![]() A recent survey discovered that 47.7% of Catalans are against independence, and 44.5% in favour.īut José Pablo Ferrándiz, chief researcher for the polling firm Metroscopia, says independence is a less pressing concern for most voters. The wedge issue, predictably enough, is independence, which continues to split the region and its politicians. The local branch of Podemos is unlikely to be able to win enough seats while the ERC has joined other pro-independence parties in signing a pledge not to help the socialists into office. Salvador Illa, who stood down as Spain’s health minister to run as the PSC’s candidate for the presidency, has promised to do his best to heal the divided region if he wins – or, as he puts it, to “stitch Catalonia back together”.īut even if the PSC finish first, the formation of the mooted tripartite leftwing government looks increasingly like a pipe dream. And the pro-independence parties in this election don’t have a plan either.” “We were led to believe that all we had to do was vote in the referendum but it’s not that simple. “There was never really a plan,” he says. Although that day’s events changed his mind, Valencia sees little prospect of independence for the region any time soon. “But the debate is about sovereignty.”Īlbert Valencia, 24, had opposed Catalan independence until 1 October 2017 when the Spanish state’s brutal and heavy-handed response to the unilateral referendum staged by the pro-independence government shocked the country and the rest of the world. “The key question has to be the management of public services, especially health and education and housing,” adds Nieto. “The poor quality of politicians in this country is really worrying,” says Pere Nieto, a 53-year-old primary school teacher and lifetime Poblenou resident. Spain’s former health minister and socialist candidate for the Catalan presidency Salvador Illa. However, if there’s one thing residents agree on, it’s that they aren’t getting too excited about any of the candidates on offer, and have little faith in their ability to address the problems they face. The election could also see the far-right Vox party overtaking its conservative rivals to win its first seats in the regional parliament. Polls this time suggest a tight race for first place in the region between the Catalan Socialist party (PSC), which opposes independence, the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the similarly separatist Together for Catalonia party. Puigdemont fled to Belgium to avoid arrest, but nine of the others involved were jailed over their role in the failed bid for independence.ĭespite the violence sparked by the verdict in 2019, the issue of Catalan independence has faded over the past two years amid growing splits between separatist factions. Three weeks later, pro-independence members of the Catalan parliament made a unilateral declaration of independence, prompting the Spanish government to use the constitution to assume direct control of the region, sack Puigdemont and his government, and call a snap regional election for December 2017. Voting was marred by a violent and heavy-handed response from police officers sent into the region by the Spanish government to stop the poll. Three and a half years ago, the pro-independence Catalan regional government, led by Carles Puigdemont, defied repeated warnings from the Spanish government and courts by staging an illegal, unilateral independence referendum. Were any more uncertainty needed, it has arrived in the shape of the election, which again pits unionists against separatists as the decades-long row over Catalan independence rises from simmer to boil. Poblenou, once the heart of the city’s textile industry that gloried in the nickname “little Manchester”, is now reinventing itself as a hub for tech companies.īut, like much of the Catalan capital, the area is currently weathering the double storm of the pandemic and the attendant economic consequences.
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