Spain marked its national day on Thursday with a show of unity in the face of Catalan independence efforts, a day after the Central Government gave the region’s separatist leader a deadline to abandon his secession bid.
The country is suffering its worst political crisis in a generation after separatists in the wealthy northeastern region voted in a banned referendum on October 1 to split from Spain.
To mark the national holiday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and King Felipe VI attended a traditional military parade in central Madrid.
Armed forces marched along Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana boulevard to commemorate the day that Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas in 1492.