Catalonia will hold an illegal independence vote on Sunday

(Image credit: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

Catalonia, a semi-autonomous region of Spain, is expected to hold an independence vote on Nov. 9.

The vote is illegal in the eyes of the Spanish government, but the government will likely "look the other way" instead of preventing it, Time reports. The vote is non-binding, though, which has "left both Catalans and Spaniards wondering what Sunday's vote will mean."

"We will vote, and we will win," Carme Forcadell, a former Catalan politician who is now a teacher, said at a pro-independence rally. "We should be able to decide how we spend our own resources and what level of solidarity we want to show toward others," Forcadell, president of the citizens' Catalan National Assembly, told The New York Times. She's been working with other activists on the independence vote since she was a college student in the 1970s.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Figures like Forcadell are the reason the independence movement has hung on, despite being suspended by Spain's Constitutional Court. The court first ruled against Catalan independence in 2010, voting against a preamble that called Catalonia a nation. Since then, more than a million Catalonians have expressed support for independence, though it's still not clear exactly what Sunday's vote will achieve.

Explore More

Speed Reads

To continue reading this article...

Create a free account

Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.

Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.

Cancel or pause at any time.

Already a subscriber to The Week?

Unlimited website access is included with Digital and Print + Digital subscriptions.
with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.

Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.