BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Latest on the Spain-Catalonia political crisis (all times local):
12:15 p.m.
Civil society groups in Catalonia are calling for new protests over the jailing of their pro-independence leaders by Spanish authorities.
Spain’s National Court ordered the leaders of Assemblea Nacional Catalana and Omnium Cultural, the grassroots organizations behind the separatist bid, to be held for allegedly orchestrating protests in mid-September that hindered a judicial investigation into preparations for the banned Oct. 1 referendum.
The group said that the first gathering will be later Thursday at the gates of the central government’s office in Barcelona, but a bigger march is planned in Catalonia’s regional capital for Saturday afternoon.
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10:20 a.m.
Spain’s government says the prime minister will hold a special Cabinet meeting on Saturday to trigger the process to take some or full control of Catalonia’s semi-autonomous powers.
The government was responding to a letter from Catalan president Carles Puigdemont who threatened to explicitly declare independence from Spain if no talks are offered.
Puigdemont said in the letter that if Spain’s government continues to “impede dialogue and continues its repression,” Catalonia’s parliament will proceed to hold a vote on declaring independence from Spain.
Spain replied that the government would hold the special Cabinet meeting and “approve the measures that will be sent to the Senate to protect the general interest of all Spaniards.”
The measure falls under Article 155 of Spain’s 1978 Constitution, but has never been used in the four decades since democracy was restored at the end of Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
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9:50 a.m.
Catalonia’s leader has threatened to explicitly declare independence from Spain if no talks are offered and central authorities follow through on a threat to take control of the region’s semi-autonomous powers.
Carles Puigdemont’s warning came in a letter to Spain’s leader minutes before the expiration of a deadline to back down on the independence bid.
Puigdemont said in the letter that if Spain’s government continues to “impede dialogue and continues its repression,” Catalonia’s parliament will proceed to hold a vote on declaring independence from Spain.
Puigdemont, in an address to the regional parliament last week, declared independence but then immediately suspended it and challenged Spain to hold negotiations.
A Spanish government official said the letter didn’t answer the call for Puigdemont to clarify whether Puigdemont had already declared independence. The official said on customary condition of anonymity that the government plans to trigger Article 155 of the Constitution.
–By Aritz Parra.
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8:50 a.m.
Catalonia’s separatist leader is facing an imminent deadline to withdraw a bid to secede from Spain.
But an official from Carles Puigdemont’s party says that he has no intention of doing that and he plans to make a full declaration of independence in the next few days if Spain’s government resorts to taking over control of Catalonia’s semi-autonomous powers.
PDECat party coordinator Marta Pascal outlined Puigdemont’s plans after a meeting late Wednesday.
Spain has threatened to take direct control of the autonomous region if Puigdemont fails to meet the 0800 GMT (4 a.m. EDT) Thursday cutoff.
Spain’s government says it would be willing to hold off on doing that if the Catalan government were to call a snap regional election. But a Catalan official has ruled that out.
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