After a lengthy struggle that led to an illegal declaration of independence, the Catalan independence movement seems to have lost the support of the people.
An opinion poll by the region’s government found that a majority of Catalans oppose independence, confirming a trend that suggests the separatists have lost momentum.
The survey by Catalonia’s Centre for Opinion Studies found that 53.3 per cent of those questioned were against independence, versus 38.8 per cent in favour of breaking away from Spain.
That compares with a poll published in May last year that found 48.7 per cent against independence and 44.9 per cent who wanted Catalonia to be its own country. It is unlikely, however, that the independence movement will vanish. Most Catalans still support self-determination and the latest poll of 1,200 people carried out late last year found that 72.6 per cent thought the region had the right to hold an independence poll.
They also supported much of the separatist movement’s policies, including the promotion of its language. More than 66 per cent thought that Catalan should be recognised as an official language by the European Union and 57 per cent thought streaming platforms such as Netflix should be forced to provide content in the language.
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It is a far cry, however, from the heady days of 2017, when calls for independence peaked with the attempt to stage a referendum that the Spanish government said was illegal. Carles Puigdemont, the region’s leader at the time, declared independence after a decisive vote of support. The national government wrested back control of the region and nine Catalan leaders were sentenced in 2019 to between nine and 13 years in jail for sedition and misuse of public funds, committed in running the referendum on splitting from Spain. Puigdemont is living in exile in Belgium.
When the Socialists came to power in 2018 Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, opted for dialogue to defuse tensions. His party is reliant on votes from Catalan nationalists to pass legislation.
Sánchez angered many Spaniards last year by granting pardons to the nine separatists. The move, however, appears to have taken the wind out of the nationalist movement’s sails.
Oriol Bartomeus, a politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said he was not surprised that the nationalists’ support was waning. “The independence movement grows with confrontation,” he said. “Sánchez’s strategy, with a much softer reaction, removes some of the independence movement’s arguments and weakens it.”
Bartomeus added that the poll showing minority support included foreigners living in Catalonia, who cannot vote, which would bolster the camp that opposes independence.
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The region is heading for a showdown over language, however, after a legal ruling that 25 per cent of classes in Catalonia must be given in Spanish. The regional government has until the end of this month to decide whether it will comply with the ruling.
