Catalans staged a non-binding referendum on independence yesterday, defying the Spanish government, which had sought to block the process. An overwhelming win for the pro-independence campaign was expected, albeit amid a relatively low turnout.
The referendum was the culmination of months of political tensions and legal conflict between Madrid and the Catalan regional government of Artur Mas, which oversaw the vote. The double question put to Catalans was: “Do you want Catalonia to be a state? If so, do you want that state to be independent?”
Federico Prieto, a pensioner, said: “I’ve always felt that we Catalans have the right to decide on our future and our relationship with Spain and Europe. Today, we can try and express ourselves.”
He voted “yes” to both questions and was furious at the Spanish government’s resistance to the process.
“Spain doesn’t have any more reasons not to allow a referendum with legal guarantees than Britain did,” he said, referring to Scotland’s recent independence vote. “It’s disputable whether you can call this a democracy.”
Mr Prieto had voted in Joan Miró high school in the Barcelona suburb of Cornellà. It was one of about 1,300 voting stations across the northeastern region manned by more than 40,000 volunteers and with a team of international observers present.
Cornellà was one of just a handful of town halls whose mayor had refused to co-operate in the referendum due to its illegal status.
However, as was the case across most of Catalonia, voting took place there without any incidents and there was an informal, festive atmosphere around the voting station despite the damp weather.
With the vast majority of those opposed to secession expected to stay away due to the vote’s illegal status, the turnout figures were seen as the real barometer of the referendum’s success.
Figures released in the early evening showed that nearly two million of 5.4 million Catalans who were eligible to voteCatalans had taken part. In a regular election that figure would be seen as low but under the circumstances pro-independence campaigners are likely to be satisfied.
The referendum date and questions were originally announced in December 2013. However, in September, the central government of Mariano Rajoy successfully appealed against the process before the Constitutional Court, arguing that any such vote should consult all Spaniards. Mr Mas responded by calling an alternative vote, on the same date, with the same questions.
Again, the Spanish government successfully appealed against it, but Mr Mas pushed ahead anyway, with the support of pro-independence political parties and grass roots groups. Although the central government eventually appeared resigned to tolerating the vote, two political parties, the centralist UPyD and far-right Platform for Catalonia, formally called for the voting stations to be dismantled.
However, the Barcelona judge charged with ruling on the matter yesterday rejected the requests. “I think that many people who hadn’t planned to vote today are probably doing so because of Madrid’s attitude, threatening the Catalan people,” said Ramon Piqué, one of the volunteers involved in organising the day’s voting.
Mr Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party (PP) remained outspoken in its criticism throughout the day. “Twenty-five years ago, we saw thousands of people knocking down the Berlin Wall,” said Esteban González Pons of the PP. “Today we see thousands of people in Catalonia who want to build another. History favours those who knock down walls. If it’s difficult to imagine Berlin split in two, how can we imagine a country like Spain split in two?”
Mr Mas, meanwhile, had described the ballot as “much more than an opinion poll, but much less than a legally binding referendum”.
After casting his vote to applause from onlookers, he suggested that a more formal vote should now follow.
“After everything we have done, we have won the right to a definitive referendum, if possible, to be agreed on with the central government,” he said.
However, there was a small minority of Catalans who roundly rejected Mr Mas’s independence project, despite taking part in the illegal referendum.
Rafael Roldán, a butcher, was one of them. “I feel Catalan and Spanish,” he said. “This vote is simply a way of saying that we’re not happy with our country’s politics.”
