This archive report was first published on 26 October 2019.
Published on October 26, 2019, a regional government survey in Catalonia showed that 44 percent of the 7.5 million people in the region are in favour of separating from Spain, while 48.3 percent are against.
The platform, led by Fernando Sanchez Costa, represents those who would rather stay part of Spain. Costa told AFP, "Those who oppose independence are a majority, and that is an important message for Catalonia, for Spain and the world, where often separatism is associated with Catalonia."
On Sunday, a protest coincided with the two-year anniversary of the Catalan parliament's abortive declaration of independence, which triggered Spain's worst political crisis in decades.
Following a high-profile trial, the Supreme Court jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders on October 14, 2019, triggering a wave of unrest that has left the region gripped by a climate of fear.
Costa said, "It's important to go back out and say: that's enough violence and confrontation." He added that most people had realised that the possibility of separation was unrealistic since the failed independence bid of 2017.
"No one in Catalonia believes anymore that the possibility of independence exists. The majority of the separatist camp accepts that we have to enter a new stage and that the unilateral path (to independence) is not possible," he said.
Costa warned that the current regional president Quim Torra and his predecessor Carles Puigdemont were determined to maintain the confrontation and tension, causing a lot of damage to Catalan society.
"Don't insist on the politics of confrontation, which is hurting us so much," he said. "We must listen to the social majority in Catalonia that opposes independence, whose emotions are also running high."
Dialogue was crucial, he said, adding that both the Spanish government and the regional authorities in Catalonia needed to do some soul searching with respect to plurality.
"The path is one of double recognition: that Spain as a nation recognise better its internal plurality... and that in Catalonia, for the first time, the regional government recognise the internal plurality," he said.
