SPANISH Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he will ensure that any declaration of independence by Catalonia “will lead to nothing” and that he will consider using any measure “allowed by the law” to stop it breaking away.

In an interview with the newspaper El Pais yesterday, Rajoy said that would include using Article 155 of the constitution, which would allow the central government to take control “if the regional government does not comply with the obligations of the constitution”.

Rajoy said: “The ideal situation would be that I don’t have to find drastic solutions, but for that to happen there will have to be some rectifications [by Catalan leaders].”

Large rallies were held on Saturday in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities to demand that Rajoy and Catalan president Carles Puigdemont negotiate to find a solution after 90 per cent of people who voted in last Sunday’s independence referendum backed independence for Catalonia.

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Barcelona and elsewhere to take part in rallies against independence.

Many in the crowd carried both Spanish and Catalan flags and some called for Puigdemont to go to prison. Police put the numbers in Barcelona at 350,000, while organisers claimed 950,000 people had turned out.

Among those who addressed the crowds were former government minister Josep Borrell, who said his fellow Catalans needed to recover their level-headedness, and Peruvian writer and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.