BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Madrid was poised Friday to seize control of Catalonia after the region’s secessionist leader opted not to call regional elections, which had been seen as a way to ease Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Carles Puigdemont’s decision placed the region of 7.5 million people on an uncertain footing a day before lawmakers are due to approve measures to depose Catalonia’s leaders and take over its institutions, police, purse, and public broadcaster to stop an independence drive.

Under pressure from all sides, after thousands of independence supporters staged a protest in Barcelona, Puigdemont said he had been “willing” to call elections, but received “no guarantees” from Madrid to make this possible.

In a televised address, looking weary, he instead passed the buck to the regional parliament, which met yesterday evening “to determine the consequences” of Madrid’s looming power grab.

Separatist lawmakers hold an absolute majority in the Catalan parliament, and many expect that a vote on declaring independence may make its way to the floor today.

The central government stood firm, insisting it was “fulfilling a legal obligation, a democratic obligation and a political obligation” in its response to Catalonia holding an unlawful and unregulated independence referendum on October 1.

“The main responsibility of a government, of any democratic government, is to respect the law and ensure it is respected,” Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told senators in the Spanish capital after Puigdemont’s speech.