pendants if madrid triggers article one hundred fifty five this allows spain central government to take over any of the country's seventeen autonomous regions if they break the law which declaring independence is deemed to be. the spanish government's reaction to double down the government will continue with the processing of article one hundred fifty five of the constitution with a goal to restore the law in catalonia if you will restore rather. than. spain says it will hold a special cabinet meeting on saturday to activate article one hundred fifty five this is never been used in modern spanish history so what does that mean in practice it would allow madrid to sack regional office holders dissolve the regional parliament and assume control of all regional authorities. new elections would be held in catalonia and so then madrid could fill key interim positions after invoking the article it won't come into effect straight away it needs

parliamentary approval spanish prime minister mariano rajoy needs an absolute majority for that and he only has a slim one in barcelona catalan residents are prepared for a standoff. the main doesn't love us they only love our money they want our money i'm not sure if i'm explaining myself clearly all the things they've done for catalonia are not really for catalonia they were let us go because the money is here. they are making people more pro independence with these games they are playing. in. the rain maybe putting off demonstrators from taking to the streets at least for now. and for madrid to have with me correspondent martin arabists martin how significant is it that madrid has decided to invoke article one fifty five it seems it's never been invoked in the country before. no indeed it hasn't says

a country road to return to constitutional democracy. yet so this is uncharted territory and nobody knows exactly how it will work in practice or even if it is workable forcible because we can expect some oppositions as strong. as ever you are there is an institutional level. street protest so it's a very sick days so don't know what happens next the cabinet meeting is said to be headed at this weekend on saturday that's correct it's being reshaped it will pretty unusual projects because prime minister maliki under a hole in what we're tending to. this is expected seats on the agenda that happens are expected to agree to all of the request of the senate but the next person procedural to meet both the one hundred thirty five even member that does take several days i mean presumably they will repeat the question. first minister

considered a response that long to clarify whether he did in fact declare independence in his address to the local parliament would. give him a chance to explain himself the other thing he could conceivably do. is appeal to the same constitutional court was declared the referendum. so i restart and. this could still take or fifteen days and again there is conceivably. bhajan for people to actually reach some sort of agreement before going to head where many are described as a nuclear option right and wasn't obvious in the great thank you they might fly up a spec to have on that story well actually i spoke to our correspondent bob a visit in barcelona and as to how this confrontation had escalated so far. it seems that both sides have reached the point of no return madrid has early on

started threatening was the nuclear option which is the want to go one fine five and they have sort of got to keep their word in order not to lose face and the government here in comes along is totally boxed in and they are sort of being pushed by their own supporters to go for independence to go forwards and on the other hand they have the large part of this population who says we don't want this at all they should basically be and that would be the sensible option call for elections however they again today declined that and say no we're going to stay and see this through so we see two hard headed sides here they are not really acting politically but they are rather acting like in a legal manner in madrid and in an ideologically driven manner here in barcelona and the emotions will be heating up when we see demonstrations starting from tomorrow and particularly on saturday so what you're saying is basically it's too

late for negotiations and you say they are demonstrations expected how is this playing out this issue on the streets of boston an upbeat really angry about what's happening. it depends on who you talk to and rita of course because the country is deeply divided and this division runs right through families through friendships through capitals and people really have heated discussions if you know what you know we don't want this we want to stay with spain we are really all spaniards and others say you know we have nothing to do with them we all caps alone and so the country make might be split just right down the middle there's no telling at the moment where the my admit we were the majority is elections would be a sensible move but if that is not going to happen we will have some really sort of harsh confrontations through the next days and probably even weeks because a civic platform has already called for people to come out onto the streets and to

show their discontent and we can expect them that those calls will be on sirte bob revisit on in a very rainy day in boston now thank you very much for that. and then for the business desk is in all this political uncertainty is also affecting the economy ben it sure is and you can see that on markets today amrita one of the euro zone's main economies spain could be set to enter uncharted political waters as you heard there before from martin roberts that's weighing on european stocks your stocks fifty for example down by three quarters of a cent at this hour prime minister mariano hoyer will trigger an article in the constitution this weekend allowing the government to take control of any of the country's seventeen autonomous regions if they break the law catalonia is referendum was deemed illegal and the catalan leader colace put them on has threatened a full declaration of independence if spain asserts control of the region. catalonia is the wealthiest part of the country but for how long all the political

uncertainty means companies are leaving in droves so ironically the region risks coming out of this independence bid with less autonomy than before and worse off financially. it started with the banks now more and more medium sized companies are calling in the moving vans a total of seven hundred firms have left since the independence referendum they include financial institutions like. utilities company gas not around and sparkling wine maker freshen it. spain's economics minister blames the cattle on regional government for the exodus but he says it's not yet too late to turn things around. if the politics that have caused these companies to leave are changed and if the regional government does everything in its power to prevent further damage the companies that have left catalonia will return. the firms pulling

out site turnover as their main reason for departure with spain their most important market they fear a catalan declaration of independence could lead to the country boycotting catalan products independence for catalonia could have a detrimental effect on the ailing spanish economy to catalonia is the industrial heartland of spain the region generates a fifth of the country's economic output. business later in the show i read thank you ben of course the crisis in gaza loney is also likely to come up in brussels as e.u. leaders gather for a two day summit the spanish standoff as the list of challenges facing the union topping that list of course of the exit negotiations reach a practically stored the still still sides can seem to agree on the terms of the separation arriving at the e.u. headquarters british prime minister to resign made for renewal of urgency in moving the vegs the talks along with european council president don are. break through

ahead of the summit the packed agenda would also include ways to deal with refugees and according to e.u. migration policy. that. resumé was not the first to talk to reporters ahead of that summit let's listen to what she had to say about gregg said. what i set out a few weeks ago in front of a very bold and ambitious agenda and vision for our future partnership between the e.u. and the u.k. at the heart of that remains cooperation on the key issues in dealing with the church challenges that we face that search speech that are set out in front set out on missions vision and i look forward to us being able to grasp that in the weeks ahead. joining me now is corresponding government is covering that summit for us you can expect to hear anything new about the u.k. is exit from the e.u. at the summit. theresa may will have a full fifteen minutes to continue her charm offensive here in brussels convincing

the other twenty seven leaders that she will stand by the commitments that the u.k. has made in the past and will be interesting to see what kind of concessions she can throw in within these.