Catalan leaders to declare independence in Spain crisis

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Catalan leaders were preparing Wednesday to declare independence after a violence-hit referendum, defying a warning from the country’s king that national stability was in peril. As the European Union urged dialogue to ease the standoff between separatists in the northeastern region and Madrid,

a regional government source said the independence declaration could be as early as Monday. The standoff has morphed into Spain’s worst political crisis in decades, with images of Spanish police beating unarmed Catalans taking part in Sunday’s banned independence vote sparking international concern.

People wave ‘Esteladas’ (pro-independence Catalan flags) during a pro-independence demonstration, on September 11, 2017 in Barcelona during the National Day of Catalonia, the “Diada.” Hundreds of thousands of Catalans were expected to rally to demand their region break away from Spain, in a show of strength three weeks ahead of a secession referendum banned by Madrid.

The protest coincides with Catalonia’s national day, the “Diada,” which commemorates the fall of Barcelona in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714 and the region’s subsequent loss of institutions and freedoms.

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