Buzz about Sidhu Moosewala’s father contesting from Bathinda as Independent candidate
Madrid, October 21
Spain’s ruling party today signalled that Catalonia’s separatists still have time to abandon their independence bid before Madrid suspends the region’s autonomy in a move that would escalate the crisis.
“As long as independence has not been proclaimed, and if (Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont) backs down, there is room to manoeuvre,” Fernando Martinez-Maillo, number three in the conservative Popular Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, told Cadena SER radio.
Until Spain’s Senate convenes to discuss the government’s move to start imposing direct control over Catalonia — likely by the end of October — Puigdemont “can change course, can return to constitutional legality,” Martinez-Maillo said.
Spain is struggling with its worst political crisis since emerging from military dictatorship in 1977, after Catalonia staged a banned independence referendum on October 1.
