Catalonia votes in bid to break independence deadlock

Catalans go to polling stations on Thursday (21 December), in regional elections that were called to put an end to the separatist process but could prolong uncertainties.

For the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, whose government suspended Catalonia's autonomy after the parliament declared the region's independence on 27 October, the vote was to "close the wounds of the break-up" and re-establish a "constitutional governme...