Spain's central government and regional Catalan authorities were battling at the weekend over control of the regional police force in a dispute seen as central to the fate of the Catalonian independence referendum on October 1.The Spanish courts have ruled the vote illegal, and the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, is expected to work alongside thousands of state police, brought especially to the region, to prevent it.
The Spanish interior ministry told all local and national police forces on Saturday they had been temporarily placed under a single chain of command reporting directly to the interior ministry in
Madrid.
The ministry would directly co-ordinate all police operations in Catalonia as the government prepares to forcibly prevent the referendum.
But the pro-independence Catalan regional government has said it will not comply with the ruling, opening up another front in a rapidly escalating conflict between Madrid and Catalonia that threatens to turn into an acute constitutional crisis.
We denounce the intervention of the state to control the police forces of Catalonia . . . We will not accept this control
Joaquim Forn, Catalan interior minister
“We do not accept this interference of the state, jumping over all existing co-ordination mechanisms,” said Joaquim Forn, Catalan interior minister, adding that the police “will not renounce exercising their functions in loyalty to the Catalan people”.
As thousands of Catalan separatists rallied across Barcelona and other towns on Sunday, it was not clear whether the regional administration could legally oppose the move. Spanish law allows for state police to lead over local police in a joint operation.
But the rejection — and what Madrid does next — raises fundamental questions about the influence the Spanish state has in Catalonia.
The Spanish interior ministry said the prosecutor’s request did not mean the national government was “taking command” of the Mossos but that the move was designed to enhance co-ordination.
But in Barcelona it was seen as a way of taking effective control of the autonomous force, with some saying it echoed the move made by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to abolish it.
Josep Lluis Trapero, Catalan police chief, had also rejected giving up control to the central government, according to Mr Forn.
SAP, the largest trade union for the 17,000-member Mossos, also said it would resist the move.
The decision by Madrid comes amid government concern that the Mossos has not been aggressive enough in cracking down on those helping organise or support the vote on October 1.
Mariano Rajoy, Spanish prime minister, said the independence vote would not go ahead. “It will not happen because this would mean liquidating the law,” he said on Saturday.
But the Catalonian government opened a new website on Saturday with details of how and where to vote in the referendum. “You can't stem the tide,” Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s president, said on Twitter.
On Sunday, grassroots pro-independence groups distributed a million ballots for the independence vote, in another act of defiance.
Spanish state police, acting on court orders, last week raided regional government offices, arrested senior Catalan officials and seized ballot papers, ballot boxes, voting lists and other electoral material.
The finance ministry in Madrid has also stepped up control of regional finances to make sure public money is not being used for logistics or campaigning for the vote.
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