French Catalans offer safe houses to Catalan leaders

French Catalans offer safe houses to Catalan leaders

French Catalans are offering their homes including a luxury villa with a swimming pool in case the Catalan leaders need to flee Spain.

The Spanish government has said it will impose direct rule on Friday after the region's leader signed an independence declaration following an illegal referendum.

While the idea of Catalan leaders fleeing Spain and setting up an underground network abroad still appears remote, French backers of Catalan independence are offering 52 homes along the Spanish border just in case.

Robert Casanovas, head of the Committee for the self-determination of North Catalonia, the French Catalan area, is behind the plan.

He said: 'It's all ready. We have the logistics to be able to house about 200 people for now, and more if needed.'

'Our aim is to be ready if there are arrest warrants issued against members of the Catalan government, and in particular its president.

Casanovas said among the safe-houses on offer was his own home in Theza, a short drive from the Spanish border.

'It's a pretty nice house with a swimming pool, it's quite big, with a 7,000-square-metre garden, so it would work out really well,' he said.

'We couldn't put [Catalan President] Carles Puigdemont in a two-bedroom. We need something worthy of a head of government.'

Thousands of Catalan speakers live across the border in France, mainly in the eastern Pyrenees region along the Mediterranean Coast, territory ceded to France by Spain in the 17th Century. 

Top Catalan officials sought refuge in France in the late 1930s from Spain's military dictator Francisco Franco.

Puigdemont and his government have called for civil disobedience to defy Spain's direct rule move but have not publicly discussed exile. 

Unlike their Spanish counterparts, French Catalan activists do not seek independence for their territory but ask for more autonomy, including on tax matters. Around 400,000 people live in the area of France that activists call North Catalonia.

It comes amid claims Catalan leaders are considering calling a snap election in an attempt to break the deadlock with Madrid. 

Spanish political and business leaders, along with most Catalonian newspapers, have urged Catalan President Carles Puigdemont to call a regional election before he is stripped of his authority.

They say direct rule from Madrid would be a humiliation for Catalonia and pose a serious risk of unrest.

Puigdemont has so far remained silent on the matter of an election but an ally of his pro-independence government said he was actively considering this option.

'We have evidence this is currently on the table,' Carles Riera, a Catalan politician for the anti-capitalist CUP party, told a news conference.

Calling an election could be a face-saving move for Puigdemont as it could either strengthen his mandate if pro-independence parties won or allow him a graceful exit if they did not. 

The Spanish government said a snap election would be a first step but Puigdemont would also have to withdraw an ambiguous declaration of independence he made earlier this month.

In the meantime, Catalan leaders intend to bring a legal challenge to prevent the Spanish government from removing them from office.

Appeals will be lodged in Spain's Constitutional and Supreme courts against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's decision to sack Catalonia's government and curtail the regional parliament's powers, regional government spokesman Jordi Turull said.

If the regional government is not successful in Spanish courts, it will pursue the case in international courts, Turull said.

The Catalan parliament meets on Thursday to agree on a response to Madrid, and many analysts believe the economically powerful region could formally declare independence. 

Also on Tuesday Caixabank, Spain's third-largest bank, reported it suffered a 'moderate' but temporary run on deposits due to the crisis over the region's independence bid.

The ban until recently was based in Catalonia, but transferred its headquarters to the Valencia region on October 6.

Presenting the company's earnings for the first time in the city of Valencia, CEO Gonzalo Gortazar declined to give details on the value of the withdrawn deposits, but said the losses had 'been reversed' and the bank continued to grow.

Gortazar said the headquarters relocation was definitive. Local media reports quoted him as saying the bank does not currently plan to move any jobs out of Catalonia.

Caixabank, a second bank, Sabadell, and more than a thousand other companies have moved their official bases out of Catalonia to ensure they could continue operating under European Union laws if Catalonia breaks away from Spain.