Joe Duggan (Reporter)
SPAIN’S PSOE and PP parties have vowed that Catalan regional elections should be held in January.
Rival political leaders Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sanchez joined forces ahead of tomorrow’s emergency government cabinet meeting.
Rajoy’s government are set to start the process of triggering Article 155 to place Catalunya under direct rule.
Invoking Article 155 allows Madrid to force through new elections, with the PSOE backing the move.
“If Puigdemont would reconsider, which is still in his hands as President of the Generalitat [Catalan parliament], that would be fantastic,” said PSOE minister of equality Carmen Calvo.
Sanchez was ‘was absolutely clear that [the application of article 155 means] Catalonia must hold elections’, said Calvo.
Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras said the PP-PSOE move ‘was not the best way to advance’.
A meeting of Spain’s upper house, the Senate, to approve implementing Article 155 is scheduled for next Friday.
Rajoy is due to appear at tonight’s prestigious Princess of Asturias awards in Oviedo.
Regional elections? Spain hasn’t even sorted out it’s NATIONAL elections yet. Rajoy is cruising along with a fake majority, concealing his ineptitude and illegitimacy with a confected row on Catalan independence.
Still, it all helps to take attention from the massive, ongoing corruption allegations.