The Spanish Court Decision That Sparked the Modern Catalan Independence Movement
The community has a long history of autonomy—but one incident in particular helped set the stage for Sunday’s referendum.
In 2010 Spain’s Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling that inadvertently laid the ground for Sunday’s independence referendum in Catalonia.
At issue was the , a law passed by the legislature in the autonomous Spanish community, that was then approved by Spain’s parliament and later ratified in a referendum by Catalan voters. Almost immediately, the Popular Party, the center-right group that now governs the country, challenged the statute (parliament was then dominated by the Socialists) before
