Soraya Saenz de Santamaria

Spain's government has taken a first step towards preventing the election of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont as head of the Spanish region, the deputy prime minister said on Thursday, quoted by Reuters. 

Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz  de Santamaria takes over the management of the Catalonia area after Madrid took its autonomous status yesterday and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fired the regional government, the agencies said, reports sega. 

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has announced that it will remove the former footballer Hristo Stoichkov from the position of honorary consul of Bulgaria in Barcelona, after his recent public appearances.

Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria made a brief statement in which he announced that Mariano Rajoy had summoned an extraordinary cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Catalonia, said The Spain Report quoted by Focus.

The meeting will be held at 9:00 am local time on Wednesday.

Bulgaria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched proceedings to remove Spanish football legend Hristo Stoichkov from his post of Honorary Consul of Bulgaria to Spain's  Catalan and Aragon regions, it announced on Tuesday.

The Kingdom of Spain has given a clear sign that no longer wants Hristo Stoichkov to serve as honorary consul of Bulgaria in Barcelona. This was stated by a Spanish diplomatic source, citing an official note sent by the Spanish Embassy in Sofia to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Spain's Deputy PM Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has vowed to sue Bulgaria's football legend Hristo Stoichkov, former striker of FC Barcelona, for defamation following his statements that her grandfather, her father, and even her underaged son, are followers of Francisco Franco, a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975.

Spain is facing its deepest political crisis in decades after Catalonia's regional parliament passed a law paving the way for an independence referendum on Oct. 1, with Madrid set to seek any means possible to block it from Sept. 7.
 

Parliament in Spain's prosperous Catalonia region has approved an independence vote for October 1, which Madrid has vowed to stop.

Separatist parties, which hold a slim majority, backed the referendum legislation and legal framework needed to set up an independent state.