THE WEATHER
See page 2 for the week´s forecast
Edition 344
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www.thecourier.es
Friday 20th October 2017
MADRID TAKES OVER
pain is to start suspending Catalunyan autonomy tomorrow (Saturday), as its regional leader threatened to declare independence. The government said ministers would meet to activate Article 155 of the constitution, allowing it to take over the running of the region. It is thought the measures implemented could range from taking control of the regional police and finances to calling a snap election by dissolving the regional parliamnent. Catalunya’s president Carles Puigdemont said the region's parliament would vote on independence, backed in a disputed referendum on October 1st, if Spain "continues repression".
"The Spanish government will continue with the procedures outlined in Article 155 of the Constitution to restore legality in Catalunya's selfgovernment," the Madrid government statement said yesterday. "No-one doubts that the Spanish government will do all it can to restore the constitutional order." Article 155 of Spain's 1978 constitution, which cemented democratic rule after the death of dictator General Franco three years earlier, allows Madrid to impose direct rule in a crisis but it has never been invoked. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (pictured on Wednesday) set the deadline of 10.00 am yesterday
for Puigdemont to offer a definitive answer on the independence question, and called on him to "act sensibly". "It's not that difficult to reply to the question: has
Catalunya declared independence? Because if it has, the government is obliged to act in one way, and if it has not, we can talk here," he said in parliament on Wednesday.
GUILTY AND INNOCENT
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wo former general managers of the failed CAM bank, Roberto López Abad and María Dolores Amorós (pictured) have been given three year jail sentences for false accounting in a major embezzlement case in Madrid, which also saw two other defendants given prison terms. The ex-CAM president Modesto Crespo and three directors were acquitted, with the National Court judges absolving Sabadell, who took over CAM, as well as the CAM foundation and insurers Caser of any liability. Former CAM bosses and directors were arrested nearly four years ago in a
major fraud investigation into its activities. CAM, which used to be Spain’s 10th-biggest bank and was highly prominent in the Costa Blanca and Murcia areas, was taken over by Banco Sabadell as part of a shake-up to stabilise the financial sector which was hit hard by the collapse of a building boom in 2008. CAM was initially taken over by the Bank of Spain in July 2011, with the management being sacked, and nearly three billion euro pumped into it to keep it going. Bank of Spain inspectors said there were serious deficiencies in CAM’s bosses which led to big losses in
risky real estate operations. The inspectors also noted that the directors had awarded themselves multi-millioneuro early-retirement packages. Before the bailout, CAM’s management had reported a net profit in the
first quarter of 2011 of 38.9 million euro, only for the profit and loss account three months later displaying a loss of over a billion euro. CAM was subsequently sold to Banco Sabadell for a nominal euro.