After years of separatist agitation, Catalonia held its most important regional election in recent history on September 27. Preceded by four mass rallies — each assembly hundreds of thousands — and a symbolic referendum in 2014, the Catalan regional government called a snap election with the unequivocal goal of transforming it into a covered, full-fledged plebiscite.

Due to the Spanish government’s opposition to any political solution or referendum, the Catalan government, together with the separatist political parties and organizations, found this mechanism the most valuable one to measure the support for an independent Catalonia.

The momentum of Catalan separatism has been fueled not only by the economic crisis in Spain, but also by the cumulating political frustration among reformist-federalist partisans. Catalonia, an autonomous political entity in decentralized Spain, has over the years aspired to greater levels of self-governance.