The Madrid administration has said it has passed measures aimed at preventing Catalonia from using public money on what the government deems to be an illegal act as the north west region of Spain gears up to go to the polls on a vote to decide whether or not to declare a republic outside of Spain’s control.
Madrid says it will pay bills and handle transfers for basic public services in place of the Catalan government.
Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said following the weekly cabinet meeting: “These measures are to guarantee that not one euro will go toward financing illegal acts.”
The move comes as part of a series of actions by the Madrid government to quash Catalonia’s referendum attempt.
Prime minister Mariano Rajoy has taken action through the courts to rule the referendum illegal and promised to use the Civil Guard to attempt to seize the ballot boxes as well as raid the offices of a printers in Tarragona who were believed to be printing ballot papers.
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Madrid has also threatened to arrest any of the region’s mayors who take part or enable the vote to take place.
Some 712 of them have already been summoned to appear in court for their open support for the referendum.
Spanish Vice President Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, warned on Thursday that activities as part of the referendum campaign will receive “the proper legal response.”
In a TV interview Ms Sáenz de Santamaría warned that Civil Guard had ways to close down the new referendum websites set up after the authorities pulled the government’s official referendum website on Wednesday.
The Spanish postal service has also been warned not to handle any communication or services associated with the referendum, such as delivering voting slips or poling agent notifications.
In response, a letter from the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, the vice president Oriol Junqueras and the mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau made “a call for dialogue in order to tackle how we can find an agreement so that Catalans can hold the referendum. An open dialogue, without conditions”.
The letter asks for a “political dialogue to be opened, based on the legitimacy that each of us represents, to make something possible that in a democracy is never a problem, and much less a crime: listening to the voice of the people”.
The signatories also accused the Spanish administration, lead by Mr Rajoy of having gone “on the offensive with unprecedented repression”.
The Catalan government has also tried to make life difficult for Madrid with the regional government now refusing to send Madrid a weekly report on its expenses.
Mr Junqueras sent a letter to his Spanish counterpart, Cristóbal Montoro, informing him that the referendum legislation passed by the Catalan parliament frees him from the obligation to supply the ministry with a weekly report of Catalan government expenses.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, indicated yesterday that the European Union would recognise the independent state of Catalonia if the referendum voted yes.
Catalonia is set to cast their vote on separating from the rest of Spain on October, 1 amid ever-increasing tensions between the Catalan region and Madrid.