![]() In the late middle ages, Catalonia – a region comprising the north-eastern corner of the Iberian peninsula – was a central component in the Crown of Aragon, a confederation of kingdoms that controlled eastern Spain, much of the Mediterranean and southern Italy. In October, the Catalan question exploded onto the world news agenda. Far fewer will know the historical roots of the political problem currently bothering the southern periphery of Europe. Many people will have visited Barcelona many will be familiar with Catalonia’s major cultural figures, Salvador Dalí or Antoni Gaudí, for example. 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.įor casual observers of Spain, the recent events in Catalonia might seem to have suddenly appeared as a fully formed major political issue. ![]() 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. ![]() 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. ![]()
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