Spain bracing for rising Catalonia tensions

‘Madrid is bracing for rising tensions over Catalonia’s unilateral separatist drive, Spain’s deputy prime minister says, just days after the northeastern region announced an independence referendum for October.
Catalonia’s pro-independence executive has insisted on holding the referendum in a move strongly opposed by the central government, which says it is illegal.
On Friday, Catalonia President Carles Puigdemont said his regional government would hold the vote on October 1 in defiance of Madrid.
“We need to prepare for a strategy of tension implemented by the regional government and pro-independence parties,” Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said in a television interview.
“They are looking to provoke and they are looking for the state to react,” said Saenz de Santamaria, who is in charge of negotiations on the matter.’
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