Catalonia Calls For Scottish-Style Independence Referendum

Catalonia's separatist government on Sunday again urged Spain's central government to let it hold a legal referendum on independence like the one Scotland staged in 2014 with London's approval, according to Deutsche Welle.

"The government of Britain and Scotland agreed on a referendum," the president of the regional Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, and his vice president, Oriol Junqueras, wrote in a letter published in daily newspaper El Pais.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday demanded a new independence referendum by early 2019, once the terms of Britain's exit from the European Union are clearer.

The government of Catalonia, a wealthy region in northeastern Spain that has its own distinct language and is home to 7.5 million people, has since 2010 sought to hold an independence referendum.

But Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly ruled out giving the region a vote on independence, saying it would be illegal and against the constitution - a stance supported by the judiciary.