The Minister for Digital Policy and Public Administration, Jordi Puigneró, said today that a decree against the Catalan government’s “Digital Republic” initiative, announced today by the Spanish government, amounts to a “digital Article 155”, referring to the article of the Spanish Constitution invoked to suspend Catalan self-rule in 2017.

The minister believes the announcement that followed a meeting of the Council of Ministers today is “stark evidence of the anti-democratic drift” of Spain’s Socialist Party. Puigneró also cited the closure of websites and applications and filtering of internet traffic by state agencies in recent weeks.

“We’re facing a digital Article 155,” he said. “This decree-law seeks to ban a digital republic that they said didn’t exist. Not only does it exist; it’s unstoppable,” said the minister. “The Digital Republic is the inception of a fifth power: digitally empowered citizens.”

Puigneró lamented that the Spanish executive is working against a key sector for strategic growth and the Catalan economy. “The state is a brake and a drag on Catalonia.” 

“The Socialist government is governing against Catalonia,” he said.

According to Puigneró: “Pedro Sánchez has disconnected from Catalonia and from the social and digital progress of this country.”