BARCELONA: Spain’s government has defiantly rejected calls for mediation over Catalonia’s push for independence as the two factions headed toward another showdown.
The EU has urged dialogue to ease the standoff between separatists in the northeastern region and Madrid, but Catalan leaders said they could unilaterally declare independence as early as Monday.
The tone of the crisis sharpened with Catalonia’s president denouncing the king’s intervention and Spain’s government rejecting any possible talks.
“The government will not negotiate over anything illegal and will not accept blackmail,” said a statement from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s office.
“Negotiation in democracy only has one way, the way of the law.”
The dispute is Spain’s worst political crisis in decades and images of police beating unarmed Catalans taking part in Sunday’s banned independence vote sparked global concern.
Catalonia’s president Carles Puigdemont called the central government’s policies “disastrous” as the region’s leaders pushed on with its bid to break away from Spain, angering Madrid and raising the risk of further unrest.
Spain’s key IBEX 35 stock index plunged by more than three percent Wednesday in the ongoing turbulence, with some big Catalan banks down more than five percent.
“Political risk is back on the agenda in Europe,” NFS Macro analyst Nick Stamenkovic told AFP.
After meetings in the regional parliament on Wednesday, pro-independence lawmakers called a full session next Monday to debate the final results of the vote.
“According to how the session goes, independence could be declared,” a regional government source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mireia Boya of the radical leftwing separatist CUP said it would be “a plenary to proclaim the republic” of independent Catalonia.
King Felipe VI on Tuesday branded the independence drive illegal and undemocratic, throwing his weight behind the national government.
Catalan leaders “with their irresponsible conduct could put at risk the economic and social stability of Catalonia and all of Spain”, he said.
Accusing them of “disloyalty”, the king said that the state had to “ensure constitutional order”.
Puigdemont angrily rejected this, saying in a televised address: “The king has adopted the (national) government’s position and policies which have been disastrous with regard to Catalonia. He is deliberately ignoring millions of Catalans.”
He also accused the national government of failing to respond to proposals for mediation in the crisis.
A declaration of independence would intensify the conflict with the central government, which along with the national courts has branded the referendum illegal.
Madrid has the power to suspend the semi-autonomous status that Catalonia currently enjoys under Spain’s system of regional governments.
That would further enrage Catalan protesters, who say they are being repressed by Spain.
The king’s intervention could clear the way for Prime Minister Rajoy to act.
Hundreds of thousands of Catalans rallied in fury on Tuesday during a general strike over the police violence during the referendum.
Scores were injured on Sunday as police moved in en masse, beating voters and protesters as they lay on the ground and dragging some by the hair.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said Wednesday it was “time to talk, finding a way out of the impasse, working within the constitutional order of Spain”.
Speaking in an emergency debate in the European Parliament, he defended Madrid’s right to “the proportionate use of force” to keep the peace.
But the government statement late Wednesday said there could be no mediation unless Puigdemont backs down.
Adding to tensions, the courts on Wednesday placed Catalonia’s regional police chief Josep Lluis Trapero and three other suspects under investigation for an alleged “crime of sedition”.
The force has been accused of failing to rein in pro-independence protesters during disturbances in Barcelona last month.
A rich industrial region of 7.5 million people with their own language and cultural traditions, Catalonia accounts for a fifth of Spain’s economy.
Catalan claims for independence date back centuries but have surged during recent years of economic crisis.
The regional government said 42 percent of the electorate voted on Sunday, with 90 percent of those backing independence. But polls indicate Catalans are split.
The vote was held without regular electoral lists or observers.
Spain rejects mediation as Catalans plan to declare independence
Spain rejects mediation as Catalans plan to declare independence
Man accused of attacking TV reporter, saying ‘This is Trump’s America now’
- Alex, who had been out reporting, then drove back to his news station in the city
DENVER: A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents.
Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, was arrested Dec. 18 in Grand Junction, Colorado, after police say he followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex’s vehicle for around 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Delta area. Alex told police that he believed he had been followed and attacked because he is Pacific Islander.
After arriving in Grand Junction, Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and, according to an arrest affidavit, said something to the effect of: “Are you even a US citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”
Alex, who had been out reporting, then drove back to his news station in the city. After he got out of his vehicle, Egan chased Alex as he ran toward the station’s door and demanded to see his identification, according to the document laying out police’s evidence in the case. Egan then tackled Alex, put him in a headlock and “began to strangle him,” the affidavit said. Coworkers who ran out to help and witnesses told police that Alex appeared to be losing his ability to breathe during the attack, which was partially captured on surveillance video, according to the document.
According to the station’s website, Alex is a native of Detroit. KKCO/KJCT reported that he was driving a news vehicle at the time.
Egan was arrested on suspicion of bias-motivated crimes, second degree assault and harassment. He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to learn whether prosecutors have filed formal charges against him.
Egan’s lawyer, Ruth Swift, was out of the office Friday and did not return a telephone message seeking comment.
KKCO/KJCT vice president and general manager Stacey Stewart said the station could not comment beyond what it has reported on the attack.
UN approves new AU force to take on Al-Shabab in Somalia
UN: The UN Security Council on Friday gave the green light to a new African Union force in Somalia that is meant to take on the Islamist armed group Al-Shabab, with the soldiers due to deploy in January.
The resolution was adopted by 14 of the Council’s 15 member states, while the United States abstained due to reservations about funding.
It provides for the replacement of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), whose mandate ends on December 31, by the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM).
Somalia is one of the world’s poorest countries, enduring decades of civil war, a bloody insurgency by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, and frequent climate disasters.
Representatives from Somalia and its western neighbor Ethiopia were invited to participate in the council’s meeting, although they were not allowed to vote.
“We emphasize that the current AUSSOM troops allocations are completed through bilateral agreements,” said the Somali representative, adding 11,000 troops were currently pledged.
On Monday, Egypt’s foreign minister announced his country would take part in the new force.
Tensions flared in the Horn of Africa after Ethiopia signed a maritime deal in January with the breakaway region of Somaliland, pushing Mogadishu closer to Addis Ababa’s regional rival Cairo.
This month, Turkiye brokered a deal to end the nearly year-long bitter dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia, although Ethiopian troops would not be involved in the new AU force.
Burundi will not be taking part in the new force either, a Burundian military source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The text adopted by the UN Security Council provides for the possibility of using a mechanism that it created last year, under which an African force deployed with the green light of the UN can be up to 75 percent financed by the UN.
“In our view, the conditions have not been met for immediate transition to application of” that measure, US representative Dorothy Shea said, justifying her country’s abstention.
Trump asks Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban so he can weigh in after he takes office
- The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction
President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.
The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk.
“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case.
The filings come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment.
Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”
Senegal PM seeks to repeal contested amnesty law
- Sonko’s government pledged earlier this month to investigate dozens of deaths resulting from the political violence between 2021 and 2024
DAKAR: Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said Friday that his government would submit legislation to repeal a law by former president Macky Sall granting amnesty for deadly political violence.
The controversial amnesty was granted just before March 2024 elections as Sall sought to calm protests sparked by his last-minute postponement of the vote in the traditionally stable West African country.
Critics say the move was to shield perpetrators of serious crimes, including homicides, committed during three years of political tensions between February 2021 and February 2024.
But it also allowed Sonko, a popular opposition figure, to stand in the elections after court convictions had made him ineligible, as well as Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who eventually won the presidency.
Sonko’s government pledged earlier this month to investigate dozens of deaths resulting from the political violence between 2021 and 2024.
“In addition to putting compensation for victims into the budget, a draft law will be submitted to your august Assembly to repeal the March 6, 2024 amnesty so that light may be shed and responsibilities determined on whatever side they may lie,” Sonko said in a highly awaited policy speech to lawmakers.
“It’s not a witch hunt and even less vengeance ... It’s justice, the foundation without which social peace cannot be built,” Sonko said.
Sonko’s speech also laid out plans for the next five years to pull Senegal out of three years of economic and political turmoil that have sent unemployment soaring.
He and Faye, who won the presidency and in November secured a landslide victory in parliament, now have a clear path for implementing an ambitious, leftist reform agenda.
“We must carry out a deep and unprecedented break never seen in the history of our country since independence” from France, Sonko told lawmakers.
He said Senegal remained “locked into the colonial economic model” and vowed an overhaul of public action and tax reforms to foster “home-grown growth.”
ECOWAS defends Nigeria against Niger’s claims of ‘destabilization’ plot
- Niger’s military leaders broke away from the ECOWAS amid rising anti-France sentiments
LAGOS: West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS has come to Nigeria’s defense after claims by Niger that it was plotting to destabilize its neighbor.
Niger’s military leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani accused Nigeria of providing homes for two French nationals it expelled, allegedly for anti-government activities, during a televised Christmas Day broadcast on Wednesday.
Tchiani also lashed out against ECOWAS and claimed that France had established a base in Nigeria where it was arming terror groups in the Lake Chad region to foment unrest in his country.
“Nigerian authorities are not unaware of this underhanded move,” Tchiani said. “It is near a forest close to Sokoto where they wanted to establish a terrorist stronghold known as Lakurawa.”
“The French and ISWAP made this deal on March 4, 2024,” he added, referring to the Daesh West Africa Province militant group.
Earlier in December, Niger’s foreign minister summoned the charge d’affaires at the Nigerian Embassy, accusing its neighbors of “serving as a rear base” to “destabilize” the country.
ECOWAS and Nigeria rejected the accusations. “For years, Nigeria has supported peace and security of several countries not only in the West African subregion but also on the African continent,” the regional bloc said in a statement released.
“ECOWAS therefore refutes any suggestion that such a generous and magnanimous country would become a state-sponsor of terrorism.”
Nigeria’s Information Minister Mohammed Idris said in a separate statement Thursday that his country had no alliance with “France or any other country” to destabilize Niger, with whom it has had a choppy relationship since Tchiani seized power in a July 2023 coup.
Niger’s military leaders broke away from the ECOWAS amid rising anti-France sentiments.
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is currently head of the ECOWAS bloc, had briefly considered a regional military intervention to reinstate Niger’s ousted president Mohamed Bazoum.
But Idris said that Nigeria was open to dialogue with Niger despite its political situation.
“Nigeria remains committed to fostering regional stability and will continue to lead efforts to address terrorism and other transnational challenges,” he said.
