BARCELONA, Spain — Pro-independence activists asked citizens of Spain's second largest city on Sunday whether their northeastern region of Catalonia should seek to become an autonomous nation.
Barcelona — the capital of Catalonia — follows in the footsteps of other regional cities, towns and villages that have held similar informal, nonbinding votes, which gave the idea of independence lukewarm approval.
On a sunny spring day, the Catalan pro-independence groups behind the latest referendum said they hope to improve on the meager 20 percent turnout of previous ballots.
Maria Garcia, a 79-year-old retiree, said she voted "yes" to independence to allow Catalans greater control of their own finances. "Spain’s central government takes more than it gives back," she said.
Catalans are proud of their cultural identity — centered on the distinct Catalan language — and their thrifty, hardworking nature which accounts for around one-fifth of Spain’s economy.
The region’s nearly 7 million people — Spain’s total population is 47 million — have long maintained they contribute more than they get credit for and that central governments based in Madrid have discriminated against them.
Along with the Basque region, Catalonia was heavily oppressed under the 1939-1975 dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, which made it a crime to speak Catalan and Basque languages in the interest of promoting Spain as a Madrid-run Castilian-speaking unified country.
Successive Spanish governments have gradually granted a large degree of self-rule to the regions since Franco’s death and the restoration of democracy.
Catalonia won even more self-rule in 2006 with a new autonomy charter, gaining control over judicial, infrastructure and other issues. However, the Constitutional Court ruled in July 2010 that Catalonia could not legally call itself a nation, dealing a blow to a pro-independence campaign that had used "We decide, we are a nation" as its slogan.
The "Barcelona Decides" poll organizers said that since the first vote in 2009 a total of 600,000 Catalan citizens in 532 cities and towns have been unofficially consulted. The 2009 sample taken in 167 towns indicated 94 percent of voters favored independence.
Skeptics have called the nonbinding vote an exercise in futility.
"I think the referendum is theater put on by politicians," said lawyer Juan Jose Millan, 39. "I am not for independence, just like the majority of Catalans. Independence would not solve real problems like unemployment."
