Sacked Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on Saturday urged his supporters to start a “democratic opposition” to the Spanish government’s takeover of the autonomous region after its declaration of independence, BBC reported.
Puigdemont condemned the suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy and vowed to keep “working to build a free country”. He made the announcement during a TV broadcast from an undisclosed site.
On Friday, the Spanish government stripped Catalonia of its autonomy and took charge of its government hours hours after the regional parliament declared independence from Madrid. Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, was handed control of Catalonia.
Puigdemont said that Friday, when Catalonia declared independence from Spain, was “a day with democratic and civic sensibility”. The central government’s actions since then, however, were “contrary to the expressed will of the citizens of our country, who know perfectly well that in a democracy, it is parliaments that choose, or remove, presidents”.
“It’s very clear that the best form of defending the gains made up until now is democratic opposition to article 155,” Puigdemont said in a brief statement, according to Reuters.
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