Bank Run Imminent: Catalan Separatists Urge Supporters To Pull Cash From ATMs On Friday Morning
19
October, 2017
As
tensions escalate in Spain, Catalan Separatists are potentially about
to do some real damage and hit Madrid where it really hurts.
In
a tweeted message to their 270,000 followers, Assemblea
Nacional urged supporters to pull cash from CaixaBank and Banco
Sabadell branches between 8 am and 9am Friday to
protest at their decision to shift their legal domiciles out of the
region...
#BREAKING Civil society groups in Catalonia call for mass withdrawal of money from ATMs tomorrow at 8am to pressure Spanish government
Demà, prioritàriament de 8 a 9 h, ves a un dels 5 principals bancs i retira la quantitat que vulguis en efectiu. Són els teus diners!
As
the video begins...
"Go to 1 of the 5 main banks and take out as much cash as you want. Don't forget, it's your money".
Civil society organizations in Catalonia call for a mass withdrawal of money from bank ATMs on Friday at 8am in order to pressure the Spanish government. Organizers don't especify how much money should be taken out nor what to do with it.
The action targets the five main banks in Catalonia: Caixa Bank, Sabadell, Bankia, BBVA and Santander. Organizers call on clients of Caixa Bank and Sabadell to show their disagreement with the banks' recent decision to move their headquarters out of Catalonia due to the escalating political crisis between governments in Barcelona and Madrid.
This is the first "direct and peaceful" action organized by Crida per la Democràcia (Call for Democracy). This is an umbrella group which includes among others the two main pro-independence organizations in Catalonia: the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural.
The mass withdrawal is also aimed at condemning the imprisonment of ANC and Òmnium presidents, Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart, held in custody on sedition charges since Monday.
As
a reminder, both Banco Sabadell and Caixabank - the two largest banks
of the Catalan region - moved
their corporate headquarters out of Catalonia (with the help of the
Spanish government) shortly after the referendum.
And
now it's time to find out just how solvent (and liquid) the strong
Spanish banking system truly is.
The
message has now been retweeted or liked over 7,000 times (and
remember its past midnight in Spain).
Catalonia: As Spain vows to trigger 'the most explosive clause in the constitution', what would 'direct rule' mean for Catalan independence?
The
Independent, via Yahoo
News,
19
October, 2017
The
Catalan independence crisis was plunged into uncharted waters on
Thursday as the Spanish government announced unprecedented and
potentially far-reaching plans for direct rule in the troubled
region.
Ministers
are set to meet on Saturday morning to start activating Article 155
of the Spanish Constitution, giving them control over whichever
elements of the region’s autonomy are deemed necessary to – as
Madrid put it in a statement today – “restore the legality of
Catalan self-government”.
Spain
is a country where its regions pride themselves on their considerable
margin of independent rule and action. Therefore, using Article 155
is often regarded as a political action so hard-hitting that the mere
threat of its application, as has happened only once, in 1989, in a
lengthy row over taxes between Madrid and the Canary Islands, proved
enough to quell any rebellious thoughts.
As
far back as 2015, government ministers had, according to Spanish
daily El Pais, mulled over using Article 155 in a dispute with
Catalan nationalists. This time, however, the turbulence sparked by
the Catalan separatism conflict has reached a point where the Spanish
government feel they have no choice but to trigger Article 155,
despite widespread fears that it may lead to civil unrest.
Madrid
have laid the blame for applying Article 155 squarely at the door of
regional premier Carles Puigdemont and his response to a second,
final government deadline to retract his provisional declaration of
Catalan independence last week.
Instead,
Mr Puigdemont sent a defiant letter back threatening to do the exact
opposite – and make that provisional declaration of independence
definitive. “Suspending autonomy indicates you don’t understand
the problem and don’t want to talk,” he added.
“Puigdemont
is an utterly irresponsible zombie leader whose only intention is to
hurt Catalonia and its institutions as much as he can,” fumed
Rafael Hernando, the ruling PP’s Congress spokesman later this
morning, “and the more harm, the better.”
Mr
Hernando described the Catalan crisis as “one of Spain and
sovereignty’s greatest problems” since the foiled coup d’etat
in 1981.
Resolving
this crisis, from the Spanish government’s point of view, will
start with Saturday’s cabinet meeting, with plans to be submitted
to a vote in the Senate where the PP has an overall majority.
Rather
than taking full-scale control of all regional government departments
– which technically it could claim to have the authority to do,
given the vagueness of Article 155’s remit to “protect the
general interest of the state” – it is believed Madrid will begin
with limited direct intervention. Taking over the running of the
local police, the Mossos d’Esquadra and government finances is seen
as likely, and in the mid-term, regional elections are a near
certainty.
Article
155 is a constitutional weapon of powerful, but somewhat limited
range. It does not permit varying a pre-established order of
measures, for example, nor taking full control of the region’s
autonomous government. According to El País, experts back in 2015
already unanimously stated that Article 155 did not contemplate using
the Spanish army to gain control of an unruly autonomous region,
either.
Whether
that comparatively softball approach is enough to keep a lid on
fuming nationalist sentiment is debatable. The Mossos d’Esquadra’s
current director, Josep Lluis Trapero, is currently very much in the
media spotlight after he was charged by a Madrid court with sedition,
over the Catalan police’s alleged lack of collaboration in stopping
the banned pro-independence referendum. His removal from power would
likely prove controversial.
What
the lengthy process of getting Article 155 up and running will give
Madrid’s government is some much needed room for manoeuvre. The
Senate vote that gives the definitive green light will take at least
a week, and possibly until 30 October, to be carried out. Actually
implementing Article 155 could take longer still.
As
for the nationalist reaction, Mr Puigdemont has already promised (in
his letter sent on Thursday) that if “the state persists in
impeding dialogue and carrying out repression” then he will carry
out his threat of asking the Catalan parliament to make the
declaration of independence definitive.
At
a local level, unspecified “direct action” has been promised as
soon as Friday by one grassroots pro-independence association. Two of
the most important, ANC and Omnium Cultural, are expected to continue
their protests against the incarceration of their leaders, Jordi
Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, on sedition charges, and against what the
separatists view as “state persecution.” A much bigger
pro-independence – and anti-Article 155 – protest is now
scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Barcelona.
Meanwhile
as the crisis deepens, the financial markets have reacted with
concern to the latest developments in a region responsible for a
fifth of Spain’s GDP. After news of triggering of Article 155
broke, the euro weakened and by Thursday lunchtime Spain’s
benchmark stock index was already down 0.8 per cent.
How
Catalonia reacts in the coming weeks to the unprecedented unleashing
of Article 155 – which, even in 2015, El Pais described as “the
most explosive in the Constitution” – is anyone’s guess.
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