BARCELONA: Catalans fired up by Scotland’s independence referendum massed in Barcelona’s streets in red and yellow shirts on Thursday, forming a giant “V” to demand a vote on breaking away from Spain.

Drawn up in lines of red and yellow to form stripes with the Catalan colours, hundreds of thousands of flag-waving demonstrators of all ages massed in the sunshine to mark Catalonia’s national day, the Diada.

The commemoration, which marks the Spanish conquest of Catalonia in 1714, was more sensitive than ever this year, coming amid calls for a November 9 vote on Catalan independence.

“November 9 we will vote. November 9 we will win,” read a banner at the head of Thursday’s rally, which filled two converging central avenues in Barcelona.

Scotland’s September 18 referendum has put the wind in the sails of Catalans who want full sovereignty for their region in the northeast of Spain, a move fiercely opposed by the central government.

“Nothing would thrill me more than for my first vote to be for the independence of Catalonia,” said one demonstrator, 16-year-old Laura Sanchez Lora.

“Now more than ever, Catalonia needs a state that will defend its language, its culture and its economy,” she said, waving a Catalan independence flag: red and white stripes plus a white star.

As the V-for-vote formed to the singing of a choir and cheers from the crowd, a girl at the head of the rally placed a paper in a symbolic ballot box.

Spain’s national government has branded the November vote illegal and vowed to block it, but Catalonia’s regional president Artur Mas has vowed to push on with the plan.

“If a nation such as Scotland can vote, why not Catalonia?” he said.

“If the Catalan population wants to vote on its future, it’s practically impossible to stop that forever.”

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014