“One of the things the independence movement hates most is that left-leaning people are against them…”

With the separatist Catalan government claiming that 90%, of 43% of the electorate, voted for independence, and ahead of a week of further uncertainty for all of Spain, the BBC’s Patrick Jackson gives a voice to some young Catalan Spaniards – some of whose views may, or may not, sound familiar…  ANYhoo… Here’s a lengthy excerpt from the BBC report.

“We feel Catalan and Spanish and I’m not going to allow independence supporters to take my culture away,” says David.

“I am who I am thanks to all of Spain, not only Catalonia. Catalonia is my home but the rest of Spain defines my personality as well.

“In Spain we’ve got lots of amazing things which make all of us better people, and nobody has the right to remove those things from our lives.”

Sergio fears Catalan Spaniards are being excluded from the future state that independence campaigners advocate.

“The Catalan government currently speaks only in the name of the nationalists, referring to the ‘Catalan country’,” he says.

“The first thing Puigdemont said was ‘the Catalan people are more united than ever’. Not true! The Catalan people are more divided than ever but as he only addressed one part of the people, obviously those are united.

“But beware that we too are united.”

“Some of us feel insecure because if you take the Catalan flag you are a democrat, but if you take the Spanish one, you are a fascist,” Juan says.

“I don’t like flags, any of them,” he goes on.

“It is not politically correct to say that you feel Spanish if you want to be ‘progressive’ or a democrat. One of the things the independence movement hates most is that left-leaning people are against them, which I think is really coherent because parties of the left are historically internationalist, not nationalist.”

“Just opening your mouth doesn’t make you a fascist,” says David.

It should be said that the CUP, the junior and more volatile partner in the separatist alliance, is an anti-capitalist party, and independence campaigners have sought to portray their cause as being above traditional party politics.

“All of Spain helped build Catalonia’s powerful industries, subsidising its goods,” Dani says.

“Are they really saying they are morally superior, that only in Catalonia people know what democracy is?

“For years they’ve been saying ‘Spain is stealing from us’ but can you call 40 million people thieves after they paid for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, for example?”

Indeed.

Pete Baker