Catalan Parliament Refuses To Consider Motion To Declare Independence From Spain

The Catalan parliament refused on Tuesday to consider a motion for the semi-autonomous region in northeastern Spain to declare independence

MADRID (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2019) The Catalan parliament refused on Tuesday to consider a motion for the semi-autonomous region in northeastern Spain to declare independence.

The initiative was introduced by a pro-independence Catalan organization and in effect repeated the declaration of independence, which the Catalan parliament approved in 2017 following a referendum vote, but which was then deemed illegal by the Spanish government.

If the parliament had agreed to consider the bill, the initiative would have needed to get at least 50,000 signatures in its support to move for a final vote in the legislature.

In October 2017, the Catalan government held an independence referendum in defiance of the policies of the central authorities, which deemed the referendum illegal. At the referendum, over 90 percent of the voters supported Catalonia's secession from Spain, after which Madrid dissolved the regional parliament and introduced the direct rule over the region.

Catalonia has been striving to secede from Spain for decades. Much of its claim to independence is based on its discontent with having its money controlled by the Spanish government through taxes.