Author: Bill Phillips, University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Email: billphillips@ub.edu
Published: April 6, 2019
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.4.1.05
Citation: Phillips, B. (2019). The Referendum for Catalan Independence and its Aftermath: A Personal Account IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.4.1.05
Abstract
This account does not claim to be academic in nature – though all of the events described and statements reported can be found online on media websites – but is, rather, a personal description of the extraordinary events which occurred in Catalonia from September 2017 to January 2018. It includes digressions describing the significance of football, road networks and other regions in Spain, but above all it provides eyewitness testimony of a people’s wish to express themselves freely and democratically at the ballot box. The Spanish government’s brutal response has led to the country’s gravest crisis for decades, with the monarchy seriously questioned, the constitution beset and Europe glowering disapprovingly from the north.
The situation is by no means resolved with ten members of the Catalan government and two independence lobbyists now on trial for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, and six members of the Catalan government in exile in Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland.
Keywords
Catalonia, referendum, political prisoners, exile