Matthew Tree

I have been an English resident of Catalonia for nearly a quarter of a century. During this time, I confess that my own personal perception- free of any politically orientated thinking - has left me with the absolute convction that all this time I have not been living in Spain, not as most people understand this word. And that I have been living in an inexplicably unrecognised, once independent country going by the full name of the Principality of Catalonia.

I have also observed over the years how central power in Madrid has consistently tried to sideline and ridicule Catalan language culture, Catalan political and economic aspirations and the very idea of the existence of Catalonia as an area in some way different from the rest of Spain.

I have also been a witness to a persistent anti-Catalan prejudice in the Madrid-based media which has created an atmosphere that is little short of xenophobic in Spain-outside-Catalonia, to the extent that Catalan goods have been boycotted on several different occasions, and Catalans occasionally refused service in cafés or openly insulted on the street, simply for speaking in Catalan to each other.

In short - and extensive reading of both Spanish and Catalan history would confirm this - the Castilian nation-building project which began in the 18th century, has not succeeded in incorporating Catalonia into its vision of what Spain should be like. I am not a nationalist, but I'm not blind either: Spain as it is currently structured, simply does not know how to cope with Catalonia, and all the evidence suggests that it never will. For this reason, I would welcome an independent Catalan state within the framework of the EU. Such a state would be better for both Spain and Catalonia, would internationalise an as yet little-known but extraordinararily vital linguistic culture, and would put an end to what is at the moment the greatest political and cultural anomaly on the European continent.

Matthew Tree, writer.