Jordi Sanchez

The President of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, has proposed Jordi Sanchez as a candidate for prime minister after Carles Puigdemont withdrew his candidacy.

53-year-old Jordi Sanchez has little chance of becoming Catalan prime minister because of conflicts in the separatist camp and because he is in jail.

Catalonia’s parliament will convene on March 12 to appoint a new regional president, with jailed separatist Jordi Sanchez the only candidate, the assembly said on March 6.

Catalonia's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont said Thursday he had abandoned his bid to return as regional president in an attempt to unblock a political impasse as the region remains without a fully-functioning government.

Catalonia is heading to the polls in a snap election to decide the future of the separatist project on Thursday./aljazeera.com/

The dismissed Catalan government, headed by former regional President Carles Puigdemont, declared independence from Spain on October 27.

The judge of the Spanish Supreme Court, Pablo Lerna, has ordered today to be detained the deputy prime minister of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, and three other indictees in connection with the attempt to separate the autonomous region.

This was announced by the court, the France press and Associated Press reported.

The Spanish government is to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy and impose direct rule after the region’s president refused to abandon the push for independence that has pitched Spain into its worst political crisis for 40 years.

Two hundred thousand people, some of them with candles in hand, demonstrated on Tuesday evening in Barcelona. The protest is against Monday's arrest of two activists in the struggle for independence of Catalonia, AFP reports. The data on the number people participating in the event is from the municipal police.