Tag: Spain

• Monday, October 2nd 2017 - 09:23 UTC

  Catalonia “closer to statehood”; Rajoy calls Spanish political parties to discuss the situation

  

  Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said on Sunday that the Spanish region has won the right to statehood following a contentious referendum that was marred by violence. He said the door had been opened to a unilateral declaration of independence. Catalan officials later said 90% of those who voted backed independence in Sunday's vote. The turnout was 42.3%.

• Friday, September 29th 2017 - 07:50 UTC

  Catalonia dispute: Madrid sends 6.000 extra police; Barcelona appeals to Europe to mediate

  

  Barcelona police have sealed off a warehouse said to be stocking ballot boxes, as Spain seeks to obstruct a Catalan independence referendum. The Guàrdia Urbana force was obeying an order from prosecutors to prevent the Catalan vote being held on Sunday. About 16,000 school and university students marched through Barcelona demanding that the vote go ahead.

• Monday, September 25th 2017 - 11:24 UTC

  Spain at UN calls UK to negotiate an agreement to resolve the question of Gibraltar

  

  Spain has repeated its traditional position on Gibraltar during an address to the UN General Assembly in New York, describing the Rock as “an anachronism” and highlighting Madrid’s co-sovereignty proposal. Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis focused on Gibraltar briefly during a 17-minute speech that covered key areas of Spanish foreign policy.

• Monday, September 25th 2017 - 10:40 UTC

  Madrid and Barcelona clash over control of the Catalonia police force

  

  Spain’s central government and regional Catalan authorities argued this weekend over who controls the regional police force that is considered key to the success of a planned independence vote for the north-eastern region. The exchanges came as thousands of Catalan separatists rallied in public squares in Barcelona and other towns on Sunday in support of a disputed referendum on independence of from Spain.

• Monday, September 25th 2017 - 06:36 UTC

  Scottish lawmakers ask Madrid to allow Catalonia to decide its future democratically

  

  A cross-party group of Scottish politicians has asked the Spanish government to allow people in Catalonia to decide their future democratically. The move comes amid rising tensions in Spain, after the devolved Catalan administration decided to call an independence referendum next Sunday, which Madrid has described the move as illegal.

• Friday, September 22nd 2017 - 09:29 UTC

  Catalonia pro independence demonstrators fill streets of Barcelona wrapped in the “estelada” flag

  

  Thousands gathered on Thursday to demand the release of a dozen Catalan officials arrested in connection with a vote on independence that Spanish authorities are challenging as illegal. The demonstrators, who met at the gates of Catalonia’s judicial body in Barcelona, answered a call by pro-independence civic groups to stage long-term street protests against the police surprise crackdown one day earlier.

• Thursday, September 21st 2017 - 15:31 UTC

  Civil disobedience escalates in Catalonia as Madrid stamps on independence referendum logistics

  

  Spain’s prime minister called on Wednesday on Catalan separatist leaders to end their “escalation” as several thousand people took to the streets of Barcelona to protest at Madrid’s attempts to stop a banned referendum on independence.

• Monday, September 18th 2017 - 09:33 UTC

  Spain pledges to keep border “fluidity” with Gibraltar following Brexit

  

  Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alfonso Dastis, sought to reassure cross-border workers during a visit to La Linea, insisting Madrid would work to minimize the impact of Brexit on Spanish citizens, “and very especially those from the Campo and La Linea” who cross every day to Gibraltar.

• Thursday, September 14th 2017 - 08:24 UTC

  Catalonia referendum: 700 mayors under investigation by Spain's top prosecutor

  

  Spain’s top prosecutor is investigating more than 700 Catalan mayors for cooperating with a planned referendum on the region’s independence after the nation’s constitutional court ordered the vote put on hold. Catalonia’s regional police force is under orders to arrest the mayors if they refuse to appear for questioning, State Prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza’s office said.

• Wednesday, September 6th 2017 - 07:23 UTC

  Spain pushing EU to adopt measures against members of Venezuela's government

  

  Spain is pushing for the European Union to adopt restrictive measures against members of the Venezuelan government as a way of encouraging a return to constitutional order in the crisis-hit country, the Spanish foreign ministry said on Tuesday.