Spain on red alert

Humphrey CarterPalma12/10/2019 09:50

With a November general election looming in Spain which is highly unlikely to change the political spectrum, or perhaps make it even more complicated, caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez could be in for his first kicking from certain sectors of the electorate next week.

Spain’s Supreme Court is expected to announce its verdict on Monday in the high-stakes trial of Catalan separatist leaders over their role in a banned independence referendum.

The outcome could reignite the deep running feelings in Catalonia and spill out onto the streets - again and Sanchez has done his best to wind the Catalans and their supporters up ahead of the ruling.

This week Sanchez attacked what he described as a “big lie” of the separatist movement for Catalonia, adding that efforts to force the independence of the Catalan region were “a shipwreck.”

Sanchez admitted that the verdict would “raise the decibels” of the debate in the region and said that his acting government would provide a “proportionate” response to any possible disturbances that could happen after the verdict.

The Interior Ministry has already deployed police reinforcements to Catalonia while Madrid has warned that it is ready to take direct control of the region, as it did in 2017.

Just keep on adding more wood to the fire Mr. Sanchez.