Catalonia making international headlines

Normally, Catalan nationalism has been an Iberian affair without much international attention. The massive demonstration on 09/11, Catalonia's national holiday (in memory of the surrender of Barcelona in 1714 - War of the Spanish Succession), that brought 1.5 million Catalans to the streets of Barcelona behind a banner "Catalonia - next state of Europe" has changed this.
The Financial Times had this editorial, the International Herald Tribune had this article and this, the Wall Street Journal's slide-show is here. The New York Times informed on Sept. 20 here, The Economist in its Sept. 22 edition here.

This blogger's perception is that there is no general majority for an independent state of Catalonia but an accumulated frustration with the central government in Madrid; in such a situation, independence seems to be a viable solution. This frustration has the following background: whereas federal republics such as Germany put a limit to the transfer payments of richer states to the poorer ones ("national solidarity") to prevent the originally richer ones from ending up poorer in infrastructures and public services than the originally poorer ones, Spain's constitution of 1978 does not include such limits, and Catalans see a lot of their wealth going to the poorer regions of Extremadura and Andalusia, that have very high rates of both, unemployment and people working in public sector jobs (30% in comparison to 13% in Catalonia). This fact has been known for years but the general economic crisis of the last five years has made it more perceptible as government spending has been drastically reduced, and Catalans have seen this in the areas of health, education, and infrastructures. Adding to this, Catalans feel that the Spaniards accuse them of being selfish in their efforts to pay less and despise their language, while the Basque Country and Navarra have enjoyed a fiscal regime that lets them keep a higher percentage of the taxes raised in their territories for themselves without making them a target of criticism.
Already in April, the Wall Street Journal had this article on the unwillingness of the Spanish central government to change the situation - the Catalan press took until this week to become aware of it...

Sept. 18, 2012: death of Santiago Carrillo

There remain fewer and fewer of the central figures of Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy in the mid-1970s. Yesterday Carrillo died at age 97, El País has an English obituary here. The English Wikipedia entry can be found here. Catalans liked him because he supported their efforts for independence.