Supporters of Ada Colau, Barcelona's newly elected mayor. Demotix/Matthias Oesterle. All rights reserved.This autumn will see a packed electoral calendar in Southern Europe, with elections in Greece, Portugal and Spain. The results will be interpreted, to a greater or lesser extent, as a verdict on the austerity programme that's been imposed in these countries by governments of all colours over recent years.
In contrast, the Catalan elections, to be held on 27 September, are being framed as a proxy vote on independence, a reading widely accepted by the foreign media. However, according to the most recent CEO opinion poll, 21 per cent of Catalans say that the relationship between Catalonia and Spain will be the most important issue in determining their vote, while 59 per cent say they will vote based on parties' policies for dealing with the economic crisis. How can we make sense of this apparent contradiction? How does the Catalan case fit into the wider European context?
A denial of democracy
The answer to these questions lies in the constant frustration of the democratic will of the people of Catalonia since 2010, when the Spanish Supreme Court overturned several articles of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy.
