Spain’s regional Catalonia authorities have proposed that the Spanish prime minister establishes a permanent dialogue over Catalan independence.

This comes after Catalans voted in favor of breaking away from Madrid. The Spanish government does not recognise that symbolic vote and has dismissed secession.

Speaking about Catalan independence, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sanez de Santamaria said, “...it will be difficult to reach an agreement because, I tell you, neither this government nor this party will agree to secession.”

President of Catalonia Artur Mas hinted at calling early regional elections, which are likely to favour the more radical wing of the Catalan independence movement and speed up the independence process.

“We always have a specific tool in our hands to hold a referendum, a binding referendum, and this tool are specific elections,” Mas said.

Mas reiterated that early elections would only be organised if regional parties agreed to run on a common platform.

To that effect, a round of talks with pro-independence parties is expected to start in the next few days.