Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia and leader of the separatists, will speak on the morning of Tuesday 10 October in front of the Spanish Parliament and, according to what emerges a few hours after the meeting, could unilaterally declare Catalan independence from Madrid.
However, the response from the Spanish government was not long in coming. In fact, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria declared that if "Puigdemont proceeds on the road to independence, the initiative will not go unanswered by the State".
However, the Catalan leader does not seem to back down, remaining faithful to his controversial original position: "The declaration of independence is foreseen by the law of the referendum as an application of the results: we will apply what the law says". The central government can rely on the support of the Psoe, the socialist party led by Pedro Sanchez, and the main European forces. Both Berlin and Paris sided strongly with Rajoy.
