'Independencia!': Protesters demand Catalonia vote
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Barcelona on Thursday to demand the Spanish government allow its Catalonia region to vote for independence.
Demonstrators waving independence flags and wearing yellow-and-red shirts with the phrase "Now is the time" shouted "Independencia!" as they swarmed into the semiautonomous area in northeastern Spain that hails Barcelona as its capital.
The mass protest is getting an additional boost in the region ahead of Scotland's independence referendum next week. However, the number of people who participated in Thursday's demonstrators was unclear. Barcelona police said 1.8 million joined in the protests, but the Spanish Interior Ministry's regional office said about 525,000 participated.
Earlier, the organizers of Catalan Way 2014, as Thursday's mass demonstration is called, said 500,000 people registered for the event. A similar gathering last year brought 1.5 million people together across Catalonia to campaign for independence.
Artur Mas, Catalonia's president, is seeking consultations on formal independence that would lead to a referendum vote Nov. 9.
"Catalans want to vote. We want to vote in order to become the masters of our own future and to be able to decide how to best respond to the needs of our fellow citizens. We are not moved by the desire to be better than others, but by the desire that we may become better ourselves," Mas said Wednesday in a statement.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly vowed to block a referendum seeking a formal split.
About 55% of Catalans support independence from Spain, according to the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia, a government-supported group that seeks to raise awareness about the region.
The date marks the anniversary of when Catalonia lost its independence by succumbing to a year-long Spanish military siege in 1714. On Sept. 11 of that year, Catalonia became a province of the Spanish crown, which it has been for 300 years.
Catalonia's 7.5 million residents have their own language and culture, and the region represents about one-fifth of Spain's $1.4 trillion economy.
Contributing: The Associated Press
