Irish Times. Crisis fuels Catalan independence push. 11.09.2012

Crisis fuels Catalan independence push

Hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona today 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 a fever of separatism in Catalonia, a comparatively prosperous part of Spain whose 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.

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