Former regional president Artur Mas and two of his cabinet members will go on trial on Monday in Barcelona accused of disobeying Spain’s Constitutional Court by staging a non-binding vote on independence in 2014. They face being banned from public office for up to 10 years.
The first in a series of high-voltage criminal cases involving half a dozen separatist leaders will add tension to the stand-off between Madrid and Barcelona over the Catalan government’s pledge to hold a binding referendum on independence by the end of September. [...]
Preventative measures could range from warning civil servants in Catalonia not to organize the logistics for the vote, to Madrid seizing hold of some relevant competences now in the hands of the Catalan government, such as the regional police. There could also be a new wave of criminal prosecutions against public officials, namely Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his entire cabinet. [...]
In elections for the regional Catalan legislature in 2015, pro-independence forces won 48 percent of the vote and an absolute majority of seats in the assembly, which supported a government led by Puigdemont and approved an 18-month roadmap for independence.
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