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Catalan leaders stick to independence guns

The Local Spain/AFP
The Local Spain/AFP - [email protected]
Catalan leaders stick to independence guns
President of the Catalan regional government Artur Mas (L) and leader of the ERC) leftist republican party Oriol Junqueras (2L) during a meeting of Catalan independent parties on Friday. Photo: Josep

Catalan leaders vowed on Friday to push ahead with their plan to hold a vote on independence on November 9th, defying constitutional blocks by the Spanish government, an official said.

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"We have agreed to maintain the decree calling the vote so that citizens can exercise their right to vote on November 9th," the Catalan regional government spokesman Francesc Homs told reporters in Barcelona.

The objective now was to determine "how to guarantee the vote" goes ahead.  He did not respond to questions and no further details are available at this time.

The spokesperson's comments came after a meeting on Friday involving the four major political parties driving the region's push towards the November 9th vote on independence.

Homs also spoke just hours after the regional head of Spain's ruling Popular Party said the party planned to lodge a legal appeal against plans by the Catalan government to set up an electoral commission to oversee the vote.  

Catalonia’s PP head Alicia Sánchez Camacho told journalists that the pro-independence supervisory body "cannot exist" and announced the PP would challenge it in court with "conviction and tranquility.

On Monday, Spain's Constitutional Court suspended the non-binding independence vote while studied whether the unilateral referendum was legal. 

That decision came after Madrid lodged an appeal against a decree signed by Artur Mas calling for the controversial vote on whether Catalonia should split from the rest of Spain. 

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