let's cross now to barcelona where our correspondent barbara basler is standing by barbara it's been a very busy morning in spain and madrid madrid and barcelona can you run as through what's been happening that. you know we've been waiting since the early morning what the two sides would do because we knew ten o'clock was crunch time that was when the final final ultimatum of the government in madrid would run out it has run out and madrid has sort of kicked the ball back into the field off the cuff alone government it has indeed set in motion the legal proceedings for article one five five and that means now that the government in the palace behind us here in the center far solona where they are holed up there since the early morning they will have to figure out how to react early announcement said announcement that they would retell the age by now really announcing finally announcing independence off the region however they obviously are still deliberating and trying to play for time bought the article one five five is set in motion let's hear what that could possibly mean. trigge

it's a really in no win situation for the catalonian regional government here standoff continues barbara basler there in barcelona thank you so much. now to austria and a young man who promised to shape shake up austrian politics thirty one year old sebastian cortes is on track to become the country's next leader near final results from sunday's election put his conservative people's party in first place but also claiming victory is the power right freedom party founded by nazis after the war the party was once shunned as too radical but now they could play a kingmaker in austria's new government thanks they call him divert see the whiz kid at thirty one the conservative sebastian could spark comes europe's youngest head of government promising a new kind of politics talk today we have a strong mandate to change this country and i thank you for making that possible. the far right freedom party led by hans christian strata achieved close to the best results in its history and looks most likely to form a coalition with the conservatives both parties that campaigned against immigration and islamic

there as they usually do so there is a very worried mood in the streets barbara thank you so much barbara basler in barcelona. and as barbara pointed out there are huge implicit business implications to barcelona as to catalonia is independence bit investment in companies are leaking out of the catalan capital in the wake of the political crisis helena has more right terry barber was talking about the impact on tourism we also know the investment suffered as business uncertainty follows where there is a political crisis and this is certainly spain's worst political crisis in decades and investors are asking what is catalonia exactly dazed these days is it a part of spain or an independent state now last week catalan president carter's preaching will declare that catalonia was proceeding with independence just not yet instead he was asking for new negotiations with spanish authorities we're waiting to find out what he's going to say in a few hours but meanwhile many businesses will have had enough already we've seen forty four major companies move their headquarters out of catalonia since that re

let's get the view from correspondent barbara basler who joins us from brussels barbara aside from expressing concern elaters have been reluctant to even comment on the standoff between madrid and barcelona why is brussels keeping its distance on an issue with such huge implications for european unity. because it really has to the problem here is this is a major political headache for the european union of course however the e.u. is organized according to the rule of law the rule of law here in this case is the spanish constitution the spanish constitution says that the unity of the country is imperative now for the european union of course the contracts mean that it has to sort of safeguard the territorial integrity and the unity of its member states so here it really is in the mind even though russell's has been watching was dismayed for weeks this crisis to sort of get worse and worse and has watched was dismayed the heavy handed tactics of money i know hall in madrid it couldn't directly interfere because it simply doesn't have the powers and of course politically it's not it was it would

let's get the european perspective on that catalan independence vote let's bring in barbara basler for that she's our correspondent in brussels good morning to you barbara how are european union officials reacting to the catalan referendum. officially they are not reacting at all in officially over the weekend to prime ministers the one from belgium and the one from slovenia stuck their neck out and said now this referendum was illegal and illegitimate however those situations can never be solved by violence and particularly the belgian prime minister he knows what he's talking about because belgium has had in movement for years and years that flanders has those sort of flare ups of wanting to go it alone there's been a number of european parliamentarians talking over the weekend and everybody said and they were really united in their opinion this is not the way to go at it in officially of course in brussels there was shock and horror of during the last two weeks when this was sort of coming up because everybody knew this was like a train crash waiting to happen and the spanish govern