The constitutional duel between Madrid and the Catalonia is hitching towards a full blown conflict as the Senate in Madrid on Friday voted 214 to 47 to invoke Article 155 of Spain’s Constitution, granting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to take direct rule over the fractious region of Catalonia, just after Catalan lawmakers declared the region’s independence.
The measure will go into effect after it is published in the government register, which is expected to happen Friday night thereby closing all doors of diplomatic settlement of the crisis.
Undeterred by the government’s threat, and after a bitter debate, separatists in the Catalan Parliament passed a resolution to “create a Catalan republic as an independent state.” Lawmakers opposed to independence walked out of the chamber in protest before the vote.
