Barcelona city hall said that some 1.8 million people took to the streets earlier today, as part of a mass rally calling for a Catalonia region independent from Spain.
Dressed in red and yellow, demonstrators formed a giant “V” to represent their support for a planned independence vote on November 9th.
Madrid though, has said any vote on independence for the region will be illegal.
Catalan president Artur Mas, said earlier on Thursday,
“The message [today] is, ‘We want to vote. We are a nation. We want to decide our own political future.’”
See more from the Financial Times here.
Carme Forcadell, head of the National Catalan Assembly (ANC)and one of the organisers of the event, added,
"We want a say in politics and our future. We've won back our sovereignty (by getting independence on the political agenda) and realised the strength we have, if we mobilise, to change things."