I must explain why I have used the expression “coup d’état” to describe what is happening in Catalonia. PhotoSince Spain became democratic, the Catalan government has had exclusive control over vital matters like education, language, culture and public works. At home we speak Catalan and Spanish, as in many other Catalan homes. Despite its countless defects, a united Europe is, at least for a leftist Europeanist like me, the only reasonable utopia. That is what, ultimately, being Spanish means to me: a peculiar way of being European.

Source: New York Times December 16, 2017 19:30 UTC