CATALONIA’S president is preparing for the next round in its battle for secession from Spain with a warning that he will make a unilateral declaration of independence if “50 per cent plus one more” of the electorate votes yes in the referendum planned for next year.

He also warned that “Europe has no future” if it does not recognise “a reality like Catalonia”.

Speaking during an interview with a Spanish radio station, Carles Puigdemont said independence would be declared before new elections were held in Catalonia, which is responsible for around a fifth of Spain’s economic output. And he said Europe had a role to play in the process.

“I am not asking world leaders to support independence, only the referendum,” he said.

“Europe has no future if it does not recognise a reality like Catalonia. The reality of Catalonia exists, even if some European states do not like it.

He added that, “if we had our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we could communicate better and the French would not compare us to the Corsicans”, in a reference to the movement on the Mediterranean island that is seeking more autonomy from France.

Puigdemont was also keen to distance Catalonia’s plan for a vote in September from the “consultation” in 2014, so called because of a Spanish Constitutional Court ruling that delayed a decree being granted for a legal referendum.

Then-president Artur Mas ran the vote in any case and 80 per cent of those who took part answered Yes-Yes to the questions: “Do you want Catalonia to become a state? And in the event that the answer is affirm- ative, do you want that state to be independent?”

Puigdemont said: “The 2017 referendum will not be like the 9-N consultation in 2014 because, unlike Artur Mas, I have an independence majority in the parliament.”

Relations between the Catalan and central governments have worsened of late, with Madrid being accused regularly of politicising the courts, most recently in the case against the speaker of Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, and the suspension of Parliament’s resolution for next year’s referendum, which followed a challenge from central government.

Forcadell was called to the Constitutional Court to explain why she had allowed a parliamentary debate in July on continuing its 18-month plan for independence in defiance of a previous court ruling.

More than 1,000 flag-waving supporters gathered at the court as she arrived with an entourage of Catalan ministers past and present.

Forcadell told the judges: “I have said I have always acted in accordance with my duties as Parliament president. When this chamber defends freedom of expression, it does so for everyone, those in favour of an issue and those against it.”

Albert Royo Marine, secretary- general of the Diplomatic Council of Catalonia (Diplocat) told The Nat- ional that Forcadell’s was not the only case to come before the court.

“There are currently up to 400 ongoing trial cases against Catalan elected officials,” he said. “If the Spanish government insists on impeding the basic functioning of a democratic system and keeps prosecuting democratically elected politicians, it may put Spain’s democracy at stake.”

He added: “Next year will defin- itely be the year of the referendum. Whether it will be the year of indep- endence or not will be decided by our citizens.”

The temporary suspension of the referendum resolution is part of a process undertaken when the court accepts a central government legal challenge related to any of the 17 regions of Spain.

The allegation, as outlined by the attorney general, is that the Catalan resolution is in contravention of a previous court ruling from last year on the same subject, arising from a debate and resolution from November 2015.

According to the government, the latest resolution contravenes two further court orders from this year, also related to the chamber’s approval of measures of devolution.

The Catalan Parliament must reply by the first week in January.

Catalan ministers have also snubbed Madrid by refusing to attend several meetings in protest at Spain’s failed promises of a dialogue. They believe the least the Catalan government deserves is a bilateral relationship with its national counterpart.

Explaining one refusal to attend a meeting, Puigdemont said: “Catalonia has won the right to a bilateral relationship as the demands of the Catalan people have nothing to do with the requests of other autonomous communities.”

The Catalan Minister for the Presidency, Neus Munté, said the Madrid government had not responded to Catalan invitations to maintain “bilateral relations”.