Catalan leader rules out defying Madrid on 2014 poll

The leader of Spain’s debt-struck northeastern region of Catalonia all but conceded Thursday he will not hold a promised 2014 poll asserting the right to self-determination if Madrid maintains its fierce opposition.
Catalan president Artur Mas made the statement less than a week ahead of the region’s 11 September national day, when separatists will attempt to form a human chain of hundreds of thousands of people across Catalonia to call for breaking away from the rest of Spain.
Mas said the referendum he has promised for next year, despite outright opposition from Madrid, would be held legally and in agreement with the Spanish government. “I think the Spanish government will tend more to obstruct the whole process,” however, he admitted in an interview.