Catalonia votes in favor of independence

(Image credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The Catalan regional government announced early Monday that 90 percent of voters in Sunday's referendum on independence from Spain voted in favor of a split.

A spokesman said that there are 5.3 million voters in the region, with 2.26 million casting ballots. The Spanish central government views the vote as being illegal, and hundreds of people were injured when police raided polling stations and fired rubber bullets at voters. Catalonia is an autonomous region bordering France, and many of its residents believe that because it has its own culture and history and its tax revenues subsidize other areas of Spain, it must become independent.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.