Artur Mas says symbolic poll is a ‘lesson in democracy’ and calls for a binding referendum on independence

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Catalan leader Artur Mas vowed to step up the push for independence after early results from Sunday’s symbolic vote showed that four out of five voters in the region backed breaking away from Spain.

With more than 2m votes cast, Mas called the symbolic referendum a “lesson in democracy, spelled out in capital letters”. He said he would send a letter on Monday to Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, urging him to confront “the Catalan question” with a formal, binding referendum on independence.

“We want to decide a new political future. All nations have a right to do so and mature democracies respect that,” said Mas.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Catalonia’s regional president Artur Mas arrives to address supporters in Barcelona after the informal poll on independence on Sunday. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP

After months of tense legal wrangling between Madrid and Barcelona, Catalan leaders were forced to water down their plans for a formal referendum and turn it into a symbolic vote, staffed by 41,000 volunteers and voters who registered on the spot.

Until polling stations opened on Sunday morning, doubts remained as to whether the vote would take place.



On Sunday, the atmosphere on the streets of Barcelona was festive, as young and old made their way to polling stations across the city, some wrapped in Catalan flags and others snapping selfies as they cast their ballots.



Voters were asked two questions: whether Catalonia should be a state, and if they replied yes, they were asked if it should be an independent state. Early results showed that 80.7% of voters replied yes to both questions, said the Catalan vice-president, Joana Ortega.



Just over 10% voted yes to the first question and no to the second, while 4.5% voted no to both questions. While there was no formal electoral roll, the regional government said that 5.4 million Catalans and resident foreigners were eligible to vote.



Pro-independence groups hoped that a large turnout would prompt central government to negotiate tax and political autonomy with the region or pave the way for a formal referendum.



“Even if it’s symbolic, at least we’ll show we want to express our opinion and have some sort of result to push the process forward,” said one pro-independence supporter, Felipe Alcalde Rodríguez, after voting. “This is our attempt to be democratic in a state that doesn’t respect democracy.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest A pro-Catalan independence flag, known as the ‘Estelada hangs from a balcony in Barcelona. Photograph: Paul Hanna/Reuters

As reports on the millions of voters began to dominate headlines on Sunday evening, the Spanish justice minister, Rafael Catalá, dismissed the vote as “fruitless and useless”, arguing that it had been “carried out on the margin of any legal framework”.



In a statement, he added: “The government considers this to be a day of political propaganda organised by pro-independence forces and devoid of any kind of democratic validity.”



Spain’s public prosecutor, he said, was investigating whether Catalan authorities breached a suspension ordered by the country’s constitutional court by using public buildings such as schools to hold the non-binding, informal vote.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Voters queue to take part in the symbolic Catalan independence referendum. Photograph: Miquel Llop/Demotix/Corbis

At a rally on Sunday night, the pro-independence Catalan National Assembly celebrated the vote, painting it as a first step towards early elections in the region that could act as a de facto poll in independence.



“Today we demonstrated to the world that the Spanish state isn’t our state and that the Spanish justice system doesn’t instil fear in us with their threats,” leader Carme Forcadell told a crowd of about a thousand people.

Calling the vote a demonstration of force by Catalan nationalists, Emilio Sáenz-Francés, a professor of history and international relations at Madrid’s Comillas Pontifical University, said it was also a wakeup call for Spain’s central government. Despite having no legal validity, the mere fact that the vote was held, he said, “weakened the image of the central government, after it repeatedly told Spaniards this vote would never happen”.

Catalans opposed to independence had called for a boycott of the vote, making it impossible to infer from the results how deep the independence sentiment runs in the region.

But the vote hinted that early elections could leave central government facing off against the Catalan Republican Left, a political party more fiercely committed to independence, he said.

“Rajoy has an interest in keeping Mas, who is more moderate, at the helm of Catalonia,” said Sáenz-Francés. He hoped there would now be dialogue. “It’s time for big solutions. Not just solutions that will carry each party to the next elections, but solutions that will do what’s best for the country in 20 years.”



Final results of the vote will be published at the end of the month.