In spite of
controversy and violence that surrounded Sunday’s referendum for
Catalonia, leader Carles Puigdemont says the Spanish region has won the right
to statehood, the BBC reports
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%.
Spain’s constitutional court had declared the poll illegal
and hundreds of people were injured as police used force to try to block
voting.
Officers seized ballot papers and boxes at polling
stations.
“With this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of
Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic,”
Mr Puigdemont said in a televised address flanked by other senior Catalan
leaders.
“My
government, in the next few days will send the results of today’s vote to the
Catalan parliament, where the sovereignty of our people lies, so that it can
act in accordance with the law of the referendum.”
He said the European Union could no longer “continue to
look the other way”.
In another development, more than 40 trade unions and
Catalan associations called a region-wide strike on Tuesday due to “the grave
violation of rights and freedoms”.
Earlier, as voting ended, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano
Rajoy said Catalans had been fooled into taking part in an illegal vote. He
called it a “mockery” of democracy.
“At this
hour I can tell you in the strongest terms what you already know and what we
have seen throughout this day. There has not been a referendum on
self-determination in Catalonia,” he said.
Large crowds of independence supporters gathered in the
centre of the regional capital Barcelona on Sunday evening, waving flags and
singing the Catalan anthem.
Anti-independence protesters have also held rallies in
Barcelona and other Spanish cities.
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