Pro-independence parties need to win at least 68 seats in the 135-member regional parliament to push their effort forward, and polls show they’re on track to win a slim majority.
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Mas is casting this month’s election as a de facto vote on independence, like ones in Scotland previous year and in Canada’s French-speaking province of Quebec in 1980 and 1995.
For a fourth consecutive year, hundreds of thousands of Catalans are gearing up to rally Friday in support of breaking away from Spain, kicking off a fresh bid to carve out a new European nation.
Spain’s centre-right Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fiercely opposes the idea of Catalan independence, which he has described as “nonsense”.
The pro-independence list includes former FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
If they win, Catalan president Artur Mas has vowed to push through an 18-month roadmap to secession for the region, which accounts for a fifth of Spain’s economy. But Mas said independence aspirations must be put on hold if backers fail to win a majority in the regional parliament.
The central government in Madrid has consistently insisted that independence for the region is unconstitutional and won’t be allowed. “And now even less because I think that CiU has utilised the fallout from the economic crisis to blame the rest of Spain for the fact that Catalonia has also suffered”, said a public employee from Barcelona who preferred not to be named.
Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told reporters Friday that a regional parliamentary majority for separatists won’t help them pull the region away, because Spain’s autonomous regions don’t have the legal power to do so. Polls show they are against it if it means a Catalan state would be outside the 28-nation European Union.
“We had to mobilize more buses, distribution of t-shirts and other merchandising items was more active than in previous years”, he said. “The goal is to become independent, because we’re suffocating – economically and emotionally”.
Carme Sanchez, a 54-year-old warehouse worker, arrived in Barcelona with her pro-independence flag in hand on a bus from the town of Torello.
At 17:14 native time, in remembrance of the defeat of Catalan forces on September eleven, 1714, at the palms of Philip S of Spain, the 5 kilometre “mosaic” of the Meridiana avenue erupted with color as individuals raised separatist flags as properly as banners declaring “Ara es l’hora” – “It’s time”.
“Once the people have spoken through their vote, we will all take onboard what the majority decides”, he said in a televised speech late yesterday.
Silvia Palomares, a 48-year-old interior designer from Barcelona, said this year’s celebrations were more important than those before.
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However, with pollsters predicting the regional election would leave the Catalan parliament divided and fragmented, it may simply extend a deadlock between local and national authorities.
