BARCELONA, Spain _ Catalonian separatist leader Carles Puigdemont called Saturday for peaceful resistance to direct rule by Madrid, a day after Spain's central government fired him and dissolved his government in response to Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence.
The Madrid government, meanwhile, began implementing its administrative takeover of Catalonia, the first such imposition of direct central rule in a Spanish region since the advent of democracy nearly 40 years ago.
Puigdemont, in a brief recorded statement shown on public television, called for resistance to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's directives, but offered no specifics about his own situation.
"It's very clear that the best form of defending gains made up until now is democratic opposition to Article 155," Puigdemont said, referring to the constitutional provision that Madrid invoked in response to the region's independence drive.
The article gives the Spanish central government the authority to strip a region of its autonomous powers in the event of a serious breach of law. Catalonia, like other Spanish regions, was given limited control over its own affairs under the 1979 constitution.
The mood in Barcelona, Catalonia's capital, was largely calm Saturday, after a night of raucous street celebrations _ and some scattered violence _ after the Catalonian Parliament's vote to break away from Spain. Local police patrolled busy tourist areas near the Parliament and other government buildings, where hundreds of tourists mixed with independentistas.
In Madrid, thousands flooded a central plaza for a pro-unity rally, waving Spanish flags and chanting that Spain must remain undivided. There were shows of anti-secessionist sentiment in Barcelona, too, though on a relatively small scale.
Spain put its deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, in charge of day-to-day affairs in Catalonia. She has been a forceful advocate of the central government's stance that separatists acted illegally and that the independence votes _ both in Parliament Friday and a referendum Oct. 1 _ are invalid.
There was widespread uncertainty over how the Spanish takeover will play out. The start of the workweek Monday will provide clues to how the region's 200,000 civil servants will respond. Some have already declared they will not obey directives from the central government. One of Catalonia's largest unions has called a 10-day general strike starting Monday in support of independence.
Another unknown was whether separatist lawmakers would be allowed to run for parliamentary seats in the regional elections that Rajoy set for Dec. 21.
Polls have suggested that Catalonia's people are split roughly equally on the independence question. The separatist side overwhelmingly prevailed in the Oct. 1 referendum, but less than half the electorate voted after the central government urged people not to.
The opposition also boycotted Friday's parliamentary vote.
Pro-independence politicians struck a defiant tone Saturday. Albano-Dante Fachin of the secessionist Podemos party suggested in a radio interview that the independence camp would refuse to take part in the Spanish-mandated elections.
On the anti-secession side, the head of the Ciudanos party in Catalonia, Albert Rivera, urged backers to take part in the Dec. 21 vote.
"We had a sad day yesterday, but we also saw the application of the law and the constitution," he said. "Our country is headed in the right direction."
As part of its effort to bring the secessionists to heel, the central government is seeking to further isolate Catalonia internationally, dismantling the region's informal embassies in Europe and elsewhere. No country has offered recognition of the independence declaration.
The Trump administration Friday offered support for the Madrid government, a NATO ally, saying that Catalonia is an integral part of Spain. Europe, too, has sharply rejected the independence declaration.
The European Union's president, Jean-Claude Juncker, called Saturday for respect for Spain's constitutional order.
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(King reported from Washington. Meg Bernhard in Barcelona contributed to this report.)
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