The Spanish government will administer Catalonia directly from Madrid subject to approval by the Senate, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said at a press conference. He added that Madrid wants to curb the powers of the Catalan parliament. Rajoy declared on Saturday that the government wants to dissolve the Catalan parliament and call a snap election to restore order in the region. He said Madrid is not... 

The Catalan government says it will push ahead with its scheduled plan to hold an independence referendum, despite a Spanish Constitutional Court order to suspend the vote. Catalan President Artur Mas established a seven-member committee late on Thursday to supervise the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain which is due to be held on November 9. Earlier on Wednesday, the creation of... 

The president of Catalonia, Artur Mas, has signed a decree calling an independence referendum for Nov. 9. The secessionist drive of the Spanish region has been rebuked by Madrid, which vowed to block the vote. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has called a government meeting Monday that is expected to provide a legal response to Barcelona’s announcement. Madrid plans to challenge the vote in... 

The Catalan parliament has passed a law giving its regional president the power to carry out a non-binding consultation vote on secession from Spain. Catalan nationalists believe this law enables them to hold the long-awaited independence referendum. On Friday, the Catalan parliament voted in favor of the new law, with 106 MPs supporting it and 28 voting against. The MPs hope it will bring Catalan... 

Catalan separatist merchandise is displayed at a stall in Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain. The parliament of Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia has approved a declaration of the region’s sovereignty as a major step towards its independence from Spain. The non-binding resolution was passed on Wednesday by 85 votes in favor, 41 against, and two abstentions, the Associated Press reported. The... 

Spain’s Catalan nationalist party Convergencia I Union (CiU) led by Artur Mas won the elections in the Catalan Parliament on Sunday, but failed to win an absolute majority that it expects to govern alone. CiU secured 50 seats of the 135-seat local parliament in the elections, a setback from its previous 62 seats, which appeared to be a failure of its pro-independence campaign. Another nationalist...