The Spanish government’s heavy-handed and myopic strategy for dealing with its Catalan secession challenge has produced precisely the result it was designed to prevent, with a majority in the region’s new parliament won by the coalition of parties in favour of establishing a breakaway republic.

Pep Guardiola will wait to "see what happens" following reports he has been named in a Spanish police investigation into the Catalonia independence crisis.

Voters in Catalonia are facing a momentous choice as they go to the polls in elections for their regional parliament.

The fugitive leader of Catalonia's separatist movement has launched his campaign for the upcoming Catalan elections from Belgium, where he is awaiting extradition.

The eight jailed members of the ousted Catalan government have filed fresh appeals for release before the National Court.

Update 2.30pm: Catalan ex-president Carles Puigdemont and four other former regional ministers have turned themselves in to police in Brussels, federal prosecutors in Belgium said.

Belgium's justice minister has said his government will have no influence over the future of ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont after Spain issued a European warrant for his arrest.

Latest: Catalonia's separatist leader has called on Catalans to peacefully oppose Spain's takeover.

Catalans went to the polls on October 1 where they were asked whether they wanted their region to become a republic and become independent from Spain.

Britain will not recognise the Catalan parliament's declaration of independence from Spain, Downing Street has said.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has said Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's attempt to "humiliate" Catalonia is an "attack on democracy".

Output will grow by 2.3% next year instead of the 2.6% previously projected, the economy ministry said, citing the impact of the political standoff in Catalonia, which accounts for a fifth of Spain’s gross domestic product, and the related struggle to approve a budget.

Thousands of people were rallying today in central Barcelona to protest against the Catalan government's push for secession from the rest of Spain.

Thousands of people have rallied in Madrid and Barcelona in a last-ditch call for Spanish and Catalan leaders to stave off a national crisis amid Catalonia's imminent threat to secede from the rest of Spain.

Political uncertainty over the future of Catalonia's secession bid has hit the economy, with stock markets falling and big Catalan firms relocating, or considering a move, elsewhere in Spain.

The leader of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont has accused King Felipe VI of following Spain's central government's "catastrophic" policies towards the region.

Latest: Catalonia's government is to hold a Cabinet meeting to discuss the next steps in its plan to declare independence from Spain following a disputed referendum which was marred by violence.

Thousands of Catalan separatists are rallying in public squares in Barcelona and other towns in support of a disputed referendum on independence of the north-eastern region from Spain.

Hundreds of pro-independence supporters in Catalonia are protesting outside a court to demand the release of regional officials arrested in a crackdown by Spanish authorities over a planned secession referendum.

Thousands gathered on Thursday to demand the release of a dozen Catalan officials arrested in connection with a vote on independence that Spanish authorities are challenging as illegal.

IN a little over a week the old, divisive force at the root of so much European catastrophe will march again.

The Calalan president has called an independence for October 1.

Hundreds of thousands of separatist-minded Catalans have rallied in Barcelona to show their support for an independent nation that would break away from Spain.

With Barcelona and the Catalans on the precipice of achieving independence,