Exit polls show that separatist parties are winning a majority of the votes in Catalonia’s regional elections. The local elections are described as a quasi-referendum on separation from Spain. The potential victory for the pro-independence parties in the regional parliament will be setting the region on a collision course with Spain’s central government over independence. The main secessionist... 

Artur Mas, the president of Catalonia is seen casting his ballot to vote in a symbolic referendum in Barcelona on Catalonia’s independence from Spain, November 9, 2014. Spain’s chief prosecutor is set to launch a lawsuit against Catalonia’s President Artur Mas as well as other local officials over the autonomous region’s recent symbolic referendum on independence from Spain. Eduardo Torres-Dulce... 

Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria. Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria says the Catalan region cannot be granted the right to self-determination. The Spanish official made the remarks in parliament on Tuesday, a day after more than two million people took part in an independence vote in Catalonia. “The right to self-determination that you demand... 

Polls have closed in Catalonia where people have held a symbolic independence vote despite the Spanish government’s opposition. According to the regional Catalan government, almost two million people took part in the independence polls, which opened at 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) and closed at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Sunday. The regional government had earlier said that 5.4 million Catalans and resident... 

Catalans are holding a massive, symbolic regional independence vote this weekend, in defiance of the Spanish government’s ban. The polls look set to draw upward of 1.5 million people, to whom the vote is now about freedom of expression. Artur Mas, the Catalan president, has remained defiant in the face of the exceedingly draconian bans by Madrid on any show of support for secession. The Catalan... 

The Spanish Council of State has ruled that a new planned symbolic referendum on independence in the Catalonia region is illegal, saying it backs a veto of the vote. A spokeswoman for the council said Thursday that the consultative body decided that the government should ask the Constitutional Court to declare the November 9 referendum as unlawful. The council made the ruling after receiving a request... 

The Spanish government has taken the first steps to block Catalonia’s new vote on independence which is scheduled for next month. On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy requested the Council of State’s opinion on Catalonia’s “consultation of citizens,” which the region intends to hold next month instead of a full independence referendum. On October 15, Catalan regional president... 

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Barcelona, vowing to disobey Spain’s blocking of Catalonia’s independence referendum. Some 5,000 angry Catalans gathered in one of the city’s main squares on Tuesday, waving Catalan independence flags and chanting ‘We will vote”. “Not rain nor snow nor any court will stop us,” said Carme Forcadell, leader of the Catalan National... 

Spain’s Constitutional Court decided Monday that Catalonia has no right to vote for its independence. The independence referendum planned by Catalonia’s President for this November was unanimously suspended by 12 judges. Speaking in a televised address after an emergency cabinet meeting Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he regretted Catalonia’s president Artur Mas’s decision... 

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... 

The Scots have lost their stab at independence by a tiny 10-percent margin. Analysts predicted that only a ‘yes’ vote would send waves throughout Europe, but the dire economic situation of other independence-seeking regions can’t be eclipsed so easily. In a historic referendum on Thursday, Scotland voted 55 to 45 percent to stay in the four-nation United Kingdom. This ‘yes’ vote,... 

Felipe VI has become the new king of Spain after his father, King Juan Carlos, abdicated to pave the way for his son to take over as his successor. Felipe, 46, took the Spanish crown early Thursday as an act of parliament signed by his father came into force. Carlos,76, signed his abdication on Wednesday in a short ceremony in favor of his son. Carlos reigned as Spain’s king after 39 years. His... 

The Catalan regional parliament has set November next year for a referendum on the Spanish province’s independence. The government in Madrid blandly said the vote won’t happen, but activists wonder how it might be stopped. Catalonia’s four pro-independence parties, which hold a majority in the regional parliament, announced Thursday that the rich industrial Spanish province will hold a referendum... 

Spain is hit by a wiretapping scandal with report saying 500 politicians and distinguished figured were allegedly spied on. The Spanish government has been hit by a fresh illegal wiretapping scandal, with reports suggesting different politicians and distinguished figures were eavesdropped on. According to Spainish El Mundo daily, a detective bureau allegedly spied on 500 political figures in northeastern...