“Catalan home rule has effectively been suspended due to this anti-democratic attitude from the Spanish government,” he wrote. “That [the referendum] cannot be held in the circumstances that we wanted is obvious.”Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters in Barcelona waved Catalan independence flags. It has also warned Catalan officials that they could be fined up to €12,000 (£10,500) a day if they carry on organising the vote. On Tuesday the Guardia Civil confiscated referendum documents from the offices of a private delivery firm in the Catalan city of Terrassa. Thursday also saw an intervention from the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, whose Scottish National party lost a 2014 independence referendum agreed with the British government.

Source: The Guardian September 21, 2017 14:37 UTC