Catalonia independence: Can anything end the stand-off?

Regional government says it is under ‘state of siege’ as Spanish PM vows to block referendum

An apartment block bedecked with Catalan flags and pro-independence banners in Barcelona
(Image credit: Pau Barrena/AFP/Getty Images)

Employees of Indugraf Offset, a printing firm on the outskirts of the sleepy Catalonian town of Constanti (population 6,439), had to run a gauntlet of armed police officers to reach their workplace on Wednesday. Officers from the armed Civil Police searched workers’ cars and took down numberplates as they stood guard around the unassuming industrial estate.

The printer’s alleged offence? Printing voter lists for Catalonia’s independence referendum.

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