Catalonia Is Spain's Biggest Problem

In October 2017, the decades-long tussle between the Catalan capital Barcelona and the central Spanish government in Madrid – formerly low intensity and relatively containable – bubbled over into ugly scenes following an unofficial referendum on the question of Catalan independence. A survey conducted 40 years earlier in 1977 had revealed that just five per cent of Catalans were then in favour of independence; by 2005 the figure had risen to just 12 per cent. At the referendum of 1 October 2017 – declared illegal by the Madrid government in September – 92 per cent of the ‘electorate' voted in favour of an independent Catalan state.