According to the local authorities, 650,000 people support independence of Catalonia, but the police say pro-independence are 1.5 million. And this is only in Barcelona which has recently seen by far the largest in many centuries upsurge in support of secession of the autonomous region from Spain, reportedly by Euronews. Such rallies are held in Catalonia every year. Besides independence, the demonstrators demanded to amend the Spanish tax legislation, specifically to levy taxes and spend this money on their own. The rally took place on the anniversary of Siege of Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Succession 300 years ago. This year its route had to be changed, because much more people took part in the rally than organizers expected. The large crowd of people caused several-hour failures in mobile networks.
