Eduardo Inda, director of online news website OKDiaro.com and a regular on Spanish political and current affairs programmes, told broadcaster La Sexta soldiers would be mobilised to protect airports, ports and nuclear power stations if they came under threat.
Fears of a violent uprising – seen as remote by most observers despite sensationalist claims Spain could be on the verge of another civil war – came to nothing today on the first weekday since the Spanish government imposed direct rule on Catalonia and stripped its leading politicians of their powers.
But the calm prevailing in Barcelona and other Catalan cities didn’t stop Mr Inda, an outspoken right-winger who often gets into shouting matches with fellow guests on Spanish TV news shows, from referring to the possibility of the army intervening.
Referring to Spain’s years of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco, he said: “The army in Spain unfortunately has some connotations which take us back forty-odd years so the Spanish government is going to be especially cautious.
“If the situation remains calm, the army won’t be deployed.
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“But if there is the slightest risk that any strategic installations are going to be taken, such as reservoirs, ports, airports, nuclear power stations, the army would be deployed to defend them.”
OkDiario.com also claimed in a website report that the army was ready to intervene if required, illustrating its report with an archive photo of soldiers patrolling the streets of Barcelona.
It said: “State forces of law were monitoring electrical installations, communications networks and transport infrastructure 24 hours a day in Catalonia on Ministry of Interior orders, in case they were attacked by radical groups or anti-establishment separatists before the October 1 referendum.”
This afternoon it emerged sacked Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and five other members of his deposed government including the former Catalan Minister Joaquim Forn had reached Brussels by travelling by car to the southern French city of Marseille and then taking a plane to the Belgian capital.
Some Spanish media are claiming they will ask Belgium for political asylum.