Catalonia Crisis Update

In a sternly worded address to the nation, Spain's King Felipe VI condemned organizers of Catalonia's independence referendum for having put themselves "outside the law" and said the situation in Spain was "extremely serious", calling for unity. In his address, King Felipe VI said Catalan leaders who organized the referendum showed their "disrespect to the powers of the state" adding that "they have broken the democratic principles of the rule of law. 

Carles Puigdemont told the BBC the region will declare independence in a matter of days. In his first interview since the referendum, Carles Puigdemont said his government would "act at the end of this week or the beginning of next". When asked what he would do if the Spanish government were to intervene and take control of Catalonia's government, Puigdemont said it would be "an error which changes everything". 

 Bloomberg added that Rajoy is mulling if, and when, to use Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to take direct control from the administration in Barcelona. This is the "error that would change everything" referred to by Puigdemont. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said: "We see how day after day the government of Catalonia is pushing the population to the abyss and inciting rebellion in the streets." He also warned that the central government would take "all measures necessary to stop acts of harassment". 

 Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría condemned the "mafia" behavior of those protesters who had earlier gathered around hotels housing Spanish police officers and demanded that they leave.

TO RECAP:

 

Spanish Crisis Video

For those wondering what is happening in Spain worth checking this good documentary on the Spanish Crisis and its construction bubble crash:

Spain considering eviction moratorium

El Pais (via Google translate) reports Government will give a two-year moratorium to end evictions.

Social pressure, political and, above all, the shock of facts so overwhelming as two suicides in recent weeks, the second on Friday, has led the government and the PSOE to move faster. Both contacts for accelerated progress towards an agreement to halt evictions more extreme than in any case, will not materialize until next week. That agreement, however, will not be retroactive and would apply to mortgages signed, but not those that are in foreclosure. It would not serve to cases like Egaña Amaya, the woman who committed suicide in Barakaldo.

The Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, solemnized the idea during an election rally in Lleida: "These days we see terrible things, inhuman situations, a person committed suicide when she would be evicted. It is a difficult subject, you have to take it with all seriousness and humanity. The government is talking to many people, we talked this morning with the PSOE. I hope we can talk on Monday of the temporary cessation of evictions affecting the most vulnerable families. And the threshold of exclusion, to better implement the code of good practice, so you can renegotiate the debt and remain in housing. It is a difficult subject, I hope we can give good news to the whole of the Spanish."

The problem with an eviction moratorium is obvious. People will have no incentive to pay their mortgages for the next two years. This will bring further stress the Spanish banking sector and in turn to the Spanish government.

Italian politics reaching new level of corruption

While the International Press is rightly blaming the Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy for a lavish consumption of alcohol in time of austerity.

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his advisers often consume more than 1,000 euros ($1,286) of alcoholic drinks when they fly on the government’s official jet, Interviu magazine reported in its Sept. 24 issue.

For Italians though, to waste 1000 euro on beer is merely a drop in the ocean of waste the Italian government is accostumed to.
Latest case, Italy's Ambassador to London, Giorgio Maria Economides decided to replace a simple Lancia with license plate "ITA 1" with a more artistic Maserati (shown below in front of the Embassy) at the bargain price of $200.000:




Way to go Ambassador in representing a broke country with class and style!

We must admit though that Italian politicians at home are far classier than our Ambassador in London.
Today Mr. Fiorito, the Regional Leader of the PDL (Berlusconi's party) has been arrested in Rome for embezzlement, he ransacked 1.3 million euro from the Region of Lazio for his many private pleasures, he was not alone 70+ more councillors did the same with public money.

Last week the Governor of Lazio, Polverini resigned after it was found that for more than 2 years the entire council of the Region of Lazio was hell-bent on spending public money like if there was no tomorrow.
The estimate is that in 2 years they spent over 30 million euro.
Some of the most interesting expenses are the following:

14000 euro in a wineshop
16000 euro to pay private electricity bills in arrears

thousands more paid for unspecified "collaboration services" to the fiancee of Mr. Fiorito
5000 euro dinners 
Toga Parties paid with public money: photos here
Hookers
Trips for councillors and lovers/hookers to exotic locations
Houses and Villas
Jeeps bought on the occasion of a rare snow storm in Rome

and much much more...

This is not an isolate case many more regions in Italy are facing the same scrutiny and new stories are surfacing on the Italian press each week.

Last week the Region of Piedmont has been searched by investigators after the discovery that all the regional councillors have requested refunds for travels and activities even during the summer stop of the regional Council.
The best part is that regions do not check if true what declared, it was enough for a councillor to say he travelled 5000 miles in one month to obtain refunds amounting to tens of thousands of euros per month.
For those interested in reading the full details here a link to published data

Although, let us not fool ourselves, this is NOT an attempt to clean up the house, this is action pointing to strike political forces and push them to accept another Monti term or at least to be servile when it comes to vote and accept the Prime Minister diktats.

Italy is between a rock and a hard place, Italian politics is rotten, diseased and inept at ruling the country, hell-bent as it is in ransacking public money for their private interests. They have no credibility left but they are still useful to Monti being discreditable and therefore prone to manipulation.
On the other side, an un-elected prime minister is ruling the country with no public consent and following EU diktats not ratified by the people.
Italians are being told that politicians are scum and they are unable to rule therefore an enlightened technician has to take control.

What if next elections will bring to another rotten parliament or a fragmented one unable to form a government?
Are we going to ask again Monti to rule the country because our politicians are unable to do it?
Are we going to suspend again the right of the people to decide of their future?
Would this still be a democracy?