The debate began on this quiet, leafy campus more than a month ago. In late September, when Spain’s constitutional court agreed to hear the central government’s challenge against Sunday’s referendum on independence in Catalonia, resulting in the automatic suspension of campaigning, some at the University of Girona started raising questions about Catalan judge Encarna Roca.

Two years ago the university had presented her with an honorary degree to celebrate her constitutional court appointment. But in the wake of anger over the Catalonia decision, she was painted as one of the 12 judges standing in the way of millions of voters.

Seventy-seven of the university’s senators signed a petition demanding that her honorary degree be revoked. Others defended Roca, arguing against the idea that a Catalan must put their identity first.

On Thursday, a secret ballot sought to lay the issue to rest. Roca kept her degree by a vote of 100 to 42. Minutes later, the same group of senators voted in favour of a motion to back Sunday’s symbolic referendum on independence.

The debate highlighted how the issue of Catalan independence has permeated daily life in this city of 97,000 people. The red and yellow flags of Catalonia hang from balconies across the city. Across from where tourists gather to take photos of Girona’s brightly painted houses overlooking the river, large white letters spell out “Catalans want to vote”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Businessman Emilio Busquets walks past two police officers patrolling the street, as he holds a drawing of a ballot box to decorate his shop. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP

After months of an exhaustive cat-and-mouse game between the federal government and Barcelona, the region’s 7.5 million residents will be asked two questions: whether Catalonia should be a state; and if so, whether it should be an independent state.

Hundreds packed into Girona’s Independence Square at a rally for leftwing pro-independence party Catalan Republican Left to hear leader Oriol Junqueras urging residents to support independence.

Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has insisted that any regional vote would be illegal, but locals are nonplussed by the government’s stubborn stance.

“What we call tomorrow’s vote isn’t important,” argued primary school director Josep Planas. “The majority of people in Catalonia want to decide their future. This is our way to do it.”

Planas received a letter from the central government reminding him that, as a state-paid bureaucrat, he is not allowed to facilitate the consultation, but said hostility only helps the cause. “Everything the government in Madrid does to stop the consultation only results in more people wanting to vote.” His view is backed by polls, which show that some 70% of Catalans want a vote to be held. As the government stands firm, the number of pro-independence Catalans continues to grow, from a fifth in 2010 to around half in 2013, according to Catalonia’s Centre for Opinion Studies.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A volunteer makes preparations in a polling place, as Catalonia prepares to hold a symbolic vote on independence that is strongly opposed by the central government. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

Catalonia’s determination to hold a vote has left the central government with few options. Last week it sought to paint the vote as an unofficial opinion survey driven by civil associations. Spain’s justice minister, Rafael Catalá, said the regional government “cannot promote a consultation that goes against the constitution. But nobody is going to stop citizens from exercising their freedom of expression.”

Thousands of volunteers across Catalonia have seized on his words as an invitation to push forward. In Girona, some 600 of them have been working day and night to ensure the city’s residents can vote. The legal suspension of the referendum means that not one of the 21 polling stations normally used during elections can be used. Instead volunteers, such as Carme Renedo, have created seven ad-hoc voting stations. “It’s very complicated,” she sighed.

The voting stations aren’t particular well-located either, so volunteers have rented six small buses to run all day on a circuit to transport people to the voting stations. Six information booths will be put up and two phone lines opened to answer questions. “It’s designed so that someone like my 93-year-old mother can vote,” laughed Renedo, as she prepared to do a test run of one of the bus routes. “What does this have to do with politics? We’re going to have to hold a competition when this process is all over to see who ended up doing the most random thing in support of independence.”

Catalans hope a large turnout will help to send a strong signal to Madrid and prompt the central government to consider negotiating more tax and political autonomy for the region. Some harbour hopes it could pave the way for an official referendum.

The central government’s tactics have left Girona mayor Carles Puigdemont fuming. He was landed with 50,000 flyers when the state-owned mail service refused to distribute them. “They returned them to me,” said Puigdemont, who is from the same political party as Catalan leader Artur Mas. “How is it possible that the official mail service can say no to distributing correspondence between the mayor and his electorate?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pro-independence Basque demonstrators supporting Catalonia independence clash with anti-independence and unionist protesters. Photograph: Paco Serinelli/AP

Determined to get the flyers out, he spent hours with volunteers, opening the returned envelopes and stuffing the flyers into new ones so they could be distributed through a private company. The central government’s “insolent” attitude, he said, puts him and the city’s other elected officials in a tight spot, caught between a hardline Madrid and the large majority of Girona residents who want their say. On Sunday, he planned on being one of the first in line when the polls opened at 9am. “I want to show people that they can vote without any kind of fear,” he said. “This vote should be a celebration, a reason for joy.”

His comments hinted at the cloud of unease hanging over the symbolic vote. For months, Madrid has insisted there will be no vote. Now it is poised to go ahead and few know exactly what that means.

“It’s not fear – but there is something,” said pro-independence campaigner Jordi Alemany, struggling to describe his feelings of how the day would play out. While he was certain the Spanish government would simply look the other way rather than use force to stop the vote, he wasn’t so sure others would do the same. Pointing to a recent incident where 30 members of a far-right group crashed a Catalan pro-independence event in Madrid, he said: “These groups have threatened to shut down some of the voting stations.”

A pro-independence activist since the age of 13, Alemany’s interest in breaking away from Spain blossomed when he began to feel that the Catalan language was under threat from the Spanish government. He was joined by many others who turned to independence in frustration in 2010 when the constitutional court struck out part of a renewed charter outlining greater autonomy for Catalonia or who felt that Catalans were paying more than their fair share during the economic crisis to keep the central government afloat.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Catalans gather in a bid to create a 400-kilometre (250-mile) human chain, part of a campaign for independence from Spain. Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

“This is an opportunity to create a new country from nothing,” Alemany said, “where youth have a chance at having a future, where the unemployment rate isn’t 50% for young people, where young people don’t have to leave the country in order to find a job.”

Not everyone in Girona is as positive about independence. “There are so many unanswered questions,” said resident Narciso Girona. “What about my pension? Will my kids learn Spanish at school?” He planned to vote in support of staying with the “devil you know”.

Former People’s Party politician Carles Palomares abandoned the party more than a year ago but remains a city councillor for Girona and is one of the most outspoken on how Madrid has handled the Catalonia question. “The only thing they haven’t done is bring in the tanks,” he said. For Palomares, the solution lies in a constitutional overhaul for Spain, one that would outline clearly the powers and responsibilities of each region and celebrate the country’s diversity. “I feel Spanish. I want a united Spain, a federal Spain.”

He believes many Catalans share his support for more autonomy but not outright independence. “But every day that Rajoy says no, there are 100 or 1,000 more separatists. They’re creating separatism in Catalonia.”

Palomares will support independence on Sunday as a symbolic move to protest at the central government’s actions, which he said had twisted the referendum into something less clear. “This referendum is something that should have been completely normal. Madrid doesn’t seem to understand that we’re not in the 19th century any more. What do they want, a civil war?”