CATALONIA -- BBC News - Is Spain inflating the Catalonia souffle?
Until a few years ago, support for Catalan independence from Spain - independentisme - had its own steady niche of around 15% in polls and elections.
Since 2010 it has mushroomed to 45%, 50% - or, in a few polls, nearly 60%. The Catalan independence movement has also broken its own records for the largest entirely peaceful demonstrations in Europe. About 1.5 million people formed a human chain across Catalonia in 2013, and as many as 1.8 million - 23% of the population - formed a giant V (for "vote") across Barcelona in September, to demand the dret a decidir, or "right to decide", in an independence referendum.
This could be, if sustained, a ground-changing transformation. A string of reasons are commonly given for it:
The rejection by Spain's Constitutional Court in 2010 of a reformed Autonomy Statute for Catalonia that seemed to close off all established routes to change
The ongoing argument over whether Catalonia pays more to the Spanish state than it gets back
The financial crisis and austerity, which many Catalans feel are made worse by the financial constraints on Catalonia's regional government, the Generalitat
Catalonia and Spain are moving apart at a fast pace, and very little is being done to bring them back together.
