© Xinhua/Juan Carlos RojasPeople wave Spanish national flags in a march with the slogan "Enough and let's recover the sensibility", to defend the Spanish constitution and the unity of Spain in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 8, 2017.
BARCELONA, Spain, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A wild roller-coaster ride hijacking almost half of Catalans has ground to a halt, as Madrid cut the Gordian knot by invoking article 155 of the Spanish Constitution and imposed direct rule on the once-autonomous region.
All the signs are that Madrid's takeover, entering its first week, has been running smoothly and has won ovation among a broad swath of Barcelonans.
In the meantime, with deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdement fleeing to Brussels, and some of his cohorts being summoned to Spanish court for charges including "rebellion, sedition, and misuse of public funds", Catalan separatists have landed in hot water.
"The central government's takeover, aimed at stabilizing the situation and bringing the normal life back, is certainly good," 38-year-old Eueni Gegeni Prat, an editor at a truck business website, told Xinhua.
"The separatists' thinking is nonsense," Plat quipped, stressing that "independence will not make Catalonia richer, instead it will result in economic calamities".
Comment: The dream is over for those in favor of the independence of Catalonia. But wasn't this failure the most likely outcome from the start? With less than half the population motivated enough to vote in the referendum, no significant military or police force on their side and very little support from the international community (and in contrast so much to lose for the Spanish government), the idea didn't really have any legs. The threat of independence was nothing more than a bluff from the Catalonian elite in order to get further privileges from Madrid for a region which is already among the richest of Spain. It didn't work, and now the pro-independence leaders can only contemplate two options: jail or exile.