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    Flags, passion and anger: reporting from a divided Spain

    In a little more than a year as Madrid correspondent I have reported on terrorism and Brexit: but nothing has shaken Spain like the upheaval in Catalonia
    by Sam Jones Nov 25, 2017 4 minutes
    People wave 'Esteladas' (pro-independence Catalan flags) as they gather during a pro-independence demonstration, on September 11, 2017 in Barcelona during the National Day of Catalonia, the 'Diada.' Hundreds of thousands of Catalans were expected to rally to demand their region break away from Spain, in a show of strength three weeks ahead of a secession referendum banned by Madrid. The protest coincides with Catalonia's national day, the 'Diada,' which commemorates the fall of Barcelona in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714 and the region's subsequent loss of institutions and freedoms. / AFP PHOTO / PAU BARRENA / Getty Images

    At 7.50am on 1 October, a car tore down a narrow street in Barcelona’s gothic quarter, scattering the crowd that had been waiting in the dark and drizzle outside the Cervantes primary school for almost three hours.

    The panic – this was only six weeks after August’s atrocities – soon gave way to elation, and the screams to cheers. The car, it transpired, was delivering ballot boxes, their arrival greeted with rapture and perhaps even a touch of disbelief.

    Here at last was the moment that half of Catalonia’s 7.5 million inhabitants had dreamed of, and half had dreaded: their chance to vote on becoming an independent state and witness the

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