Spain’s leader fired the government of the country’s Catalonia region on Friday, dissolved the regional parliament and ordered new elections after defiant Catalan lawmakers declared independence, escalating the biggest political crisis to hit Spain in decades.
The measures announced by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a televised address capped a frenzied day of political maneuvering in Madrid, Spain’s capital, and Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, where the long drive for independence — illegal under Spain’s Constitution — has now reached its fiercest level yet.
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The steps announced by Mr. Rajoy mean Spain will take direct control over one of the country’s autonomous regions for the first time since Spain embraced democracy in 1978.
How quickly and forcefully that control will be imposed — and whether separatist leaders will resist — were unclear as of Friday night. But the coming days could determine whether the takeover is peaceful or turns messy and violent.
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He removed the Catalan leader, Carles Puigdemont, and his cabinet, as well the director general of the autonomous police force. He also closed down Catalonia’s representative offices overseas.
In ordering the Catalan Parliament to dissolve, Mr. Rajoy said new regional elections would be held Dec. 21.
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Spain’s attorney general may now seek to detain Catalan leaders on grounds of rebellion.
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Mr. Puigdemont, a former small city mayor, was trapped between the demands from Catalan hard-liners to declare independence on one side, and, on the other side, the stiffening response from a Rajoy government determined to preserve the nation’s Constitution and territorial integrity.
Despite pleas for mediation, he and his region’s independence bid were shunned and condemned, not only by the Madrid central government but also by European Union officials wary of encouraging similarly minded secessionist movements around the Continent.