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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Spain rejects Catalonia independence referendum

Mon Mar 31, 2014

Spain's deputy prime minister says Madrid cannot allow the autonomous community of Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence, calling such a vote illegal.

At a pro-government rally in Barcelona on Sunday, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said that the government would not let that part of the population decide the question of national sovereignty for others.

Santamaria noted that Madrid was ready for dialogue with Catalonia on various issues, as long as it is in line with the constitution.

If Catalonia quits Spain, it will no longer be a European Union member and may have to leave the eurozone altogether, she emphasized.

Catalonia's President Artur Mas has vowed to hold the referendum on secession from Spain on November 9.

Mas says Catalonia should have its own government within the European Union, but Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismisses the idea as unconstitutional.

A declaration of self-determination was unanimously adopted by the region’s parliament in January 2013, which gave Catalans the right to break away from the rest of the country.

However, on March 25, Spain's Constitutional Court partially struck down a sovereignty claim approved by Catalan lawmakers in the northeastern region.

In recent years, massive rallies have been held to claim the self-determination right for the region.

More than one million Catalans took to the streets across Spain in September last year and joined hands to form a 400-kilometer (250-mile) human chain in a major drive for independence from Spain.

Polls indicate that about half of 7.5 million inhabitants of Catalonia, which has its own language and cultural traditions, want to break away from Spain.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/31/356622/spain-rejects-catalonia-referendum/.

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