Under the heat of the Barcelona sun, a pro-independence party, Together for Catalonia, is holding a campaign event ahead of Sunday’s general election in Spain.
About 40 people are gathered to hear speeches before a video message is shown, recorded by the former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont.
He lambasts the Spanish state, comparing its lack of democratic credentials to Hungary and Poland, and calls for an independent Catalan republic.
It is a low-key event compared to the massive demonstrations that led up to Catalonia’s attempt to secede in 2017.
The Spanish authorities responded to that bid by clamping down with police action and temporarily imposing direct rule in the region, while Mr Puigdemont fled to Belgium, where he has remained ever since.
But this Sunday’s Spanish general election could have a major impact on the country’s simmering territorial issue. The result, many believe, will decide whether the relationship between Catalonia and Madrid improves or flares up once again.
“If the right wins, the situation could complicate in Catalonia,” said Lola García, a journalist at La Vanguardia newspaper who wrote an account of the 2017 crisis.
“We might well go back to seeing heightened tensions there.”
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared improving the febrile atmosphere in Catalonia a priority when he first took office in 2018, and again when he formed a new coalition government in 2020.
With that aim in mind, his administration pardoned nine politicians who had been jailed for their role in the 2017 independence bid.
It also reformed the penal code, eliminating the crime of sedition and modifying the crime of misuse of public funds – both of which changes benefitted Catalan leaders who were facing legal action.
Meanwhile, Mr Sánchez’s government has also engaged in slow-moving talks with the pro-independence Catalan administration aimed at resolving the territorial problem.
“Today the situation in Catalonia is nothing like it was in 2017, 2018 or 2019,” Mr Sánchez said recently, describing the Socialists as “a party that defends the union of Spain”.
However, reducing the tensions in Catalonia has come at a cost for Mr Sánchez.
The conservative People’s Party (PP) and far-right Vox have repeatedly attacked him for making concessions to nationalists and for receiving the parliamentary support of the pro-independence Catalan Republican Left (ERC).
