Catalonia to end 6-month vacuum with new separatist chief

Separatist lawmaker Quim Torra, candidate for regional president, arrives at a parliamentary vote session in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, May 14, 2018. Catalonia’s lawmakers are meeting to end more than six months of leadership vacuum by voting in a fervent separatist as the new chief of the restive region, setting the scene for a new confrontation with Spain. (Photo by MANU FERNANDEZ / AP)

MADRID — Catalonia’s lawmakers planned to end more than six months of leadership vacuum on Monday by voting in a fervent separatist as the new chief of the restive region, and setting the scene for a new confrontation with Spain.

Quim Torra, who headed a prominent pro-secession civil society group, has vowed to build an independent Catalan republic by working under the leadership of his predecessor in the job – ousted president Carles Puigdemont.

Puigdemont is in Germany fighting extradition to Spain, where he is wanted for allegedly using public funds and orchestrating an “insurrection” to break away from Spain.

The investigating Spanish Supreme Court judge has said his bid to secede should be regarded as “rebellion” because it used “violence,” something rejected by separatists and questioned by German judges deciding on Puigdemont’s extradition.

The new Catalan government will create a “state council in exile” with Puigdemont as “the legitimate president” of Catalonia, Torra said in his speech Monday.

The 55-year-old former corporate lawyer also vowed to establish a constituent assembly to write the constitution for a new Catalan republic.

“Everybody will win rights with the republic,” Torra told lawmakers. “Nobody will lose rights; the republic is for everybody, no matter what they vote.”

Torra failed to achieve an absolute majority in a first parliamentary vote on Saturday but he’s expected to be elected on Monday by a simple majority after an anti-capitalist separatist party announced it would abstain.

Central authorities have been ruling Catalonia directly from Madrid since the regional government led by Puigdemont relied on the results of an outlawed referendum in October to declare unilateral independence from Spain.

The unprecedented takeover is set to end when Torra is sworn in along with a new Catalan cabinet in the next few days, but Spanish authorities have warned that controls could return if the new regional government breaks the law again.

The Catalan separatist movement has caused the worst political and institutional crisis in Spain in decades.

Polls show that the wealthy region’s 7.5 million residents are evenly divided on whether Catalonia should secede from Spain. A great majority wants to settle the issue in a referendum, which under current laws only the central government can approve.