Sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has called for “democratic opposition” to direct rule from Madrid.<\/p>\n
He condemned the suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy and promised to continue to “work to build a free country”.<\/p>\n
He made the call in a pre-recorded TV address to Catalans broadcast on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Spanish government has stripped Catalonia of its autonomy and taken charge of its government.<\/p>\n
The measures came early on Saturday after the Catalan parliament voted to declare independence the previous day.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Spain’s interior ministry took charge of Catalonia’s police after firing senior Catalan police officials.<\/p>\n
Friday saw Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announce the dissolution of the regional parliament and the removal of Mr Puigdemont as Catalan leader, and call snap regional elections.<\/p>\n
An\u00a0an official state bulletin\u00a0(in Spanish) handed control of Catalonia to Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.<\/p>\n
Demonstrations for and against independence went on into the night and a large rally “for the unity of Spain and the constitution” was held in Madrid on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In his TV address, Mr Puigdemont, describing the declaration of independence, said Friday had been “a day with democratic and civic sensibility”.<\/p>\n
He said the central government’s actions since then were “contrary to the expressed will of the citizens of our country, who know perfectly well that in a democracy it is parliaments that choose, or remove, presidents”.<\/p>\n
The Catalan government said that of the 43% of potential voters who took part, 90% were in favour of independence.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has called for “democratic opposition” to direct rule from Madrid. He condemned the suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy and promised to continue to “work to build a free country”. He made the call in a pre-recorded TV address to Catalans broadcast on Saturday afternoon. The Spanish government has stripped Catalonia of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[1738,111],"yoast_head":"\n