Thousands of Catalans cheered, danced and downed glasses of cava to celebrate the regional parliament’s vote to declare independence from Spain on Friday. Less than an hour later, the national senate voted overwhelmingly to approve article 155 powers allowing Barcelona’s authority to be removed in an attempt to stop independence in its tracks. The Spanish government has taken control of Catalonia, sacked its president, Carles Puigdemont, and called a snap regional election for December. Remain calm, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy urged his compatriots; legality will be restored. He hopes for a speedy resolution. But despite the applause on one side and pledge of quiet resolution on the other, they all know that no end is in sight.

Independence is opposed by many Catalans – historically the majority of them, though current events may change that – as well as Spain and the rest of Europe. But using Article 155 is the “nuclear option”, never invoked since Spain returned to democracy after the death of Franco in 1975. A crisis already damaging both to a region that is deeply divided on the issue of secession (almost half of Catalan legislators walked out of Friday’s vote), and to the country, has just got much worse.

It has been long in the making. But in recent months it has accelerated thanks to the recklessness and intransigence of both sides as they have ploughed on, intent on forcing the other to step aside or back down. That may owe less to the real conviction that they could strongarm their opponents than to the pressures they faced from their own side to stand firm. When reports spread on Thursday that Mr Puigdemont was about to call for fresh regional elections, offering a way out of the deadlock, allies in the independence movement tweeted “fraud” and “155 pieces of silver”; protesters took to the streets. The increasingly ugly nature of the dispute can only make it harder to resolve matters.

And yet – as the anxiety in Madrid and Barcelona showed – declaring independence and invoking article 155 are in a sense the easy parts. Making these declarations real is quite another matter. For Catalan nationalists that is a very long-term challenge. But as officials and politicians in Madrid acknowledge, their path is not straightforward either. What happens if Catalans defy the decree en masse?

Play Video 1:22 Spain imposes direct rule as Catalan parliament votes for independence – video

Concern is spreading. Mr Puigdemont has begun to pitch his case explicitly to a European audience, as a call for the upholding of universal principles, including self-determination: he will not win over governments, but may find their peoples more receptive. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, warned that the EU did not need “more cracks”. A tweet from Donald Tusk, the European council president, reiterated that Spain remained the EU’s “only interlocutor”, but added: “I hope it favours force of argument, not argument of force.”

There is no doubt that the Catalan leadership acted illegally in holding the referendum. There can equally be no doubt that Madrid turned a blind eye to legal and civil rights when it dismissed criticism of police brutality in the anti-referendum operations. It is beyond question that a legal response is inadequate to fix this problem: the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, was right to remind Spain that a political crisis can only be solved through dialogue. Madrid’s inept and tone-deaf response to the independence movement has inflamed the cause, not dampened the fire. Matters should never have got to this stage. They should go no further. Economic damage is already evident; the damage to the social fabric of Spain, and Catalonia in particular, is equally obvious and, in the long run, may prove harder to repair. But when tempers are so heated it is clear that this crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better. How much more will be destroyed before the flames are beaten down?