Catalonia. Rajoy Has Made A Complete BOG Of The Whole Situation!

 Ambrose Evans-Pritchard  27 OCTOBER 2017 • Telegraph.
 The self-styled Republic of Catalonia is scrambling to put together the economic machinery of a sovereign state after the momentous vote for independence in the Catalan parliament, but the quixotic venture faces a devastating counter-attack from the Spanish state within days.  Large global banks and funds are no longer convinced that premier Mariano Rajoy can contain the crisis.

It is one thing to invoke the nuclear option of Article 155 under the Spanish constitution: it is quite another to subdue the breakaway region.  Antonio Montilla from Citigroup said Catalonia’s leaders are now in “open rebellion against the Spanish state”, precipitating a drastic response that has its own dreadful logic and risks spinning out of control.  “Violent confrontations and widespread civil unrest could possibly follow. We do not believe the current impasse will escalate into a civil war, even if we cannot rule...
(I note with interest that Ukip MEP, Jonathan Arnott - a great hispanophile and even greater supporter of democracy - is observing the current processes inside Catalonia itself.)