Over one million people were reported to have marched in Barcelona on Saturday to protest against a recent Spanish court ruling which forbid the region of calling itself a nation and for greater autonomy for Catalonia.

1.1 million people were on the streets of Barcelona on Saturday protesting Span's highest courts ans shouting "We are a Nation" - Photo by : AP

The statute that was approved at a referendum in 2006 and if granted, it would have given the Catalans who see themselves as a separate nation to Spain, a wide range of autonomy with separate language, parliament, government, judicial and educational system from Spain.

However, the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP), appealed to the Spanish courts as they saw the statute as a threat to Spanish unity immediately after it was approved in 2006.

Spanish courts had recently granted the powers which would give Catalans greater autonomy in the region, but the country’s highest court on Friday upheld many of PP’s contentions that major parts of the statute had been unconditional.

Police at the region announced that over 1.1 million people had taken part in the huge march on Saturday which was planned months ago, but Omnium Cultural, which organized the march had calculated the attendance to be in the 1.5 million region.

A huge Catalonian flag was opened in Barcelona’s Diagonal, Gran Via and Paseo de Gracia boulevards with support by virtually all political party’s except for the PP. A huge banner writing “We are a nation. We will decide.” was also opened in the march.

The Catalan’s have their own culture and language compared to the rest of Spain, and was part of the independent Kingdom of Aragon till 1714.

However in 1939 a 31-year dictatorship started in Spain till 1975 by Francisco Franco who had forbidden Catalans to speck their own language and oppressed the Catalonian people.

There are approximately 7 million people living in the Catalonia region of Spain which is made up of 47 million people.

The region is also responsible for almost %25 of its gross domestic product.

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