Spain's Socialist party ruled out forming a new government with any party that supported a referendum on independence in Catalonia, a stand that prolongs political uncertainty after this month's inconclusive national election.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced on Monday his government would file an appeal with the Constitutional Court to ensure that an independence declaration backed by the Catalan regional parliament has “no consequences”, he told a news conference.
By Alex Salmond (*) - I do not know if Artur Mas, the president of Catalonia, deliberately chose the eclipse of the super-moon as the day on which to hold the most important election in Catalonia’s democratic history.
The leader of Spain's wealthy Catalonia region President signed a decree on Monday calling parliamentary elections for 27 September, a year earlier than necessary and according to political analysts, a proxy vote on the much debated controversial independence.
An international symposium looking at the historical backdrop underpinning the concepts of self-determination, devolution, and independence on self-determination will take place next Thursday and Friday in Gibraltar. The aim of this conference is to look at these concepts and to explore them across a number of different examples.
Catalonia's president on Saturday formally called a referendum to decide whether Spain's richest region should be independent, defying Madrid which vowed to block the move. Shortly after Artur Mas set the vote for November 9, the Spanish government said the referendum would not take place because it was unconstitutional.
In Europe's eastern half, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia created many new countries. In Western Europe, however, borders of the old nation states seemed to be carved in stone and although there have been secessionist tendencies, some of them militant, they never seemed to have a shot in reality, according to a Deutsche Welle report from Berlin.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Catalan President Artur Mas failed to break the deadlock over Catalonia’s independence drive, with both holding firm on their positions when they met for the first time in a year.
Catalonia President Artur Mas said he would forge ahead with his region's plans to hold a referendum on independence in November after Spain's parliament overwhelmingly rejected the petition. After a seven-hour debate in Madrid, and despite heavy support for the separatist movement in the wealthy northeastern region, 299 lawmakers voted against, 47 voted for and one abstained.
Lawmakers from the Spanish region of Catalonia voted to seek a referendum on breaking away from Spain on Thursday, setting themselves up for a battle with an implacably opposed central government in Madrid. The Catalan Parliament in Barcelona voted 87 to 43, with 3 abstentions, to send a petition to the national parliament seeking the power to call a popular vote on the region’s future.