The head of Catalonia’s government says the region has earned the right to a referendum on independence from Spain.<br /><br />Artur Mas was speaking as he cast his vote in Sunday’s informal “consultation”, called in defiance of the central government in Madrid and after Spain’s Constitutional Court blocked plans for a formal vote.<br /><br />“We are doing a great thing in Catalonia by defending our right to free expression and steering the political future of this country,” he said.<br /><br />The authorities said that by six in the evening, two hours before polls closed, two million Catalans had cast their ballots.<br /><br />That represents fewer than half the more than five million eligible to vote.<br /><br />Pro-independence supporters had campaigned for a high turnout, and hope the vote will propel their cause further.<br /><br />The reaction from Madrid was dismissive. On Sunday night Spain’s Justice Minister Rafael Catala called the vote in Catalonia a “sterile and useless” act of propaganda.<br /><br />The head of Spain’s ruling party in Catalonia, Alicia Sanchez-Camacho, said the exercise was a sham because if offered no democratic or legal guarantees and wasn’t backed by central government.<br /><br />Reporting for euronews from Barcelona, correspondent Cristina Giner said: “So ends an intense day of voting, in which Catalans have been able to have their say in an alternative consultation which has no legal but a highly symbolic effect.”
