CATALAN separatists will flock to Scotland next week to cheer on independence supporters in the hope that a “yes” vote will encourage a “si” to separation from Spain in their own poll in November.
Jaume Clotet, a Catalan government official, last week compared the excitement among separatists at the prospect of the vote by Scots to that of Barcelona football club supporters ahead of an important away game.
“Tens of thousands of Barcelona fans travel abroad for finals,” he said. “Now hundreds of independence fans will travel to Scotland.”
Clotet is flying to Edinburgh as part of an official Catalan delegation and said “lots of my friends are going as well”. Spain’s Basque region, with its own separatist ambitions, will be sending its own observers.
Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, has ruled that the vote, which is being staged by the Catalans in defiance of Madrid, is illegal.
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David Cameron, by contrast, is being hailed as a hero in Catalonia for allowing Scots to express their opinion. Separatists in the city of Vic unfurled a giant portrait of the British prime minister at a rally last month.
“We see in Cameron so many things that we’ve been missing in Rajoy,” said Alfred Bosch, leader of the Republican Left bloc in the Spanish parliament that has long lobbied for independence. “He’s a democrat.”
The Spanish government, by opposing the Catalan vote, has been boosting pro-separatist sentiment, said Bosch, who believes there is no stopping the independence movement.
Polls suggest about half of Catalans back a break with Spain, up from just 14% before the start of the economic crisis.
But more than 80% favour the right to hold the vote; up to 1m are expected on the streets of Barcelona on Thursday, Catalonia’s national day, to demand that their voice be heard.
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Gathering on two main roads leading into the city, they will make a giant “V” shape standing for “vote” and for “victory”, say organisers.
The national day this year also marks the 300th anniversary of Catalonia’s loss of independence after the fall of Barcelona to French and Spanish forces on November 11, 1714. Artur Mas, the president of Catalonia, will deliver a speech at a mass grave where “martyrs” killed in that battle are buried.
Some suggest that Mas, a relative newcomer to the separatist camp, might be losing his nerve in the battle with Madrid. Last week he referred to the vote only as a “consultation” for testing the waters on independence to see “where the majority stand”.
He was speaking after a meeting with Pedro Sanchez, the leader of Spain’s opposition Socialist party, who tried in vain to persuade him to call off the vote. Some analysts have raised alarm that a Scottish “yes”, followed by a Catalan “si” could encourage the Basques, whose separatist drive was once pursued with terrorism, and other Spanish regions to hold similar votes, in effect dismembering the country.
“Whatever happens in Scotland is a win for us,” said Clotet. “We’ll be able to say to Madrid, ‘look, the sun rose again, nothing happened’.”
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However, a “yes”, he said, would “make things more interesting”.