More than 700 mayors from Catalonia are meeting in Barcelona in a show of strength amid pressure from Spain’s central government not to hold an independence referendum for the northeastern region that has been deemed illegal by the courts.

Political tensions in Spain are increasing as the proposed voting date of Oct. 1 nears. The Catalan government has been scrambling to push forward the vote, despite the central government’s warnings that local municipalities are not allowed to use public buildings for it and mayors can be legally prosecuted for it.

Hundreds of mayors stood Saturday next to regional President Carles Puigdemont and Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau.

Puigdemont thanked them for not backing down and insisted that most Catalans are determined to press ahead with the referendum despite the ban. </s> Image copyright Jaume Clotet Image caption Catalan President Carles Puigdemont signed the bill into local law almost immediately

Parliament in Spain's restive Catalonia region has approved an independence referendum on 1 October which Madrid has vowed to outlaw.

Separatist parties which hold a slim majority backed the referendum bill allowing for a vote on whether the wealthy region should leave Spain.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has asked the constitutional court to nullify it.

He was due to hold an emergency cabinet meeting on Thursday and meet other party leaders.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Catalan MPs celebrated after the vote

His deputy earlier accused secessionists of trampling on democracy.

Spain's wealthy north-eastern region already has autonomous powers but the regional government says it has popular support for full secession.

The Catalan government has a majority in the regional parliament made up of the separatist Junts pel Si (Together for Yes) coalition and the left-wing CUP party.

Flag protest

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont signed the bill into local law almost immediately after the vote, when it was adopted with 72 votes in favour and 11 abstentions in the 135-seat chamber in Barcelona.

When the outcome was announced, separatist MPs broke into the official national anthem of Catalonia, Els Segadors.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Spanish unionist MPs did not stay for the vote

Unionist MPs from the regional branches of Mr Rajoy's Popular Party (PP), the Socialist Party and the centrist Ciudadanos party had left the chamber in protest before the vote, which followed a marathon debate.

PP members left Spanish and Catalan flags on seats behind them to show their disapproval. However, when an MP from the leftist party Podemos started removing the Spanish ones, she was rebuked by the Speaker, Carme Forcadell.

The decision has plunged Spain into a national crisis only three weeks after jihadist attacks in the heart of Catalonia left 16 people dead and more than 100 others wounded.

Image copyright EPA Image caption The leaders of Spain and Catalonia demonstrated unity in the wake of the Barcelona attacks

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría condemned the Catalan leadership for carrying out "an act of force" and for acting more like "dictatorial regimes than a democracy".

The war of words intensified when Catalan President Carles Puigdemont accused her of threatening and insulting all Catalans.

Will the vote go ahead?

The pro-independence Catalan government has been preparing for the 1 October vote for months. In its bill announced on Wednesday it said a Yes vote would be followed within 48 hours by a declaration of independence.

Image copyright Carme Forcadell Image caption Catalan parliamentary Speaker Carme Forcadell tweeted a photo of Wednesday' voting display

Mr Puigdemont says the smallest of margins above 50% will be enough.

So the Spanish government is doing all it can to prevent the vote from taking place. However, an earlier vote in November 2014 did go ahead even after Spain's constitutional court declared it was not an official referendum.

Was Tuesday's vote legal?

The constitutional court argues that Spain's constitution does not allow regions to unilaterally decide on sovereignty.

Former Catalan leader Artur Mas was barred from office by a court earlier this year for running the 2014 vote.

Under a 2015 law, Spanish public servants can be suspended by the constitutional court if they ignore its rulings. Carles Puigdemont insists his position is governed by Catalan regulations and sees any attempt to suspend him as unacceptable.

Other public servants could also be fined and hit by temporary suspensions if they help run the vote.

Catalan leaders have already acted to replace officials not seen as sufficiently supportive of the vote. The head of the region's Mossos d'Esquadra police force, Albert Batlle, resigned from his post over the summer. </s> MADRID (AP) — Catalonia's parliament will vote next week on whether to elect a jailed separatist leader as the region's new president, as part of an ongoing effort to gain independence from Spain.

Parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent on Tuesday convened the plenary session in Barcelona for March 12, when Catalan lawmakers will vote on whether to make Jordi Sanchez their regional government's leader.

Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia's ex-leader who fled to Brussels to escape arrest, announced last week that he was temporarily withdrawing his bid to get his old job back and proposed Sanchez — his No. 2 in the Together for Catalonia party — in his place.

The vote is the latest push by Catalan separatists to advance their attempt break away from Spain — an effort the central government in Madrid has thwarted in the courts. The Spanish Constitution says Spain is "indivisible," but the standoff has brought the country's worst political crisis in decades and it shows no signs of ending.

Sanchez, a former president of a prominent secessionist civic group called Catalan National Assembly who was elected to parliament last December, has been held in a prison near Madrid since October.

He is detained while a judge investigates whether he orchestrated protests that hindered authorities' attempt to halt preparations for a banned Catalan independence referendum on Oct. 1.

Sanchez has asked a judge to let him attend the plenary session. A letter from his lawyers to the Supreme Court, published Tuesday, argues that denying him permission to travel would be denying his personal rights and those of people who voted in December.

Next Monday, Sanchez would require a majority of parliamentary votes — 68 lawmakers — to be elected in a first round of voting. If he falls short of that number, in a vote 48 hours later he would require more votes for him than against him to be elected.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Sanchez would have enough support to take office.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> MADRID -- Spain's government has rejected a plan by separatists in Catalonia's regional parliament to elect prominent secessionist politician Jordi Turull as Catalan president.

The secretary of state for territorial administration, Roberto Bermudez de Castro, says Thursday's vote in Barcelona is just another ploy in the region's frustrated attempt to gain independence.

He told the Spanish Senate the government will oppose the election of any candidate who faces legal proceedings. Turull is among ex-officials facing possible rebellion charges over the regional parliament's failed attempt last year to break away from Spain.

Turull is the third candidate proposed by pro-independence lawmakers since a December election. The central government is running Catalonia from Madrid. </s> A planned vote in Catalonia on Sunday on independence from Spain will not go ahead, Spain's government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said on Friday.

MADRID: A planned vote in Catalonia on Sunday on independence from Spain will not go ahead, Spain's government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said on Friday.

"I insist that there will be no referendum on Oct. 1," Mendez de Vigo said during a press conference following the weekly cabinet meeting, reiterating the government's position that the vote was illegal. </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The court also barred Joana Ortega, the deputy head of the region, from public office for nine months, while Irene Rigau, a former education minister, was barred for a yer and six months for disobedience and prevarication, according to El Pais newspaper.

The Spanish Constitutional Court repealed two resolutions, aimed at holding a referendum on Catalonia's independence from Spain, after they were illegally passed by the Catalan parliament in October 2016.

Catalonia, one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities, has long sought independence from Spain. The territory's efforts toward leaving the country have been deemed illegal by both the central Spanish government and the the Constitutional Court.

Despite the central government's ban, Catalonia conducted an informal independence referendum in November 2014, during with 80 percent voted in favor of independence from Spain.

On February 6, former President of Catalonia Artur Mas faced trial, during which the prosecution sought 10 years of disqualification from office. Incumbent President Carles Puigdemont pledged to hold another referendum despite the court's ruling. </s> MADRID — Catalan officials are addressing a letter to Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy calling for negotiations to agree on a referendum on the northeastern region's independence.

Spanish officials have rejected the unilateral vote planned for Oct. 1. Rajoy has said that a constitutional reform through a strong majority in the national parliament is the only avenue for a legal referendum.

Separatist politicians launched the Yes campaign on Thursday as they press ahead with the vote despite a ban by the country's courts and a criminal investigation into three out of four Catalan mayors actively supporting it.

In the letter, President Carles Puigdemont and Barcelona mayor Ada Colau also say that Spain has launched "an offensive of repression without precedent." </s> MADRID (AP) — The Latest on Spain's confrontation with Catalan separatists (all times local):

Spain's Supreme Court says international arrest warrants have been issued for six fugitive Catalan politicians, including ousted regional chief Carles Puigdemont, who were indicted for rebellion on Friday.

The arrest orders also affect four more ex members of Puigdemont's cabinet and the separatist ERC party's Marta Rovira, who ignored a court summons on Friday and announced in a letter she was fleeing the country to live "in exile."

Spanish media say Rovira has arrived in Switzerland.

Rovira was only charged with rebellion for the attempt to make Catalonia independent of Spain. The other five Catalan politicians were also charged with misuse of public funds.

Spanish courts sought Puigdemont's extradition from Brussels last year but later canceled that petition amid concerns that Belgium might send him back but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge is sending to jail without bail five Catalan politicians charged with rebellion who showed up for a summons in Madrid.

Former Catalan parliamentary speaker Carme Forcadell, ex-Catalan minister Jordi Turull —who had been proposed as Catalonia's next president— and three more officials are expected to enter prisons Friday near Madrid.

Another summoned politician, the ERC party's Marta Rovira, ignored the court order and announced by letter that she was fleeing the country.

Spain's top prosecutor had demanded that all be jailed since there was a high risk of them repeating the crimes they are accused of.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he is not enthusiastic about holding another regional election in Catalonia.

The wealthy northeastern region, where pro-independence politicians have been trying to win independence from Spain, held a snap election last December. But it still doesn't have a president or a government because of legal wrangles and political disputes with the national government over the secession bid.

The separatist majority of Catalonia's parliament failed for a third time to elect its candidate as regional president during a vote Thursday. That started a two-month countdown to find a leader and a government, otherwise another election must be called.

Rajoy said Friday in Brussels that he doesn't like repeat elections, saying "people vote and politicians have a duty to resolve problems and not create others."

Catalonia's fugitive ex-president says he has not spoken to the latest separatist lawmaker to flee Spain.

Speaking at a press conference at the University of Helsinki on Friday, Carles Puigdemont denied discussing exile with Marta Rovira, who defied a summons to appear in Spanish court hours earlier.

Still, Puigdemont says he fully supports her decision to do so.

Puigdemont, who is himself in self-imposed exile in Belgium, also criticized a Spanish judge's decision to charge him and other 12 Catalan separatists with rebellion on Friday.

"It is not right for a judge to do politics," the former leader said just moments after the court ruling.

Puigdemont's comments come one day after the pro-independence majority of Catalonia's parliament failed to elect a regional president.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge is requiring the 14 members of the former Catalan Cabinet to pay a collective deposit of 2.1 million euros ($2.6 million) before an upcoming trial establishes whether they misused public funds for an illegal independence referendum.

The figure, disclosed in Judge Pablo Llarena's Friday ruling into Spain's gravest political crisis in decades, includes 1.6 million euros of public money which, according to the judicial investigation, were deviated to pay for the Oct. 1 vote in Spain's northeastern region.

The judge also says that the strategy to seek unilateral secession may remain "latent," as the roadmap designed by separatists included plans to renew the leadership of Catalan parties and civil society groups.

Llarena describes the case as "an attack on the constitutional State that, with the will to impose a change in the form of government for Catalonia and the rest of the country, encompasses an unusual gravity and persistence."

Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena says that Catalan separatist politicians and civil society groups have "colluded" for the past six years to execute a plan to declare Catalonia's independence, in violation of Spain's legal order.

In a court ruling issued Friday at the end of a four-month investigation into the turbulent events that led to a failed declaration of independence, Llarena said that 25 Catalans will be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

Thirteen, including ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and members of his Cabinet, are charged with rebellion, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge has charged 13 Catalan separatist politicians, including fugitive president Carles Puigdemont, with rebellion for their attempt to declare independence from Spain.

Judge Pablo Llarena issued the indictment Friday, wrapping up a four-month long investigation into the events last fall.

Rebellion charges are punishable with up to 30 years in prison under Spanish laws.

Also charged with rebellion are Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, former Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell, separatist activists Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart and ERC party leader Marta Rovira, who on Friday announced that she was fleeing Spain.

A prominent Catalan separatist politician has defied a summons to appear in a Spanish court and says in a letter to her party followers that she has chosen "the path to exile."

Marta Rovira does not say in the letter whether she has left Spain already or where she might go, but six other Catalan politicians, including ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, earlier fled to Brussels.

As the secretary general of the Catalan republican-left ERC party, Rovira played a key role in last year's events, including an independence referendum that led to a failed attempt to secede from Spain.

"Today I undertake a hard road, a path that, unfortunately, so many others that preceded us have had to take," Rovira wrote in a letter posted on ERC's website. "The path of exile."

The unity of Spain in enshrined in the country's Constitution and secession is not allowed without a reform of the top law.

A Spanish Supreme Court probe into last year's attempt to secede Catalonia from Spain wraps up Friday with the judge expected to charge 28 regional politicians and separatist leaders with offenses that may include rebellion.

Judge Pablo Llarena has summoned lawyers, prosecutors, as well as six separatist politicians — an indication that he may order them jailed pending trial. They include Jordi Turull, a former minister of the ousted regional Cabinet who on Thursday failed in his bid to be elected as the region's new president, as well as a former speaker of the Catalan parliament and prominent members of the republican-left ERC party.

Four other accused are already in custody and six have fled overseas.

The semiautonomous region has been without a leader for nearly five months after central authorities took control following an illegal independence declaration.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> CLOSE The leader of Catalonia said the referendum vote is Oct. 1. It's the country's latest push to separate from Spain. Video provided by Newsy Newslook

Catalonia's regional president, Carles Puigdemont, at the Catalan government headquarters, in Barcelona, Spain, on Sept. 27, 2017. (Photo: AP)

Carles Puigdemont intends to become leader of the world's newest independent state next week. Instead, he may spark a violent confrontation with Spanish authorities and wind up in jail.

Puigdemont, 54, a former journalist and president of Spain's semi-autonomous region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain, vowed Thursday to press ahead with an independence referendum on Sunday despite efforts by the national government to block it.

"It's very clear to me that if I go to prison over this it's only because of my political beliefs. That would leave Spanish democracy in a very weak position," Puigdemont told USA TODAY in a phone interview Thursday. "As president, I have the right to call a referendum based on a law that the Catalan parliament has approved. The vote will go ahead."

The central government in Madrid insists the vote is illegal and has taken steps to block it. It has seized millions of ballots, detained 14 senior officials organizing the vote, shut down election websites and deployed thousands of police to bar access to voting stations.

The vote is the most serious political crisis facing Spain since it returned to democracy following the death of longtime military dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

The independence drive is fueled by the belief that Catalonia and its tourist-mecca capital, Barcelona, give more than they get from Madrid and that the region's unique culture and language are not respected by the Spanish state, according to Puigdemont.

The wealthy region, where 7.5 million of Spain's 46 million people live, accounts for approximately one-fifth of the country's economy. It is one of 17 semi-autonomous Spanish regions.

If the vote takes place, and passes convincingly, Puigdemont has said he would announce a split from Spain within 48 hours. Two years ago, 80% of Catalan voters backed independence in a symbolic vote, but turnout was less than 40%, muddying its conclusiveness.

An opinion poll from July showed 49% of Catalans oppose independence to 41% in favor. Nationally, most Spaniards, who aren't eligible to vote, oppose a separate state.

The United Kingdom's government allowed Scotland to hold an independence referendum in 2014 and the measure lost, with 55% of Scots preferring to remain part of Britain.

By contrast, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insists the Catalonia vote "won't happen." Speaking alongside President Trump at the White House on Tuesday, he said it would be "ridiculous" if Catalonia declares independence. Trump agreed. "I think the people of Catalonia should stay with Spain. I think it would be foolish not to," Trump said.

Jose Manuel Maza, Spain's top public prosecutor, said if the vote does occur, Puigdemont could be charged with civil disobedience and for misusing public funds. The latter offense carries a prison sentence of up to eight years.

Catalonia's push for independence gained momentum during the country's financial crisis, said Neil Davidson, a political scientist at the University Glasgow who studies independence movements. Spain's economy has recovered about a third of the 3 million jobs it lost during the depth of the 2008 recession, but its unemployment rate is still at 18%.

"Catalans have this feeling that they would simply be better off on their own," he said.

In the interview, Puigdemont said he is concerned the Madrid government might deliberately inflame tensions with a provocative action. It would be "highly suspicious" if "somehow, at a time when Madrid has put thousands of police on our streets, an incident happens," he said.

Alex Ramos, a doctor and vice president of Catalan Civil Society, an organization against independence, said there is little difference between Catalonians and Spaniards, and the referendum is not a realistic solution to economic or cultural grievances.

"Spain's different regions are like a family. And families don't split up by tossing a coin in the air and seeing how it lands," he said

Antonio Barroso, a Spanish national who analyzes European economic and political affairs in London for the consulting firm Teneo Intelligence, questioned whether the real purpose of the vote is to gain concessions from Madrid.

"We know that independence won't happen," he said. "Even if Puigdemont and his allies declare independence unilaterally, nobody — not Spain, not the European Union — will recognize Catalonia as an independent state. He knows that. This is the reality."

Puigdemont expressed frustration that the EU has not done more to support what he called the "violation of fundamental rights in Catalonia." He said Madrid's crackdown on the vote means Catalans are being "deprived of the freedom of speech," but the EU is "not saying anything about this at all."

Earlier this month, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, said the Spanish government's decisions should be respected.

On Thursday, two United Nations rights experts criticized the Spanish authorities.

"Regardless of the lawfulness of the referendum, the Spanish authorities have a responsibility to respect those rights that are essential to democratic societies," David Kaye and Alfred de Zayas said in a statement. "The measures we are witnessing are worrying because they appear to violate fundamental individual rights, cutting off public information and the possibility of debate at a critical moment for Spain’s democracy."

Puigdemont said that he did not know of any country, including the United States, that had exercised the right to self-determination and then regretted it.

"Therefore, it must be a good thing," he said.

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The President of Catalonia vows to continue on with the vote despite objections from Spain.