No, it's a genuinely Marxist independence movement. It's in all of their propaganda, which has pictures of Muslims and other third world individuals with captions like "We are ALL Catalonians!" They hate Spain, they hate their own national identity (they are, in fact, just Spanish people), and they want to separate from Spain to establish their own Marxist government.
As for Franco. Anyone who kills Commies and keeps a nation from falling behind the Soviet Iron Curtain couldn't be THAT bad. The Communists in Spain were even digging up the skeletons of nuns and priests in their full-scale war against the population of Spain. They were murdering and raping and thieving. Franco saved Spain and protected them from the mass murder of the communist revolutionaries. He saved Spanish culture, their economy, and churches from the doom of absolute eradication.
Yes he did. But, he is not without fault. People dared speak bad about the gov’r and if you disliked someone, just let word get out that something negative was said. That would have been a good way to send them to jail for years.
Discouraged by modern day Spain, my mother says that Franco kept crime under control. I say - well, that’s because he was the one committing the crimes! People did live in fear tho.
But, all in all, whether it was Spain or the USA, crime is more obvious since the 30’s-70’s.
I consider the Americans, British and Canadians that fought against Franco’s legitimate government as traitors who deserve to buried in mass graves instead of honored by statues.
Yes, Franco was not perfect but 100% better than the Soviet supported so called Republicans. He was favored by Germany but refused to get involved in their world war. Considering what the commies in the French Revolution did to the church, that would have been the fate for the Catholic Church had the traitorous communists prevailed.
Catalonians have been pushing for independence from Spain for centuries. Long before Marx came on the scene. It’s in their blood and in their culture. Have others co-opted that very old desire for their own ends. No doubt.
It looks like Catalonia is currently governed by a broadly-based pro-separatist coalition party, but in general Catalonia has generally been further left than the rest of Spain.
I can't claim to be an expert on today's Spanish politics by any means, but my hunch is that it's like the Sweden or Massachusetts or California of Spain.