Catalonia referendum: Spanish court suspends Catalan parliament in wake of independence vote

The Spanish government has suspended the Catalan parliamentary session planned for Monday in which a declaration of independence from Spain was expected to be made.
Tensions between the central government and the region have mounted following last weekend’s referendum on secession, which saw violent clashes between Catalan citizens and the national police.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont had earlier said his government planned to declare independence in the wake of the referendum, “in a matter of days”.
But the opposition socialist bloc in the regional parliament had called for Monday’s session to be blocked.
Separatist parties only have a slim majority of the seats in the Catalan parliament.
Lawyers representing the regional parliament had also warned that the session would technically be illegal because it planned to discuss the results of a referendum that had been previously suspended by the Constitutional Court.
Before the vote Madrid said the referendum was illegal, and as the results were announced Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there had “been no referendum”.
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