Barcelona — Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving demonstrators packed central Barcelona on Sunday to rally against plans by separatist leaders to declare Catalonia independent following a banned secession referendum. Catalans calling themselves a "silent majority" opposed to leaving Spain broke their silence after a week of mounting anxiety over the country’s worst political crisis in a generation. The crowd waved both Spanish and Catalan flags and chanted "Viva Espana! Viva Catalonia!" as they made their way through the streets of Barcelona under a clear blue sky. "We have perhaps been silent too long," Alejandro Marcos, 44, told AFP. "It seems that the one who yells the most wins the argument. So we have to raise our voices and say loud and clear that we do not want independence." About 350,000 people attended the rally, police said, while organisers put the turnout at 930,000-950,000. Some protesters called for the region’s separatist president Carles Puigdemont to go to jail for...
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