Oriol Junqueras

The riot police charged at protesters and fired foam projectiles, while protesters threw cans, stones and flares at riot police, and set garbage containers and cardboard on fire, near the Department of home affairs of the regional government in the capital of Catalonia.
The fire has blocked at least four streets.

Political forces that support Catalonia's independence from Spain are projected to get an absolute majority in the local parliament with 55.53 of ballots already counted in Catalonia's snap regional parliamentary polls on Thursday.

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.

Catalonia faces a crucial election on December 21 that will determine whether Spain is on-course to tackle the northeastern region's independence push — its gravest political crisis in the past four decades — or be mired in uncertainty for months or years.

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.

A Spanish judge has issued a European arrest warrant for ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont. The leader's request to testify by videoconference has been rejected.

Puigdemont is currently in Belgium, where he went after Madrid sacked his government. International arrest warrants have also been issued for four of his associates.

The crisis in Spain dramatically deepened and extended across the Continent after eight Catalan ministers were jailed by a court in Madrid and a European arrest warrant was issued to extradite the region’s disputed president Carles Puigdemont from Belgium on charges of rebellion and sedition.

Spain’s state prosecutor has called for Catalonia’s leaders to be charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds over their push for independence.

Attorney-General Jose Manuel Maza said he had filed two lawsuits seeking the prosecution of the ousted Catalan cabinet and the regional parliament amid mounting tensions following this month’s referendum.

The overwhelming majority of Catalans who participated in the banned referendum have voted in favor of independence from Spain, the Catalan government has announced.

Supporters of Catalan independence have begun occupying polling stations in a bid to protect Sunday’s vote from a crackdown by the Spanish government.

The vice-president of Spain’s secessionist north-eastern region warned that backers of Catalonia’s independence would cast their ballots even if national police “took voting stations by assault”.