Ten years ago the Catalans’ unease over their hollowed- out autonomy reached a tipping point as more and more of them opted for independence instead, a ground-breaking move since self-government inside Spain had always been Catalonia’s aim during the past five centuries, two brief independence periods under France’s protection excepted (1641-1659, 1810-1812).
This powerful grass-roots pro-independence movement scared the mainstream “catalanist” parties: it was not controlled by them and affected a waxing number of their voters, tempted to search political alternatives.
