Catalonia’s leader’s plan to follow the SNP’s playbook

Catalonia’s president Pere Aragones has wanted to win independence from Madrid ever since since joining the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) as a teenager. Despite the obstacles standing in his way, he now seeks inspiration from two votes held in the UK: the Scottish independence referendum and Brexit.

Aragones resumed negotiations with Spain’s socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez last month, almost five years after an illegal referendum on Catalan secession triggered a constitutional crisis. But despite Madrid’s willingness to talk, he faces a Spanish establishment that is as pro-union now as it was in 2017.

Two apparently immovable obstacles stand in the way of those seeking to secure an independent Catalonia: the 1978 Spanish constitution, with its commitment to the ‘indissoluble unity of Spain’, and a prime minister fundamentally opposed to a referendum. But Aragones isn’t deterred: the 39 year-old tells me there are multiple routes to a legal referendum, if only the Spanish establishment shared what he calls the ‘political will’ of the Catalan government.