According to a study by Spanish thinktank Real Instituto Elcano looking at articles in the international press discussing Spain in 2017 and 2018, the countries which have shown the greatest interest in the Catalan independence push are German-speaking.

Of the articles which mention Catalonia and the independence issue, 10,184 were from German-language media, some way ahead of the 7,652 in the French-language media and 7,015 in English.

"The language which has dedicated the most coverage to the Catalan 'process' has clearly been German, and more than 26% of all the news stories on the question published during the third four-month period of 2017 appeared in German, Austrian and German-speaking-canton Swiss newspapers," the report says.

One possible reason for this greater interest could be that it was in Germany that Carles Puigdemont was arrested and briefly held in custody after the reactivation of his arrest warrant in early 2018.

On the other hand, the study finds: "Sweden is the country with the most relative coverage of the process, with an average of 7.4 articles published per newspaper per week, albeit this figure has to be put in the context of the reduced number of Swedish media outlets included in the sample. The average number of articles published on the process in all countries is 2.2 articles per week per paper."

Sweden is followed by Portugal with an average of 4.9 articles per week per newspaper. The first English-speaking country on the list is the UK (2.0), just below the overall average, then the US (0.3).

The thinktank also expresses surprise the case of Catalonia hasn't had more impact in the French media, "despite there being special interest in this question in the areas closest to Catalonia."