BARCELONA: Catalonia’s regional government on Friday chose Oct 1 as the date for a referendum on a split from Spain, stepping up the confrontation with the country’s central government, which sees the vote as illegal.

Regional president Carles Puigdemont said Catalans will be asked to answer yes or no to a single question: “Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?” The country’s Constitutional Court has already invalidated previous attempts by the northeastern region to gain more autonomy. Several Catalan politicians, including former regional president Artur Mas, have been fined or barred from public office for holding a mock referendum in November 2014.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government called the announcement a “show” by those willing to divide Spain and swore to stop the vote if Catalan politicians or the regional parliament make a formal move toward holding the vote.

“There is not going to be any illegal referendum that goes against the Constitution,” the government’s spokesman, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, said after a weekly cabinet meeting. “We are facing an increasingly radical strategy that has less and less support.”

Earlier this week, Deputy Premier Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, who has been tasked by Rajoy to deal with Catalonia, said: “They can announce that referendum as many times as they want and delay it for weeks or hold as many events as they want, but the referendum will not be held.” Puigdemont said the decision to call for the vote was reached after more than 18 months of efforts failed to establish a dialogue with Madrid.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2017