Barcelona, Oct 29 (AFP) Hundreds of thousands ofSpaniards rallied in Catalonia's capital Barcelona today,waving national and European flags and chanting "Viva Espana!"to denounce regional lawmakers' vote to sever the region fromSpain.
Crowds of protesters swarmed, singing and clapping,through Barcelona's streets in a sea of red-and-yellow Spanishflags, brandishing placards reading "De Todos" (It belongs toall of us).
Municipal police said the crowd numbered about 300,000while organisers said 1.3 million turned out and the centralgovernment's representative in Catalonia put the figure at onemillion.
Spain's biggest political crisis in decades mounted onFriday when secessionists in the Catalan parliament voted todeclare the wealthy northeastern region of some 7.5 millionpeople an independent republic.
The central government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoyreacted swiftly by temporarily stripping the region of itsautonomy and declaring the dismissal of secessionist regionalpresident Carles Puigdemont and his executive.
"We are all Catalonia," proclaimed a massive banner, asmarchers, young and old, chanted "Prison for Puigdemont".
"I am enraged about what they are doing to the countrythat my grandparents built," said Marina Fernandez, a 19-year-old student from Girona, a separatist stronghold.
She told AFP she cannot speak out in her hometown forSpanish unity or "leave my house with the Spanish flag".
Meanwhile, the deputy president of the deposed Catalangovernment lashed out at Madrid, over what he called a "coupd'etat".
"The president of the country is and will remain CarlesPuigdemont," the deposed leader's deputy, Oriol Junqueras,wrote in Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui.
Junqueras used the word "country" to refer to Catalonia,and signed off as the region's "vice president".
"We cannot recognise the coup d'etat against Catalonia,nor any of the anti-democratic decisions that the PP (Rajoy'sruling Popular Party) is adopting by remote control fromMadrid," he wrote.
On top of firing Catalonia's government, Rajoy dissolvedits parliament and called December 21 elections for theregion.
Spain's ambassador to France, Fernando Carderera saidPuigdemont will be "invited to present his candidacy" for theelection.
Flor Pena, a 59-year-old originally from the northwesternautonomous region of Galicia, described the separatist actionsas "shameful".
"The thing to do now is to beat them at the polls," shesaid.
She was part of a throng gathered near the spot wheretens of thousands of people had celebrated the new "republic"with song, wine and fireworks on Friday.
"They have made fools of us," Miguel Angel Garcia Alcala,70, who had travelled from the town of Rubi, 22 kilometres (14miles) from Barcelona, told AFP.
"It is illegal what they have done... They aredictators."The Catalan crisis was triggered by a banned independencereferendum on October 1 that was shunned by many and marred bypolice violence.
Representatives of Rajoy's PP and other parties were atat yesterday's rally, in what for some resembled the start ofan election campaign.
An opinion poll published in centre-right newspaper ElMundo said separatist parties would lose their majority inCatalonia's regional parliament if elections were held today.
"We have to turn out and vote to defend a return tonormality," former European Parliament president JosepBorrell, who is from Catalonia, told the rally, taking place aday after thousands of people joined a similar march inMadrid.
As prosecutors prepared to file charges of rebellionagainst Puigdemont next week, he called yesterday for"democratic opposition" to Madrid's decision to impose directrule -- the first curtailment of regional autonomy sinceFrancisco Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship.
The immigration minister of Belgium, itself dealing withpolitical tensions between French- and Flemish-speakingregions, said it could offer Puigdemont asylum.
"It's not unrealistic, looking at the current situation,"said Theo Francken, a member of the Flemish separatist N-VAparty.
Roughly the size of Belgium, Catalonia accounts for about16 per cent of Spain's population and attracts more touriststhan any other region of Spain.
It produces a fifth of Spain's economic output -- makingthe region's economy the same size as Portugal's. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.