![]() ![]() Just how far the separatist bubble has deflated, though, will be put to the test next weekend, when voters across Spain cast their ballots in municipal elections-a vote that could also show the direction Catalonia is headed before nationwide general elections in December. Throughout Catalonia, support for separation from Spain has dwindled in the face of the failure of pro-independence politicians to secure their vision, along with a growing perception of a world that is growing more hostile to small nations. “We need to be part of something bigger these days-of Europe and Spain.” “How could we be on our own?” said Maite Ferrer, a local resident and former independence voter. Pro-independence parties are out of power, the flags have been reduced to a few solitary rags, and dreams of independence seem but a distant memory. Little trace of that movement now remains. Separatist parties ran the town council while activists marched to the Catalan flabiol and tambori-pipe and drum-in favor of independence in the run-up to Catalonia’s contested 2017 independence referendum, which sparked a constitutional crisis and a harsh crackdown by Spanish authorities. “It’s like this,” she said, before mimicking a deflating balloon.Ī few years ago, that flag was one of many in the small Mediterranean coastal town, which lies between Tarragona and Barcelona, square in the Costa Daurada. Now, though, for local retiree Mei Francisco, the Estelada’s faded colors serve only as a reminder of the declining fortunes of the Catalan independence movement. ALTAFULLA, Spain-Halfway up a lamppost on a residential street flutters a tattered gold-and-red-striped Estelada, the flag that has long been a proud statement of identity in Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia. ![]()
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