El Periodico, one of the two biggest newspapers in Catalonia and an openly sympathizer with the unionist PSOE government at the Generalitat published three days ago another poll where they asked people what would they vote if a binding referendum for the independence of Catalonia was held the next day. Turns out the percentages for the yes and no were almost identical 39% would vote “yes” and 40.6% “no”.
El Periódico is not suspicious at all of being pro independence. Therefore, it is undeniable that the pro independence option is gaining adepts very quickly and this 39% percent of independentist to me represents the lower ground for this political option with the upper threshold being the percentages published by UOC a few weeks ago.
Historically these numbers have been lower, depending on the source you checked they were somewhere betweeen 20% to 35%. Now they range between 40-50% and again the most important fact to me is that the “no” defenders are running out of reasons to defend their option while the independence has a very solid pack of reasons why it would objectively improve the life of everyone living in Catalonia.
Ironically, the greatest instigators of the independence are not so much the Catalan independentists but the invaluable contribution of the Spanish system (politicians, media, society, etc.) that with their discrimination, insults and disrespect towards Catalans are achieving day by day much more and much faster than any Catalan political party has ever done since the restoration of the “democracy”.
Now we only to set need a date for the binding referendum. The Spanish won’t dare to do anything about it, they didn’t do anything about the 13D referendums even after threatening to do so, because they can’t. Europe is watching therefore their traditional ways of stopping Catalan independence, sending the army or put politicians in prison are exhausted. They don’t have any arguments to give the Catalans to stay in Spain because they have never existed. Obviously we will have to be prepared for all the dirty tricks the Spanish will pull and the most difficult step will be to get the current Catalan politicians, who are very happy with their current situation, to lead society but I’m sure that the new options that are already growing quickly will swipe the floor of the Catalan Parliament in the elections next year.