A few years ago, independence supporters like me were a minority in parliament. Now I feel we are just a small step away from an independent Catalan state.
Podemos supports the principle of Catalan self-determination, but hopes that Catalans would vote to stay in Spain, for a ‘right to decide’ about ‘everything’. This is radical.
Guanyem Barcelona is a citizen platform that has embarked on a mission to solve the current Spanish political crises with their own hands. This increasingly popular political movement aims to remove power from elites and bring democracy to the people.
The Catalanists’ democratic credentials are shoehorned into a one-size-fits-all horror story of minority nationalism that allows non-violent Catalans to be condemned in carelessly violent language.
Spain, and Catalonia within it, is now exhausted from an unprecedented and exceedingly destructive economic crisis which has triggered a vast social crisis that has ended up in a serious political crisis.
Optimism among Catalans after Sunday's vote should not disguise the significant challenges ahead if anything is to come from their "non-referendum consultation".
Rajoy's iron-fisted approach to the Catalan question has only made the independence movement stronger. Now he must negotiate or risk losing Catalonia for good.
Artur Mas was suitably elated at the turnout, while Mariano Rajoy continues to denounce the "referendum" and its leaders.
On 9 November, Catalans will vote in an "unofficial" referendum for independence. Just how did it come to this?
Patrice de Beer's article on Catalan independence went viral. With just days to go until the vote, we look at some of the interesting questions raised by the author and you also in the comments.
If Catalan markets are subject to European regulation, if redistribution is increasingly coming under threat, and if the inhabitants of Catalonia prefer a different combination of public services, why should it have to share the same state structures as Spain?
Today in Catalonia young people grow up bilingual. It also occurs in other parts of Europe. But here a small miracle has taken place; a tradition and a culture that were in danger of being lost have been recovered.
