Spain Sends More Police to Block Catalonia Referendum

People shout slogans and hold up posters reading, "Vote to be free", referring to voting in the banned October 1st independence referendum, as protesters gather in support of Catalan officials that were arrested in raids on government offices, outside a courthouse in Barcelona, Spain on Sept. 22, 2017. REUTERS/Susana Vera

MADRID—Spain will send more state police to Catalonia to block any moves to hold a banned independence referendum, the interior ministry said on Friday.

The government in Madrid is facing one of its biggest political crises since the end of the Franco dictatorship and the return of democracy four decades ago. It has called the referendum an illegal act and taken police and court action to block it.