Catalonia is located in the northeastern part of Spain. Catalonia, in itself, has a population of 7.5 million people, and has its own language created out of vulgar Latin spoken by the Romans and is economically dynamic. Catalonia has wanted to become an autonomous (independent) region of Spain for quite awhile, so it was no surprise when they tried to vote on it again for the second time. During their recent vote, police were called because the Catalonians were voting illegally. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, condemned Catalonia’s vote as illegal, “I say this both calmly and firmly: there will be no referendum, it won’t happen.” The court system had ordered a halt to their voting process. Citizens of Catalonia still wanted to vote and the voting ended in violent clashes between all of the voters and the police. In September of 2014, the Catalan parliament approved a referendum call for the independence of Catalonia. That vote was held on November 9th, 2014. The court of Spain announced that they would block any effort to vote for independence, and then the vote was suspended.
In the recent voting activities, police were instructed to seize the ballot boxes, causing violence. Even though the ballots were seized, the outcome was still 90% that voted in favor and independence for Catalonia. Over the past few years, many towns in the smaller areas of Catalonia said that they would not answer to Spain or the Spanish rule and have declared themselves an independent region.