The Catalan regional parliament has voted 70-10 in favour of breaking free from Madrid – shortly before Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government voted in favour of imposing direct rule over the region.
Mr Rajoy has called for calm and promised to “restore legality” to Catalonia.
But after the referendum vote on October 1 was marred by shocking police brutality, it is hard to see how this escalation will pass without further violence.
The beatings meted out to Catalans trying to vote in the referendum – declared illegal by Spain’s constitutional court – drew worldwide condemnation.
And the EU, in particular, came in for particularly heavy criticism.
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In the midst of the uproar, the European Commission claimed the vote was “an internal matter for Spain”.
Eurosceptics were quick to accuse Jean Claude Junker and his colleagues of hypocrisy, claiming the European Commission president was happy to speak out against the suppression of democracy only when it did not directly affect his own agenda.
They accused Brussels of failing to intervene as thousands of its own citizens were attacked for attempting to exercise their democratic right.
At the time, LBC radio host Nick Ferrari suggested the vote would destroy the EU.
Why? Because they are absolutely panic-stricken that if Catalonia spins out of Spain, the Basque region will spin out of Spain, Bavaria will spin out of Germany, Silesia will spin out of Poland, you haven’t got an EU anymore.
“It is shameful they take all that money and they’ve not said anything about European Union citizens being clubbed, literally clubbed by police officers.”
“If the EU is not able to protect 7.5 million of its citizens from violence and repression, it will fail not only to them but to the whole union.”
In reality, the Commission was adhering to its own rules – the EU has no power to intervene in what remains, at least technically, a constitutional issue for one of its member states.
But that in itself shows a crucial weakness in a body which prides itself as the continent’s peacekeeper.
Tonight Mr Rajoy’s cabinet, having been given authority to enact Article 155, will decide how to bring Catalonia to heel.
Article 155 empowers the government to take “all measures necessary” to compel a region in times of crisis.
The BBC’s Andrew Neil said that could even include Catalan president Carles Puigdemont being arrested.