Catalan villages vote on independence from Spain

Sun, 13 Dec 2009

Barcelona - Voting opened Sunday in localities around the north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia in unofficial "referendums" on whether the region should become independent. About 165 villages and towns were staging votes with no legal value to explore the extent of separatism in the wealthy region of 7 million residents.

Separatism is seen as being on the rise of Catalonia, where opinion polls show about 20 per cent of the population as supporting its independence from Spain.

Since the Spanish government does not authorize official referendums on independence, the Catalan votes were being organized privately by volunteers, with the backing of some political parties.

About 700,000 people including foreign residents were eligible to vote in the referendums held at schools, trade union offices and some municipal premises.

The votes followed the example of the village of Arenys de Munt, where 96 per cent of voters endorsed an independent Catalonia in September. Voter turnout, however, was only about 40 per cent.

The localities where Sunday's polls were due to be held ranged from small villages to Sant Cugat del Valles, which has 75,000 residents. The bigger city of Girona and the regional capital Barcelona were expected to follow suit in 2010.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Saturday that the Catalan votes on independence were "not going anywhere," while his deputy Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega stressed that the "illegal" votes would have no practical consequences.

The Spanish government already faces a heterogeneous separatist movement in the Basque region.

Catalonia has one of the strongest self-governments among Spain's 17 regions, with a muscular policy to promote its language alongside Spanish and its own police force. But some Catalans find that insufficient.

Organizers of the Catalan referendums said they were not campaigning for independence, but only wanted Catalans to express their opinion on a question which Spain did not want to be brought out into the open.