BARCELONA -- Hours after more than 2 million citizens in the Catalonia region voted overwhelmingly in a controversial, chaotic referendum to declare independence from Spain, the secessionist leaders planned an emergency meeting to map out their next steps for establishing a new nation.
The lopsided vote Sunday is likely to be vigorously challenged. Before the vote, Spanish courts and the central government in Madrid had declared the referendum illegitimate and illegal.
According to the Catalan government, which announced the results early Monday, 90 percent of the ballots cast were for independence, with 2,020,144 people voting yes and 176,566 no.
Turnout was low -- just 42 percent. More than 2.2 million people were reported to have cast ballots, Catalan authorities said, out of 5.3 million registered voters.
Many people in Catalonia who opposed independence said they would not vote in the referendum, which they denounced as a sham.
Yet on Sunday night, just minutes after the first few thousand votes from a handful of towns were posted, Carles Puigdemont, the regional president and a leading secessionist, appeared onstage to announce that Catalonia had won "the right to independence." He called on Europe to support its split from Spain.
Puigdemont promised that he would present results to the Catalan parliament, which has previously said it would seek independence if the vote supported it.
In a television address late Sunday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there was no real independence vote in Catalonia. He said a majority of the region's residents did not even show up at the polls.
On Monday, Rajoy said he would meet with the leaders of his party and others to plan a path forward.
In Brussels, the European Commission's chief spokesman said Monday that the Catalan plebiscite was "not legal" under the Spanish constitution, but he pressed the sides to talk and avoid violence.
The vote left the region and nation deeply divided.
From thousands of windows in Madrid, people flew Spanish flags in a spontaneous display of support for unity.
For many residents of the capital, the referendum was perceived as public relations stunt.
Spanish TV featured a report showing how an anti-independence activist was able to vote at four polling stations to demonstrate the apparent loose controls.
Puigdemont's assertion that he would seek independence -- before the results were announced -- was met with ridicule.
Another point repeated in the Madrid news media is that few voices in Catalonia publicly supported the "no" vote, allegedly because of bullying by independence backers.
The fragmentation of Catalan society and the "silent majority" are big themes in Madrid.
Spain's Constitutional Court has ruled that the referendum was illegal, and it appeared likely that the plebiscite would again go before the judges.
The two sides could not even agree on facts. Catalan officials said 319 of about 2,300 polling stations were closed by police. Spain's Interior Ministry said 92 stations were closed.
In Barcelona, trade unions and political parties called for a general strike today to protest alleged police brutality.
The plebiscite produced anxiety and shock across Europe, where many condemned the violence by the police but also worried that Catalan secessionists were violating the constitution.
The secessionists said Spain's heavy-handed attempt to stop the referendum stirred memories of the country's dark decades of dictatorship.
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau called the day's violence between police and civilians "a rupture" in society.
Jordi Turull, the spokesman for the Catalan regional government, described Spain's use of police to suppress the vote as "the shame of Europe."
Others in Spain saw a manipulative propaganda play by secessionists to stage a one-sided referendum designed to produce a "yes" vote no matter what.
"This was a sad day," said Ines Arrimadas, a member of a center-right party in Catalonia who opposed the vote. "It was crazy to hold this referendum."
She told Catalonia's public broadcaster, which is staunchly pro-secession, that "on this TV broadcast you will believe the result, but no one on the outside will."
Spain's foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, called the day's violence "unpleasant" but "proportional."
Information for this article was contributed by Raul Gallego Abellan and Pamela Rolfe of The Washington Post.
A Section on 10/03/2017