DHAKA: The new leader of the government in the Spanish region of Catalonia has pledged to continue his predecessor Artur Mas’s plans to secede within 18 months.

Carles Puigdemont was speaking in the regional assembly ahead of a vote that confirmed him in office by 70 votes in favor to 63 against, reports the BBC.

Earlier on Saturday (January 9), Mas abandoned efforts to regain the regional presidency after another party refused to support him.

Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has meanwhile pledged to fight for national unity.

‘The government won’t allow a single act that could harm the unity and sovereignty of Spain,’ he said in Madrid.

The Spanish prime minister, whose own position is unclear since inconclusive elections in December, has insisted that whoever forms the next national government should have ‘an ample parliamentary base with the stability and capacity to face the separatist challenge’.

‘We have known how to set aside our differences to defend the unity of the nation,’ Rajoy said on national TV.

The future of Catalonia’s independence movement had been uncertain since regional parliamentary elections in September.

The pro-independence parties that triumphed in the polls bickered over who should lead the new local government.

But addressing the assembly on Sunday (January 10), Puigdemont pledged to end the divisions.

‘There are many (supporters of independence), true, there are many more than there used to be, more than there were 20 years ago,’ he said.

‘(But) in this phase we have to gain total democratic legitimacy, we need more (supporters) and I call on everyone.’

BDST: 1508 HRS, JAN 11, 2016
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