Catalonia leader faces final deadline to drop secession bid

Pressure is mounting on Catalonia’s leader Carles Puigdemont to drop a secession bid as final deadline looms with Spain waiting in the wings to impose full rule if he fails to do so by 10:00 (08:00 GMT).

According to reports, Puigdemont will press ahead on independence if Spain moves to take direct control with fears already being harboured that this may lead to civil unrest in Catalonia.

Recall that after a referendum on 1 October, Puigdemont signed an independence declaration but then suspended it, asking for dialogue.

In a related development, the streets of Barcelona was flooded with demonstrators numbering up to 200,000 demanding the release of two jailed Catalan leaders who have been in police custody without bail pending an investigation for alleged sedition.

Reports say demonstrators chanted “Freedom for Sanchez and Cuixart!” as they called for the release of Jordi Cuixart of Omnium Cultural and Jordi Sanchez of the National Catalan Assembly (ANC) who were both arrested after they were both jailed on the orders of a court in Madrid.

According to Anna Martinez, one of the members of the Committee for the Defense of the Referendum (CDR), a neighbourhood group created at the beginning of October to “defend the Catalan right to vote,” she never thought the Spanish government would take political prisoners.

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