PM URGES VOTERS TO DEFEAT SEPARATISTS

BARCELONA Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy urged voters in Catalonia on Sunday to defeat the separatists who led the region’s recent drive for independence when they go to the polls in an early election next month.

Rajoy, who used previously untapped constitutional authority to call the Dec. 21 regional election, told members of his conservative Popular Party at a Barcelona hotel that “we want a massive turnout to open up a new period of normalcy” in Catalonia.

After Catalonia’s parliament voted Oct. 27 in favour of declaring independence, Rajoy responded by firing top government officials, dissolving the parliament and ordering the early election.

Spain’s constitution says the nation is “indivisible.”

Polls show a tight race between Catalan separatists and those who want the region to remain a part of Spain.