Charles Puigdemont said that the way had been cleared to have a unilateral declaration of independence for the region.
Nearly 850 people were injured today as the Guardia Civil and national police were out in force in an attempt to prevent the referendum going ahead after the Madrid administration, lead by Mariano Rajoy, backed by the Constitutional Court, declared the referendum was illegal saying it went against the country’s constitution.
In a number of incidents members of the country’s security forces were seen using strong-arm tactics to close polling stations and seize ballot boxes.
Guardia Civil used batons as well as firing rubber bullets into the crowds as they tried to cast their vote.
Mr Puigdemont, accompanied by senior members of the regional government, said in a televised address: “With this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic.”
He said: “The citizens of Catalonia, we have won the right to have an independent state constituted in the form of a republic.
“Catalonia has hard won its sovereignty and all to the respect and the institutions have the obligation to implement the result”.
He added that the European Union, who had consistently refused to support the cause, could no longer “continue to look the other way”.
The central Spanish government has said that not only was there no referendum but also denied any police brutality.
Mr Rajoy said in a televised address from the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, the Prime Minister declared that “there was no independence referendum in Catalonia today”.
He delivered the live televised address after violence broke out in Catalonia in what the government called an “illegal” referendum.
While in a separate press conference the country’s Vice President Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said “actions were taken against electoral material, never against people.”