Spain Chooses Nukes in Catalonia Impasse

Spain to Take 'Nuclear Option' on Catalonia 

by TRNN

October 24, 2017

Spain's central government went 'even more nuclear than anybody had expected' when it announced plans to completely strip Catalonia of its autonomy, says Professor Sebastiaan Faber of Oberlin College

The constitutional crisis in Spain and Catalonia is escalating. In response to Catalonia's recent independence vote, Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has announced he will strip Catalonia's autonomy and remove its leader. This so-called nuclear option is based on article 155 of Spain's constitution, which allows the parliament to take extraordinary measures to restore order in the country.

The move still needs to be ratified by the Spanish parliament, but on Saturday, Rajoy said it's his only option.

"We applied article 55 because no government, I repeat, no government of any democratic country can accept that the law is ignored, that the law is violated, that the law is changed, and that all of that is done in an aim to impose their criteria on others."

 Sebastiaan Faber, professor of Hispanic studies at Oberlin College, author of the forthcoming book Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War.