An ecstatic victory rally or a demonstration of anger?

Hundreds of thousands of Catalan separatists will gather as a tense vote looms

Place de Catalunya is the heart of Spain’s secondlargest city. The open plaza is surrounded by trees that offer shelter to those who rest beneath on park benches, weary tourists, the homeless, those sleeping off the lows of too many or the highs of too much.

Hawkers peddle knock-off handbags and Barcelona football shirts while others sell corn to feed the birds — not at “tuppence a bag” as Mary Poppins sang — but at €2 a bag.

Amid all the comings and goings, the sleeping, the gawking and the hawking, there is the clanging of scaffolding and the hammering of building a stage underway.

Vans from media companies from across Spain are preparing their sound and lighting checks, ready for the broadcasts that will reach into every Spanish home and to television viewers around the world.

One television reporter, his top half coiffed, suited and tied, his bottom, off-camera half, in scruffy jeans and trainers, walks talking to himself, preparing his lines for an upcoming live report.

It is here, today, that hundreds of thousands of Catalan separatists will gather to hear their political leadership lament on a referendum than never took place. Or they will hear that despite the neofascist efforts of the Madrid government, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and the Spanish Constitutional Court that declared the vote illegal, those gathered here are witnessing the birth of a new nation. No one knows right now. “Yes, I will cast my vote for independence,” 32-year-old Sofia Perez from Girona told Gulf News. “We have our own language. We have our own culture. We are a strong nation with a strong economy. We never belonged to Spain.”

The secretary says that no matter what happens and even if the regional government is suspended or arrested, nothing will take away from Catalonia becoming independent. “We can never rest until we are a separate nation,” she says.