Spain calls Catalan mayors for referendum questioning

Spain's state prosecutor has summoned more than 700 Catalan mayors who have backed an independence referendum, in an escalation of Madrid's efforts to block the vote that it has declared illegal. 

Officials engaging in any preparations for the vote could be charged with civil disobedience, abuse of office and misuse of public funds, the prosecutor said in a letter delivered to local authorities on Sept. 13.

If the mayors do not answer the summons, police should arrest them, it added.

One mayor said the legal move was unprecedented.

"We don't think any European country has ever tried to make more than 700 mayors testify," said Neus Lloveras, mayor of Vilanova i la Geltru near Barcelona, head of the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI). 

"We have nothing to hide. When we have to go and testify, we will say everything we have been saying for days, that we owe it to our people to keep working to make sure they can freely express themselves at the ballot box," he told reporters. But the small, anti-capitalist CUP group, which governs 19 Catalan municipalities, said it would not answer the summons, and called on other political forces to do the same.

Catalonia's regional parliament passed laws last week to prepare for a referendum on Oct. 1. Spain's Constitutional Court suspended the vote after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy challenged it in the courts. 

Judges are now considering whether the legislation contravenes Spain's constitution, which states that the country is indivisible. So far, 712 of a total 948 municipal leaders have said they would allow public spaces to be used for the referendum, according to AMI.

The mayor of Barcelona - the region's most populous area - has yet to take...