Catalan poll: 80% want a mutually agreed independence referendum with Spain

A large majority of Catalans want a referendum on independence in agreement with Spain, with support standing at 80.4%, according to a poll by Catalana newspaper Ara. The agreed vote draws support from most pro-independence supporters (97%) and unionists (61%), including 71% of citizens who voted for Spain’s ruling Socialist party in the last Catalan election.

In a belligerent parliamentary speech last week, Spanish president Pedro Sánchez urged pro-independence parties to make a proposal backed by at least 75% of all Catalans, suggesting that an agreed referendum on independence did not have enough supports.

Even a fraction of voters from the two forces with a hardest stance against independence, Ciutadans and People’s Party, would support a mutually agreed referendum: 34.4% and 23.7%.

Still, only 58% of lawmakers in the Catalan parliament demand an independence referendum in agreement with Spain, as the rejection of this possibility is unanimous among unionist MPs.