On Sunday night, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, accused Catalan secessionists of "indoctrinating children, harassing judges and journalists." Even then, the sniping resumed within days, with Catalan police complaining that Madrid had deprived them of intelligence from Europol, the pan-European law enforcement agency. Centuries of mistrustPeople hold Catalan flags as they listen to Catalan President Carles Puigdemont speak as they await the referendum result. But Catalan governments always wanted more, and support for outright independence reached a peak during the country's economic crisis from 2008 to 2012. Charles Powell, history professor at the Universidad CEU-San Pablo, says the Catalan calculation is "nonsense" but the region receives less investment than its size would warrant.

Source: CNN October 02, 2017 10:18 UTC