The EU aren't interested in Catshit.

Yes there is and most of it is a lot of tosh. It starts going downhill after he claims that Luxembourg is Europe’s smallest nation. It isn’t, Malta is. He has a fixation about Franco and so called fascist parties, forgetting that the man died over 40 years ago. He claims that the Ciudadanos leaders have fascist family members whilst forgetting to mention Marta Rovira, leader of the ERC Patty whose grandparents were fascist Lord Mayors. He claims that Ciudadanos is a substitute for a right wing party but conveniently forgets to mention that just over a year ago they signed a pact of alliance with the socialist PSOE party. And as for Albert Rivera being regularly seen naked .........please ! That was a campaign poster when the only people who knew him were his parents and neighbours.

Plenty to read here: http://www.matthewparish.com/news.html

Of course the other question that should be asked is whether the parties that support independence will accept the results if they lose votes and the combination of all of them is less than 50% of the total votes cast.

Madrid will have no alternative than to accept the election results. What the parties that seek independence will do if by forming a coalition they have a majority in the Catalan parliament, is another matter. They know that if they declare independence again Madrid will impose direct rule, but they will probably gamble that it will be worth while hoping that a new central government will let them nearly have their own way. Unfortunately talking will not solve the problem, only pretty drastic measures will. Shortly all eyes will be on Macron to see how he approaches the Corse problem.

Henry: I agree with Richard although I think his second paragraph is somewhat misleading. I read it to imply that if the pro-independence parties win, Madrid will not respect the election results (or maybe I’m mis-reading). That isn’t so, Madrid have to respect the results just as the pro-independence parties will also have to respect the Constitution and not attempt another UDI. If they don’t comply with that then as Richard says article 155 will continue to be applied. Proper dialogue is desperately needed as Catalan society is now so divided, but I don’t hold out much hope in the foreseeable future.

Good question, which the Catalan politicians are asking themselves as well. If this did occur, Madrid has already threatened to impose direct rule using article 155 of the Constitution, which it has already imposed temporarily, on a permanent basis. What would happen if there is a change of government in Madrid is anyone’s guess.

V. Fair enough but what happens if pro-independence politicians are elected yet again,including members of the former government,who indicate that they are going to stand and may yet be able to do so.?

V, correct. And just to refresh other readers memories, Spain has 17 autonomous regions ( 15 on the mainland plus the Canary and Balearic Islands ) each of which has its own parliament and government. A bit like Scotland but multiplied by 17. Calaluña though, has a lot more local power than Ms Sturgeon could even dream for.

Henry, it is not a referendum! The Spanish government has called elections to the Catalan parliament. These are not to determine whether Catalonia wishes to remain part of Spain or not, although the separatists would like to think they are. They are to elect a new Catalan Government. A referendum is something quite different and the Spanish government is certainly not going to call one on the terms you suggest as they consider that the Constitution doesn’t allow it.