“’No government in the world’ could tolerate the threatening
of its unity,” said Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister of the E.U. state of
Spain after a week of protests pro and con on whether the region of Catalonia
should secede from the state.[1]
On October 1, 2017, the region had held a referendum on the question in spite
of the efforts of the state police to stop the vote. Ninety percent of the 40%
of the region’s residents voted in favor of breaking off from Spain, but the
active presence of the police means that the results could not be taken as an
accurate reading of what the population of Catalan wanted.
The full essay is at "Spain Measuring the Will of the People."
[1] Patrick
Kingsley and Jason Horowitz, “Amid
Catalan Crisis, Thousands Hold Rallies in Madrid and Barcelona,” The New York Times, October 7, 2017.
