White-clad protesters urge Catalonia talks

Rallies in 50 Spanish cities, including Barcelona, called for 'less hate and more conversation'. Photo / AP

Thousands of white-clad protesters descended on Barcelona and cities across Spain yesterday to call for urgent talks on the Catalonia crisis, as splits began to emerge within the independence movement over how to secure their goal of a republic.

A week after the banned independence referendum - dismissed as an illegal "farce" by Madrid - yielded a 90 per cent "Yes" vote, rallies in 50 cities urged political leaders to sit down at the negotiating table.

In Madrid, protesters raised a white flag in front of the city hall, waving signs urging "less hate and more conversation" and "less batons, more telephone calls".

In marked contrast to the sea of Spanish flags at a rally less than a kilometre away, where demonstrators insisted there would be "no dialogue with putschists", many at the "Let's talk" demonstration blamed the schism on both sides. "Neither of the parties are managing this well," said Vicen and Fernando, a couple in their 50s.

Guillermo Fernández, an organiser of the initiative, said political leaders were displaying a lack of will to talk. "We don't want them to infuse us with hate, we want peace and not hate, so if they don't sit down we will keep coming back until they do," he said.

But with a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) expected early this week, hopes of dialogue are fading. Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, insisted the declaration be dropped as a precondition for talks, a suggestion roundly dismissed by the Catalan Government.

Thousands of pro-Spanish unity supporters donning Spanish flags have rallied in a central Madrid plaza. Photo / AP

Hardliners are ramping up the pressure, with opponents of independence urging Madrid to suspend Catalonia's autonomy, and radical supporters demanding a hard exit from Spain.

The hard-left CUP, a junior partner in the pro-independence alliance, insisted last week on UDI by Parliament tomorrow in a session that Spain's constitutional court ordered suspended. Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan President, has asked to appear on Wednesday instead to evaluate referendum results but the CUP has again called for a snap declaration. The party has only 10 parliamentarians but is crucial to the regional coalition.

Eulalia Reguant, a CUP representative, proposed seizing territorial control of the region, including its ports and airports. "This Parliament has made a lot of declarations that afterwards have come to nothing," she said. Puigdemont has always rejected a traumatic rupture with Spain, seeing UDI as a starting point for dialogue. As banks and businesses began to announce plans to move headquarters out of Catalonia, Santi Vila, the business secretary, called for a "ceasefire" with Madrid, warning against "taking irreparable decisions in the coming days".

The Catalan spokesman Joan Maria Piqué denied any "controversy" over the expected declaration. He said it would be in accordance with the referendum law, which stipulates a declaration 48 hours after Puigdemont presents the results in the Parliament. Piqué dismissed the notion that the Government retained hopes of a last-minute deal with Madrid, adding: "We always said the referendum was binding and it is going to be."

In Barcelona, referendum defence committees, set up in local neighbourhoods to protect last week's vote, say they plan to march on the Catalan Parliament on Wednesday to defend it against any attempts by central authorities to disrupt UDI.