Live updates: Catalonia’s second working day of Spanish direct rule
Puigdemont is in Brussels, Rajoy has called an emergency meeting of his cabinet to discuss Catalan elections and Spanish police have entered several Mossos d’Esquadra stations in Catalonia seeking recordings.
Photo: Lluis Gene/AFP.
11:15am: Units of Spain’s Guardia Civil are allegedly on standby docked off the coast of Barcelona on a ship, according to a BBC World Service report.
11:10am: Is Carles Puigdemont in Belgium to discuss asylum, his cause with Flemish nationalists, or for secret negotiations with Rajoy brokered by the EU?
11:05am: Spanish prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has called an emergency meeting of his cabinet for 6pm today to approve “organizational aspects” of the December 21st elections, reports El Pais.
10:56am: Spain’s national police, the Guardia Civil, entered the headquarters of the Catalan regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, in Sabadell, reports El Mundo.
Spanish police also entered other regional police outposts and offices, apparently seeking recordings of internal communications from the last month. The Guardia Civil apparently entered two key sites in Barcelona, as well as other police stations in Manresa, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Tortosa and Girona, claims El Mundo.
The daily, citing government sources, says the police actions are part of an investigation by Spain’s National Court – one of the country’s highest – into the Mossos d’Esquadra’s alleged failure to apply Spanish law during the referendum period, as well as the accusations of sedition levelled against the Mossos d’Esquadra’s former head, Josep Lluís Trapero.
Trapero has been removed from his role and replaced by his deputy.
