AKIPRESS.COM - Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards filled the streets of this city Sunday to show they are against an independent state in Catalonia and for the central government’s takeover of the breakaway republic, Washington Post reported.

And, many added, they wanted to see the leaders of the attempted secession punished.

It was not so much a protest as a victory march. They believed they had won. There would be no “Republic of Catalonia.”

As the streets swelled with an estimated 300,000 or more demonstrators, many waving Spanish flags, there were chants urging authorities to arrest Carles Puigdemont — who as Catalan regional president led the move toward independence — and his top lieutenants.

Some held aloft posters showing Puigdemont behind bars.

Inés Arrimadas of the Citizens party in Catalonia told reporters before the march began that “the silent majority of Catalans are once again taking to the street to show that the majority of Catalans feel Catalan, Spanish and European.”

Arrimadas walked out of the Catalan regional Parliament on Friday as it cast the vote for independence, which was quickly thwarted.

Frustrated by the defiant but divided Catalan Parliament, the central government on Saturday began to assert control over Catalonia, firing the region’s president, ministers, diplomats and police chiefs and transferring all authority to Madrid.

Since then, the secessionist leaders have been mostly absent from the public stage — not exactly in hiding, but close.

Puigdemont on Saturday issued a brief, prerecorded call for citizens to mount “a democratic opposition” to the takeover. No one was exactly sure what he meant.

On Sunday, the Belgian migration minister offered Puigdemont political asylum — if he needs it.