Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says the region has won the right to statehood following Sunday’s contentious referendum which was marred by violence.
He said the door had been opened to a unilateral declaration of independence.
Hundreds of people were injured as Spanish police used force to try to block voting.
The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country’s constitutional court.
Police officers prevented some people from voting, and seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.
“With this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic,” Mr Puigdemont said in a televised address flanked by other senior Catalan leaders.
“My government, in the next few days will send the results of today’s vote to the Catalan parliament, where the sovereignty of our people lies, so that it can act in accordance with the law of the referendum.”
Catalonia’s independence referendum has descended into chaos, with clashes occurring as police attempt to prevent the vote from taking place.
The Spanish government has pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country’s constitutional court.
Police officers are preventing people from voting, and seizing ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.
In the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests.
Catalan emergency services said they had treated 38 people who were injured when police pushed back crowds of voters and forced their way into polling stations.
Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont condemned the action of the national police, who were sent into Catalonia in large numbers to prevent the vote from taking place.
“The unjustified use of violence… by the Spanish state will not stop the will of the Catalan people,” he told reporters.
As Americans learned (twice), secession is never easy when the parent nation doesn’t want to let it happen.
