Pressure mounted on Monday against Catalan vows to break away from Spain after hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied to defend national unity, but the region’s leader maintained his threat to formally declare independence possibly within days. The protests followed days of soaring tensions after police cracked down on voters during a banned October 1 Catalan independence referendum, prompting separatist leaders to warn they would unilaterally break away from Spain. Catalan separatists have called on regional president Carles Puigdemont to declare independence in defiance of the central government when he addresses the regional parliament on Tuesday evening. He hinted in an interview on Sunday that the region would go ahead and declare independence if Madrid continues to refuse dialogue. But Rajoy assured Catalan leaders that there “is still time” to backtrack and avoid the imposition of direct rule from Madrid.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 09, 2017 08:15 UTC