Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed that his government will not allow Catalonia to break away from the rest of the country.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais published on Sunday, Mr Rajoy said, “Spain is not going to be divided and the nation’s unity will be maintained.”
He said he will consider employing any measure “allowed by the law” to stop the region’s separatists, including considering the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which would allow the central government to take control of the governance of a region “if the regional government does not comply with the obligations of the Constitution.”
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied on Sunday in downtown Barcelona to protest against the plans of Catalonia’s regional government to secede from the rest of Spain.
The march was the largest pro-union showing since the rise of separatist sentiment in the prosperous northeastern region that has pushed Spain to the brink of a national crisis.
