A REFERENDUM on Catalunya's independence has been voted as 'illegal' in Spanish Parliament with 299 votes against compared to 47 in favour, all of these coming from nationalist parties in the north-eastern region and in the Basque Country, which has also long sought secession from Spain.
An overwhelming rejection of the planned referendum on November 9 came from the right-wing PP, currently in government, and the socialists (PSOE).
Any referendum on sovereignty, said president Mariano Rajoy, must be national rather than regional, meaning everyone in Spain would need to be given the chance to vote and not just residents of the autonomous community which seeks to become a separate country.
Stating that 'united we stand, divided we fall', Rajoy announced that independence for Catalunya would be an 'economic disaster for both the region and Spain as a whole, and that he could 'not imagine Spain without Catalunya, Catalunya without Spain, or Catalunya out of Europe'.
European Union leaders have warned the region, of which Barcelona is the capital, that if it separated from Spain and became the world's newest country, it would have to reapply for EU membership.
Rajoy challenged regional president of Catalunya, Artur Mas, to apply to change the Spanish Constitution in his favour to render a referendum legal.
Mas, in turn, said the Parliamentary rejection was 'not the end of the story' and that he would continue to seek out legal instruments to enable the referendum to go ahead as planned.
Catalunya's bit for secession is only partly the result of regional pride and keenness for the catalán language to prevail over Spanish - Mas claims the people of Catalunya pay far more in taxes to the central government than they earn back, and that they would be wealthier without this obligation.
