Catalan Leader, Carles Puigdemont says that the region has gotten its freedom and right to statehood following Sunday’s contentious which was carried out in midst of violence.
Puigdemont said openly that the door is now opened for declaration of Independence, as Hundreds of people were injured as Spanish police used force to try to block voting.
Earlier, The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country’s constitutional court.
This resulted to Police officers prevented some people from voting, and seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.
“With this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic,” Mr Puigdemont said in a televised address flanked by other senior Catalan leaders.
The spanish Government added that the European Union could no longer continue to look the other way.
Earlier Today, as voting ended, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Catalans had been fooled into taking part in an illegal vote. He called it a mockery of democracy.
Large crowds of independence supporters gathered in the centre of the regional capital Barcelona on Sunday evening, cheering and waving Catalan flags