Catalonia is a wealthy region of 7.5 million people in north-eastern Spain with its own language and culture.
This Sunday Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said the Spanish region has won the right to statehood following a contentious referendum that was marred by violence.
"With this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form of a republic," Mr Puigdemont said in a televised address flanked by other senior Catalan leaders.
He said the door had been opened to a unilateral declaration of independence.
Catalan officials later said 90% of those who voted backed independence in Sunday's vote. The turnout was 42.3%.
Spain's constitutional court had banned the vote and hundreds of people were injured as police used force to try to block voting.
Officers seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Catalans had been fooled into taking part in an illegal vote.
The Spanish interior ministry said 12 police officers had been hurt and three people arrested. It added that 92 polling stations had been closed. Catalonia's government disputed this number and said many more had been closed.
The Catalan government said more than 800 people had been injured in clashes across the region. Those figures included people who had suffered relatively minor complaints such as anxiety attacks.
On Monday the government in Madrid will hold talks with Spanish parties to discuss a response to the biggest political crisis this country has seen in decades.
Will we see further violence in the coming weeks as Catalonia tries to carry out their decision to become an independent state? Possibly even a revolution? What will a declaration of independence look like in the 21st century? Is this a good model for what would happen if a U.S. State tried to break off and become independent?
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41463719
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