Spain's Constitutional Court has ordered the temporary suspension of a special session of Catalonia's parliament next week where regional officials are expected to possibly vote on breaking away from Spain.
The opposition Socialist bloc in the regional parliament, where separatist parties have a narrow majority of seats, had called for Monday's session to be blocked.
Lawyers for the regional parliament had also warned that the session would be illegal because it discusses results of a referendum over the weekend that had been previously suspended by the Constitutional Court.
The ruling came as Spain's Prime Minister urged the separatist leader of the regional Catalan government to cancel plans for declaring independence to avoid "greater evils".
In an interview with Spain's official EFE news agency, Mariano Rajoy said that the solution in Catalonia "is the prompt return to legality and the affirmation, as early as possible, that there will be no unilateral declaration of independence, because that way greater evils will be avoided".
Rajoy's remarks were the first since Sunday evening, after Catalonia held a banned referendum on independence amid police violence.
Regional president Carles Puigdemont on Wednesday toned down his defiant stance by calling for mediation in the conflict but without renouncing plans for secession next week.
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