Friday is decision day for Catalonia after the region’s leader left it to members of parliament to vote on whether to unilaterally declare independence from Spain.<br /><br />Yet among those backing a breakaway, cracks are beginning to show between moderates and hardliners/<br /><br />Madrid is poised to take direct control of the autonomous, rebel region in a move denounced as an ‘aggression” by staunch separatist Lluis Corominas of the ‘Together for Yes’ coalition.<br /><br />He told the Catalan Parliament on Thursday: “We continue to follow the mandate of the people of Catalonia given in the referendum on October 1.”<br /><br />At the same time, however, the regional government’s business head Santi Vila resigned over his opposition to a unilateral declaration.<br /><br />The Catalonia crisis has not split Spain it two, but its media depicts parallel universes https://t.co/M3WnwZmns7— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) 26 octobre 2017<br /><br />In Thursday’s parliamentary session in Barcelona, meanwhile, anti-independence voices were heard, decrying what they see as the whole sorry business since the referendum, declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court.<br /><br />Inés Arrimadas, leader of the Citizens Party in Catalonia, judged it ‘Kafkaesque’, ‘ridiculous and horrendous.’<br /><br />Earlier, Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said he would not hold a new regional election to break the deadlock as the central government had not provided sufficient guarantees that this would prevent the imposition of direct rule.<br /><br />Puigdemont: No early elections in Catalonia https://t.co/flN0ZNVqRz pic.twitter.com/n9DOZsHjG3— The Local Spain (@TheLocalSpain) 26 octobre 2017<br /><br />Puigdemont’s stand sets the stage for the Spanish Senate on Friday to approve the take-over of Catalonia’s institutions and police, and give the government in Madrid the power to remove the Catalan president.<br /><br />But this could spark confrontation on the streets as some independence supporters have promised to mount a campaign of civil disobedience.<br /><br />Our correspondent in Barcelona, Cristina Giner, said: “After another day of maximum uncertainty and tension, everything is left in the air. We will have to wait to see what the Catalan Parliament decides”.<br /><br />with Reuters<br />
