Spanish government "will block any voting for Catalonia’s independence," Vigo said at a press conference.
On May 24, Puigdemont sent a letter to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy inviting him to start negotiations on the terms and conditions of the referendum in which the citizens of Catalonia will decide the political future of the region. On May 25, Rajoy refused to hold such talks.
In late September 2016, Puigdemont pledged to look for an agreement on independence from Spain. Shortly afterwards, the Catalan parliament voted in favor of two resolutions: one which called on the regional government to hold an independence referendum in the fall of 2017, and a second which aimed at coordinating the autonomous community's conduct with the central Spanish authorities.
On February 14, the Spanish Constitutional Court had already warned it would prevent any referendum. However, in March, Catalonia approved a draft budget which included an allocation of 5.8 million euros ($6.2 million) toward the preparations for the independence referendum this year. The Spanish government decided to challenge the budget and launched a probe into the actions of the Generalitat, Catalina's government.
Previously, approximately 80 percent of the Catalans who took part in the non-binding referendum on the region's status as part of Spain on November 9, 2014 voted in favor of Catalonia becoming an independent state. Madrid declared the referendum unconstitutional.
