Using Article 155 to suspend Catalan autonomy would deepen the constitutional crisis in Spain since Catalonia held a contested referendum on independence on October 1. Spain’s government says Catalonia’s independence drive is unconstitutional.
The prime minister also said that the “illegal referendum” has failed, adding that Catalan authorities lack the legitimacy to propose a unilateral declaration of independence. He underlined that the vote undermines our democracy, Spanish unity and the Statute of Catalonia.
Meanwhile, AP reports, there were signs that the government was trying to take some steps to de-escalate the situation. Pedro Sanchez, the head of the opposition socialists, said on Wednesday that his party and the ruling centre-right PP party had agreed to talks to renegotiate laws governing regional autonomy.
He said there would be six months of talks on reforming the constitution, followed by a debate in parliament, adding that his party wanted a constitutional reform to “allow for Catalonia to remain a part of Spain”.
Also on Wednesday, Puidgemont told CNN his regional government is prepared to have talks on independence without preconditions with Spain. To date, Carles Puigdemont has repeatedly said that the right to self-determination must be on the table in any talks. Spain, in turn, says it can’t discuss an independence referendum as it goes against the constitution.
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Poland, I expect them to leave the EU next year.
Italy, will more than likely have a Eurosceptic coalition of around 60% of the vote on withdrawing from the Euro, if not the EU itself.
Ireland, Donald Trump’s Tax Reform Act involves the repatriation of the Euro Dollar. He is giving the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon a tax break or incentive to repatriate $2.7 – $4trn worth taxes to the USA. Those companies are primarily based in Ireland. With the punitive retrospective tax hits by the EU, the US government are fighting Apple’s corner.
Britain, in all likelihood we will leave without a deal creating a massive black hole in the EU budget.
Germany, no government… likely to have to new elections increasing the power of the FDP and AFD.
Greece, how will they be effected by the contagion given the dormant economic problems?
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