PSOE 'baron' open to outlawing pro-independence parties

ToledoA regional 'baron' of the Spanish socialist party would not look askance at proposing the outlawing of pro-independence parties. The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, said Wednesday that there should be a debate in Spain on whether the parties that support independence should be allowed to continue "benefiting from the Constitution" even though, "openly, they just want to undermine it. "

In an interview with Spain’s Onda Cero radio, García-Page indicated that there are two models on which Spain needs to seek clarification, and said that there is a precedent of this: the moment in which Spain decided to outlaw the political parties that endorsed violence in the Basque Country.

Although he said that "there is probably still a lot of time" for "raising a question of this type in Spain with a consensus and broad unanimity", García-Page pointed out that "he would not rule out" that outlawing pro-independence parties is the conclusion reached at the end of the debate.

Separatists are "political predators"

García-Page insisted that the prohibition of the parties that stand for independence "is not completely impossible", and he added that the opposite would be "having to get used to living with a group of political predators" such as exist in Catalonia, according to him. In his opinion, it is intolerable that "constitutional institutions and regional governments", that also belong to him "as a Spaniard", "use ideology to manage and govern the institutions for their own ends". "Such a situation cannot remain like this for a long time or become widespread," he concluded.

The President of La Mancha, nevertheless, denied that there is a need for direct rule to be brought back by invoking Article 155 [of the Spanish Constitution]. "In order to take constitutional measures for rupture there must be constitutional reasons for rupture, not political conflict or rhetoric or testosterone."