Catalonia is to hold historic elections Sunday that could lead to the region’s transformation into Europe’s newest country and the break-up of Spain.

While on the surface the elections are regional, with voters choosing Catalonia´s next government, they are anything but routine. If the separatist parties gain an absolute majority, they have promised to declare independence from Spain within 18 months of the result.

The polls suggest the end of Spain as it has existed for more than 500 years is the likely outcome.

Two separatist parties are set to receive almost 50 percent of the popular vote and if they join forces, they will likely gain more than enough seats to achieve an absolute majority, according to a recent poll by Metroscopia for El Pais, one of Spain’s leading newspapers.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed to frustrate the separatists. On Sunday he urged voters to go to the polls.

“You have to say enough and put an end to this nightmare,” he told thousands in Badalona, Catalonia. The elections offer a “great opportunity to go to the polls and elect a government that thinks of well-being, not of flags and social fractures.”

For the separatists, the vote is fundamentally about long-held frustrations over alleged discrimination by Madrid and the democratic right of the region to decide its own fate.

Rajoy rejected earlier proposals to hold a referendum on Catalonian independence, saying the vote would be illegal and it would violate the Spanish Constitution.

“Spain and Catalonia simply have different priorities,” Elizabeth Castro, chairwoman of the International Committee in the Catalan National Assembly, told Anandolu Agency. “We´ve tried our best to be heard by Madrid and they refuse to listen.”

Catalans want to decide for themselves about education and spending, she said, after years of unfair demands from central government.

“It’s not ethnic,” she said. “Everyone is welcome and it’s not about hating Spain, it’s about the right to political power.”

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