Catalonia and Spain are at a crossroads.
The mood is raw and revolutionary.
The cardboard placards stuffed in the town hall
windows showed ballot boxes soaked in blood.
The posters reflect the way the town voted on October one,
overwhelmingly in favour of independence.
-- October the 1st.
This has become an existential struggle.
How you feeling?
A bit worried sometimes.
Sometimes a bit amused.
Amused?
We don't know what will happen but we think it will be
a great day for Catalonia.
This man is the mayor.
Three months on the job, a former geography teacher, he
feels independence is unavoidable, however Madrid responds.
Driving past a building straight into
Catalan flags, he is on his way to the parliament in Barcelona to
witness the big day.
It is inevitable.
You don't know if next week or next month but we will carry
on for the next big step today.
What if they offer you greater autonomy
and more self-rule, is that enough?
Now it is not about the greatest autonomy.
In Barcelona, all eyes are on the president of the Catalan
government at today's Cabinet session.
He could end the night in a police cell p declares independence
out right.
He may want to use words to buy everyone more time.
Or not.
One can never be sure.
In the final hours, the pressure is being piled
on.
For its part the Spanish government has upped the ante, a
fudged declaration is not enough.
Either they clearly were announced any plans towards independence or
we, the central government, will feel compelled to announce normality
on the institutions in Catalonia.
This message or ultimatum has backed up with gunship diplomacy.
Spanish frigates in Barcelona harbour
loitering with intent and cruise ships packed with Spanish police
reinforcements if and when needed.
Also today, pressure from Brussels, more hapless bystander than
mediator, here with an almost desperate plea.
I ask you to respect in your intentions, the
constitutional order and not announce a decision that would make
such a dialogue impossible.
Diversity should not and need not lead to conflict will stop the
consequences would obviously be bad for the Catalans and Spain and the
whole of Europe.
The response from one Catalan balconied...
-- balcony.
Calls for encouragement from the Catalan president outside his
parliament.
Whatever happens tonight, the pitchforks of secession
are unlikely to be put away.
The symbols of the independence movement
which now feels it has momentum on its side.
Every Catalan at once to break away from Madrid there is one
who wants the opposite with matching further.
Whether this is a nation in waiting or not, it is a place
bitterly, if not irreconcilably divided.
CATALONIA - FREI VTR
Well, those demonstrators and tractors you just saw in my piece,
they are still out there, 500 yards from here.
The perimeter around the parliament, with heavy police
presence, is extraordinarily wide but they are worried about friction
in clashes inside the parliament building.
The president was speaking in the last hour.
Let's listen to this one crucial bite of his and
I'll try to translate what it says.
So, importantly, in Catalan, he told
the chamber to applaud that he had a mandate for independence after the
flawed referendum of last week.
However, he was not going to declare independence for at least another
two weeks that's buying everybody crucial breathing space in which
they might negotiate something.
However, the response from the opposition party which is running
the Government in Madrid and is the opposition here in Barcelona was
actually quite critical.
They said, this speech was effectively a coup
detached against Spanish sovereignty.
That is not the way it has been interpreted here.
A tad of confusion.
Let's tried to clear that up with my guest.
*CATALONIADEBATE - leadin
I am joined now by Anna Arqué from the International Commission
of European Citizens.
So, you are not independent yet.
Actually, if we look at recent history in Europe, they have chosen
to follow a different strategy to implement the result.
Eye-macro this was a fudged.
Many had hoped he would stand in Parliament today and
say after this vote we are now an independent sovereign station state
of Catalonia.
He did not do that.
What he chose to do was to put into parliament the official mandate and
recognise that mandate that says that we suspend the effect.
A lot of people would have preferred to him
to take a mandate and say, therefore, I declare the governments
of Catalonia.
I think that this was not that expected.
We expect a declaration of the Government but
also a procedure image dialogue is opened, so we can be effective.
It was like smoking without inhaling,
as it were.
Do you think he backed out of it because he was afraid of
what might happen on the streets can he was afraid to pressure from
Madrid and afraid of pressure from Brussels?
If he was afraid of something, the attitude and the
decisions that have been taken by the Spanish government are
outrageous.
Outrageous.
Appalling.
We cannot accept in Europe that European citizens just
because they go to vote they are being hated by the police and use
file and is.
Under the Constitution of Spain, this referendum was
illegal, wasn't it?
I cannot agree with that.
It is the interpretation of some politicians.
If we look at the Spanish constitution, there are
some articles that they ratified, all the international treaties of
the Spanish kingdoms signed before doing the Constitution.
If not they could not have been announced
finally democracies.
This story is not going away.
It has been suspended for some time.
2 million people out there think you have the
right to independence.
Where does this go?
Obviously this goes to some days and weeks in which we will see
how the strategy of the current government of Catalonia succeeds in
the implementation and effectiveness.
This is the people mandate and not the mandate of four
people inside parliament.