Catalonia takes a breather — but this week could bring its independence bid to a boil

BARCELONA, Spain - In Barcelona's medieval Gothic Quarter, the enormous crowds of demonstrators who thronged the narrow streets a day earlier had vanished, supplanted by cafe-goers and tourists and shoppers. It might have been any languid Sunday in one of Europe's most charming cities, with friends sitting in a neighborhood bar talking politics.

But that would be leaving aside the scrawled notes affixed to police barricades, the wary-looking guards in front of City Hall and the seat of the regional Catalan government, the single-starred regional flags fluttering from metal balcony railings - and the knowledge that this week, Catalonia's long-simmering secessionist struggle might well come to a full boil.

Like 16 other Spanish regions, this triangular wedge of northeastern