Madrid ups pressure on separatists over Catalonia vote

Spain's top courts on Friday heaped fresh threats on Catalan separatists planning an independence referendum, pressuring hundreds of mayors set to open their polling stations for the vote next month.

After sparking Spain's deepest political crisis in 40 years this week by voting to push ahead with the referendum, Catalonia's separatist-controlled regional parliament upped the ante by passing a bill early Friday outlining a transition to a possible independent republic.

The separatists say the legislation would serve as a temporary "basic law" in the wealthy northeastern region in the event of a "yes" vote on October 1, serving until a new constitution is in place.

The referendum push has sparked fury in Madrid.

"There will be no independence referendum of any kind in Catalonia," Defence Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal vowed on Friday. 

She said the central government would fight what it branded "provocations" with "all necessary legal means".

Asked if it would potentially trigger article 115 of Spain's constitution -- an extreme step that would allow it to partially suspend Catalonia's autonomy -- government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said Madrid was "not ruling anything out".

Spain's Constitutional Court has since 2014 declared any bid for an independence referendum to be unconstitutional.

On Thursday night, it moved again to suspend the bills passed by Catalan lawmakers to organise the vote.

But the separatists have ignored the actions of the judges -- most of them named by the ruling conservatives -- branding them illegitimate.

"It is worrying that the state is seeking to scare people and make threats, faced with the desire for a vote," Lluis Corominas, vice president of the Catalan parliament, told national radio.

- Threats of criminal charges -

Catalan prosecutors on Friday urged the local appeals court to launch proceedings against the separatist regional president Carles Puigdemont and the 12 members of his government on accusations of disobedience, malpractice and misuse of public funds.

The Supreme Court has meanwhile ordered senior Catalan officials to desist from any actions that further the referendum bid, warning they could otherwise face criminal charges. 

The warning went out to all members of the regional government, as well as mayors, the directors of regional public broadcasters, and Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero, a popular figure after winning plaudits for his handling of last month's terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.

The region's 948 mayors now find themselves in a delicate position, having been asked by regional authorities just a day earlier to provide lists of possible polling stations.

Neus Lloveras, mayor of the town of Vilanova outside Barcelona who heads an association of pro-independence municipalities, said more than 600 town halls have signalled they will take part in the vote.

Others have said they will refuse to organise a banned referendum, such as Angel Ros, mayor of the town of Lerida.

"We would be leaving the legal framework," he told TV3 television.

"Is it worth trying to build a state in order to divide the country? I'm among those who think not."

Barcelona's leftist mayor Ada Colau has yet to announce if the vote will be allowed to take place in the regional capital. 

She accused Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of having an "incapacity or lack of will" to find "a political solution to a political conflict", but she has also called on separatists not to seek their goal at any cost, even if it means bitterly dividing the region.

With its own language and customs, Catalonia accounts for about one-fifth of Spain's economic output, and already has significant powers over matters such as education and healthcare.

But Spain's economic worries, coupled with a perception that the region's 7.5 million people pay more in taxes to Madrid than they get in return, have helped push the independence question to centre stage.

Catalonia remains divided, however. 

In a survey by the Catalan Centre of Opinion Studies in June, 41.1 percent backed independence while 49.9 percent rejected it. Some 70 percent wanted a referendum, however, to settle the question once and for all.