I am a descendent from Spanish immigrants. I was in Barcelona in 2012. No sign of trouble then. I was in Madrid last year. Everything seemed fine and calm. This independence outburst took me totally by surprise.
It must be something to do with this guy who’s in charge in Barcelona because it didn’t seem to be that big of an issue to the people of Catalonia or Spain when I was there. Although I’m sure in the area are there has always been a feeling of separateness. Stephen Maturin was from Catalonia. And he felt very separate from Spain, even though he was a fictional character. The Catalonians do have a separate language. But they have been part of Spain for hundreds of years. Spain used to be a number of different monarchies just like Italy. Spain was united during the time of Ferdinando and Isabella. Italy was united under Victor Emmanuel II. Can you imagine Italy breaking up now?
I think the king of Spain is to be commended for taking to television to bring sanity to the situation. I suspect that has a lot to do with Catalonia backing down.
The Northern League in Italy has floated the independence idea from the rest of Italy for years.