AFTER his final cabinet meeting of 2017 Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s prime minister, admitted that it had been “an extraordinarily difficult year”. The economy purred along, unemployment and the deficit are falling, but there was a shadow, he said: the “instability generated by politics in Catalonia”. The problem is that the outcome of last month’s snap election in Spain’s rebellious north-eastern region suggests that 2018 may not be much easier.
The election was called by Mr Rajoy in October after he assumed extraordinary constitutional powers to suspend self-government in Catalonia after a unilateral declaration of independence issued by the separatist regional administration headed by Carles Puigdemont. That in turn came after an unconstitutional independence referendum, which was further marred by police violence.
The contest took place in bizarre circumstances, with Mr Puigdemont campaigning by video link from Brussels, where he had fled to avoid a charge of rebellion. With...Continue reading
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