The 2017 Spanish constitutional crisis[1] is an ongoing political conflict between the Government of Spain and the Generalitat of Catalonia over the issue of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, starting after the law intending to allow such a referendum was denounced by the Spanish government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and subsequently suspended by the Constitutional Court until it ruled on the issue.[2][3] The Catalan government under President Carles Puigdemont has announced that neither central Spanish authorities nor the courts would halt their plans and that it intends to hold the vote anyway, sparking a legal backlash that has quickly spread from the Spanish and Catalan governments to Catalan municipalities—as local mayors were urged by the Generalitat to provide logistical support and help for the electoral process to be carried out—as well as to the Constitutional Court, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia and state prosecutors.[2][4][5]