The streets of Barcelona were recently filled with hundreds of thousands of, possibly more than a million, secessionists. Vast numbers of Catalans made known their demand for independence from Spain. ABC has the story:
Catalan secession flag & map of Catalonia
Hundreds of thousands of Catalans have taken to the streets of Barcelona in an unprecedented show of mass support for autonomy from Madrid, blaming Spain’s economic crisis for dragging their wealthy region down.
Surging unemployment and financial disarray have stoked calls for separatism in Catalonia, a comparatively prosperous part of Spain whose political leaders say their wealth is being sucked dry by the central government.
Crowds waved red and yellow striped Catalan flags – one of the oldest still in use in Europe – and sang the Catalan anthem on a national day marking the conquest of Catalonia by Spain’s King Philip V in 1714 after a 13-month siege of Barcelona.
The regional government said the crowd was 600,000 strong. Local police gave figures as high as 1.5 million.
Marchers said the sheer size of the crowd – swollen with people from around the region who descended on its capital in bright sunshine – would at last make Madrid hear their message.
Amen to that, and may they be successful in their endeavour.
Michael, since you lived in Spain, I’ll be you have some pretty good insight on this story.
It’s only slightly related, but one of the main characters in the Aubrey-Maturin series of Napoleonic naval fiction books is both an Irish revolutionary and a supporter of Catalan independence. Dr. Stephen Maturin is the ships surgeon.
They made a movie based on the books a few years ago, though I don’t remember it making any mention of such issues. “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
I think there are several states in Spain that will separate from Madrid in the not too distant future.
The Celtic northeast will I think.
This will cause the renaming of two Formula One races. The Spanish GP, run near Barcelona will become the Catalonian GP and the European GP run near Valencia will become the Spanish GP. At least, that’s my prediction.
Pat, the support for Galician independence is not very high. Galician nationalist candidates received 19% of the vote in the Galician General Elections of 2005 and 16% in 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_nationalism
There are only two communities (they are not states; there is only 1 Spanish state but it recognises 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities) that have a good chance at achieving independence in the near future: the Basque Country and Catalonia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_nationalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_nationalism
There are 3 self-proclaimed national groups though: Galicians, Basques and Catalans. The support for independence is probably higher in the Basque Country, but the Basque are much fewer in number than the Catalans. Another factor is immigration. Lots of Third World immigrants in Barcelona. Not nearly as many in the Basque Country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain#Autonomous_communities_and_autonomous_cities