El Pais: Spanish Auditors Demand Catalan Leaders Pay for 2014 Independence Vote
A Spanish audit office has demanded the former leader of Catalonia and other politicians from the region pay 5 million euros ($5.96 million) for holding a consultative independence ballot in 2014, El Pais newspaper said on Tuesday. The report, which cited judicial sources, came a day before Catalonia is expected to approve plans to hold an Oct. 1 referendum on a split from Spain. The 2014 vote was non-binding, a symbolic ballot by pro-independence campaigners that was declared illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court. Catalonia, along with Britain’s Scotland and Belgium’s Flanders, has one of the most active independence movements in …