350,000 Catalans just marched against independence

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through Barcelona Sunday calling for Catalonia to remain part of Spain.

In the biggest pro-unity demonstration since the constitutional crisis began, a crowd estimated by police to number 350,000 waved Spanish and Catalan flags and chanted “Here is the silent majority,” a direct rebuttal to the regional government’s push for secession.

Organizers said the large turnout – which they put at more than 1 million – showed a majority of Catalans favor remaining a part of the kingdom, despite pro-independence voices dominating the debate.

While more than 90 percent of participants in Catalonia’s Oct. 1 independence referendum voted in favor of breaking away from Madrid, organizers say only about 42 percent of eligible voters participated.

Addressing the crowd, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, who holds Spanish and Peruvian citizenship, warned that nationalism had filled European and Spanish history “with war… and corpses.”

Josep Borrell, a former president of the European parliament, rejected the independence campaign’s rhetoric that Catalonia was an occupied territory. “Catalonia isn’t like Lithuania, Kosovo or Algeria,” he said. “It’s not an occupied or militarized territory.”

The protests in Catalonia’s capital came a day after pro-unity demonstrations in about 50 locations across the rest of Spain, including a turnout of more than 50,000 in Madrid, calling for dialogue between the two sides.

However, neither side has shown any desire to compromise.

In an interview Sunday, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont reiterated his position that Catalonia will apply the recently passed law that calls for a declaration of independence if Catalans voted to secede.

Meanwhile, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he will not engage in talks unless Catalan leaders abandon their plans to secede.

On Saturday, Rajoy said he wouldn’t rule out dismissing Catalonia’s pro-independence regional government and hold fresh elections. He even threatened to revoke Catalonia’s autonomy unless Catalan lawmakers backed down.

Puigdemont is scheduled to address the Catalonia parliament at 6 p.m. local time Tuesday amid speculation he will use the speech to declare independence.

A French minister said Monday that France would refuse to recognize Catalonia if the region unilaterally declared independence.

“If there was a declaration of independence, it would not be recognized,” European affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau said, adding the crisis must “be resolved through dialogue at all levels of Spanish politics.”