Catalonia will declare independence

Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia said this Sunday that the way had been cleared to have a declaration of independence.

Catalan officials have claimed that preliminary results of its referendum have shown 90% in favour of independence. Catalan minister of the Presidency Jordi Turull told reporters early Monday that 90% of the 2.26 million Catalans who voted Sunday chose yes. He said nearly 8% of voters rejected independence and the rest of the ballots were blank or void. He said 15,000 votes were still being counted. The number didn’t include those confiscated by Spanish police during violent raids Sunday.

Catalan government has said the number of people injured in the polling day violence has risen to 844 after police fired rubber bullets and beat people trying to vote. The Spanish Civil Guard was seen hitting people with batons, fired rubber bullets into crowds and forcibly removed would-be voters from polling stations in actions that were condemned internationally.

The Catalan government says Spain is “the shame of Europe” for the way it has cracked down on the region’s bid to hold a secession referendum  Government spokesman Jordi Turull says “what the police are doing is simply savage, it’s an international scandal.” Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, has called on Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to resign over the violence.