Catalan parliament pass law allowing Nov 9 referendum

The Catalan Regional Parliament Friday passed the "Referendum Law", allowing the Nov 9 referendum over independence of the region from Spain.

The motion was supported by the votes of all of the Catalan Nationalist Parties in the Generalitat along with those of the Socialists and opposed by the Popular Party and the Citizens party, Xinhua reported.

Seventy-nine percent of the Catalan Parliament seats supported the motion to give Generalitat President Artur Mas power to call a referendum.

Although the Socialist Party supported the vote, they are against a referendum on Catalan independence, but believe it could be useful for calling other popular consultations.

The vote was taken in Friday afternoon after Mas discussed the result over the referendum held in Scotland Thursday in which the Scots rejected independence from Britain by 55 percent to 45 percent.