More than 400,000 people have signed a petition in favour of Catalonia's right to self-determination. The petition on Change.org was started by professor Axel Schöenberger, a German expert in Romance philology, with a target of 500,000 signatures. It's addressed to European leaders including Jean-Claude Juncker, Emmanuel Macron, Theresa May and Angela Merkel.
The text of the petition presents Catalonia as "the largest non-state European nation". "The Catalans are aware and proud of having a history of more than a thousand years", it continues, "in the 21st century the Spanish army should not be allowed to be thrown against the Catalans who want to achieve state independence by peaceful means".
"The right to free, peaceful and democratic self-determination of nations is above the legal limits of a state that wants to impose its legal system on millions of people who feel treated like second-class citizens," the petition says.
It ends by calling on the EU and its member states to say that the use of force in the conflict would be unacceptable and that, if a new, independent Catalan state were to be created, it would be welcome to join the union.