[St Charles Owl]

That is the Spanish governments way of making a point to the Catalans. The key part of that statement is “in accordance with their internal regulations”. So far any Scottish independence movement has done just this, worked within the framework set by the UK as a whole entity. Hasn’t yet enabled independence but its probably only a matter of time, especially post-Brexit. The Spanish governments view is that the Catalan movement has not followed the rules set up in under Spanish law, which is pretty much true with regards to the vote they had. If Catalan wants independence then they will have to follow the rules, change them from within like Scotland did to give them a better chance and a framework to gain independence, then they can hold a proper vote and let the people decide. If they go against the Spanish laws they will never win a clean and just independence.