The Spanish government is expected to begin moves to remove Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his ministers, and impose direct rule from Madrid, following the region’s parliament declaration of independence from Spain.

Madrid disclosed that it had called two Cabinet meetings for later Friday.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, while addressing the Spanish Senate ahead of its vote to approve the invocation of Article 155, said the rule of law had been “stomped on” in Catalonia and warned of a fracturing of society. He said: ”Exceptional measures need to be adopted when there are no other ways to go back to normality.

”Those measures are not against Catalonia but aiming to stop Catalonia being abused.

“Not to suspend the autonomy of Catalonia but to consolidate it; not to cut back rights but to restore them to legality.

”What’s threatening Catalonia is not Article 155 but the behavior of the government of Catalonia.”

The European Union has backed Madrid in its handling of the crisis, which Rajoy has insisted is an internal matter.

Following the Catalan Parliament’s vote, European Council President Donald Tusk took to Twitter to call for dialogue in resolving the crisis.

He wrote: “For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force.”

The dispute has thrown Spain into its worst political crisis since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s.

For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force.

— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) October 27, 2017