Spain PM: No Secession Referendum for Catalonia Spain's prime minister has declared that he will not let the northeastern Catalonia region hold a referendum on whether it should secede and form a new European country. Mariano Rajoy told Spain's Antena 3 television network late Monday that the referendum many Catalans want "won't take place and as long I am prime minister of Spain's government there will not be independence for any Spanish territory." His comments came less than a week after the regional Catalan parliament made a formal request to the central government in Madrid for it to transfer powers to Catalonia so a referendum could be held. Rajoy has an absolute majority in Parliament and the main Socialist opposition party also opposes allowing giving Catalonia the right to hold a secession referendum.