Catalonia referendum: Spain PM 🇪🇸 calls for 'escalation' ⚔ to stop

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy went on national TV to urge Catalan separatists to abandon their plans for a referendum on 1 October.

He asked the region's government to give up its "escalation of radicalism and disobedience".

The Spanish authorities have sought to stop the vote, which they regard as illegal, by seizing voting materials. Police searches in the Catalan capital, Barcelona, sparked a mass street protest on Wednesday.

Separatist parties who control the Catalan parliament pushed through the referendum law earlier this month after unsuccessfully demanding for years the right to hold a free vote on self-determination. So far the crisis has been peaceful but police scuffled with Catalan demonstrators this week.

Speaking from his official residence, the Moncloa Palace, Rajoy said there was "still time to avoid greater evils" and he urged Catalan leaders to observe the law.

UCJ, UNILORIN.