Last December 21, Cataloniaβs three parliamentary forces supporting independence β Together for Catalonia (JxCat), the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) β won a 70-65 seat majority in the 135-seat Catalan parliament.
Six months of drawn-out negotiations over forming a pro-independence government then followed.
The most extreme Spanish reaction to the April 5 ruling of the Higher Regional court of German state Schleswig-Holstein that freed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was from radio shock jock Federico JimΓ©nez Losantos.
Early on January 30, Roger Torrent, speaker of the Catalan parliament elected on December 21, suspended that dayβs session, which had been set to elect outgoing president Carles Puigdemont as head of the new Catalan government.
The decision of Torrent, leading member of the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), came after the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled two days earlier that electing the exiled Puigdemont could not take place in absentia.
Just after 3pm on October 27, the Catalan parliament voted to ratify the results of the countryβs October 1 referendum on self-determination, proclaiming Catalonia βan independent state in the form of a republicβ.
Outside parliament the vote was greeted with cheers from the tens of thousands of people who had gathered for this historic moment.