The Catalan independence parody with its own preside

It has a map, a flag and now its own "president", but even its most passionate cheerleaders happily admit that Tabarnia doesn't really exist.

Tabarnia is an imaginary region of Catalonia created by Spanish unionists as an online parody of the Catalonian independence movement.

So popular has it become that activists have now taken the joke one step further by unveiling theatre actor Albert Boadella as the pretend "president" of the fictional region, at a packed press conference in Barcelona.

Boadella was sworn in via a video link from his "exile" in Madrid, an undisguised dig at Catalonia's deposed former leader Carles Puigdemont, who has spent the last few months abroad to avoid charges of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of funds at home.