yellow Catalan independence flags. – Region divided – Rajoy’s conservative government has said the vote violates Spain’s constitution, which states that only central authorities can call a referendum.
Following a legal challenge from his government, Spain’s Constitutional Court suspended a referendum law that was fast-tracked through Catalonia’s regional parliament on Wednesday.
Police have searched a Catalan printing house and a local weekly newspaper suspected of making ballots for the referendum, while Spain’s state prosecutor has opened criminal proceedings against Puigdemont and other Catalan officials. Catalan society is deeply divided over independence.
In a survey by the Catalan Centre of Opinion Studies in July, 41.1 percent backed independence while 49.9 percent rejected it. But about 70 percent wanted a referendum, to settle the question once and for all.
Like the referendum held in Britain last year on the country’s membership in the European Union, the issue in Catalonia pits rural areas — which are more pro-independence — against large urban centres like Barcelona which are more in favour of remaining in Spain.
Catalonia, roughly the same size as Belgium, has its own language and customs, and already has significant powers over matters such as education and healthcare.
But Spain’s economic problems, coupled with a perception that the wealthy northeastern region’s 7.5 million people pay more in taxes to Madrid than they get in return, have pushed the independence question to the centre stage.
During the 2013 “Diada” demonstrators formed a human chain that crossed Catalonia. The following year the demonstration took the shape of a giant “V” for “vote”, while in 2015 the march resembled a human arrow.
