Thousands of people have demonstrated in the capital of Spain’s Catalonia region to demand that lawmakers elect a new regional leader and continue working toward total secession from Spain.

Suspended president of the Spanish football federation Angel Maria Villar, who is under investigation for corruption, tried on Monday to stoke up fears that the country could be kicked.

The vote in the regional parliament followed a tense week of last-ditch negotiations between Madrid and Barecelona. Seventy of 135 Catalan deputies voted for independence, with 10 opposed and two blank ballot slips.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday gave the Catalan government eight days to drop an independence bid, failing which he would suspend Catalonia's political autonomy and rule the region directly.