MADRID (AP) – Spain’s government is asking the country’s constitutional court to suspend a bid by regional leaders in Catalonia to hold an Oct. 1 referendum on independence from Spain, the prime minister announced Thursday.
Amid deep political tensions, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the vote is illegal and poses an attack against Spain’s and Catalonia’s institutional order.
“That’s something that the government and the courts can’t allow,” Rajoy said in a televised address following an urgent meeting of his cabinet. “There won’t be a self-determination referendum because that would be taking away from other Spaniards the right to decide their future.”
Spain’s constitutional court has previously ruled that a referendum can only be called with the approval of the central authorities.
The pro-independence coalition in power in Catalonia, a wealthy region in northeastern Spain, claims it has the democratic mandate to deliver on a promise to seek independence and that the universal right to self-determination overrules Spain’s laws.