IF YOU look up from the bustle of the winter tourists thronging the streets of Barcelona, you will see some balconies draped with the estelada, a blend of the Catalan and Cuban flags that has become the banner of those who want their land to become independent. There are fewer than there were, but still enough to inspire the Catalan regional government’s pledge that 2017 will be the year when it will hold a binding referendum on independence. Since the Spanish government refuses to contemplate such a vote, a confrontation seems inevitable.
Indeed, it has already begun. Some 300 Catalan officials face court cases for flouting the law, in acts ranging from a previous unilateral effort in 2014 to organise an independence vote to petty protests, such as flying the estelada from town halls. Carles Puigdemont, the president of the Generalitat (the Catalan government), promises to push through “laws of disconnection” in the summer, such as one setting up its own tax agency, prior to holding a referendum, probably in September. His pro-independence coalition has a majority in the Catalan parliament. On December 14th 2016 Spain’s Constitutional...Continue reading
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