The 2008 financial crash and Spanish public spending cuts fuelled local resentment and separatism. There is a widespread feeling that the central government takes much more in taxes than it gives back.

The push for independence crystallized during the fallout of the global financial crisis in 2008. Some Catalans believe the country’s rising unemployment levels and languishing economy was pulling the region down, and they began to seek greater autonomy from Madrid.

The Catalonia institutions have been asking for a long time for a new arrangement, a new constitutional arrangements allowing Catalonia to be recognized as a nation, allowing Catalonia to have a new financial system, and to get more powers in international sphere.

On independence: "Catalonia is more likely to adapt and succeed if it is independent; it is also the only way to preserve the Catalan culture, history, identity, and language."