NEARLY half of Catalunya's residents would be against the idea of their region becoming a separate country, despite their government's determination to declare independence unilaterally if it wins its referendum on October 1.
According to Catalunya's Centre for Opinion Studies (CEO), part of its regional government, those who would vote 'no' to independence have risen from 48.5% of eligible voters – anyone native to or living in Catalunya aged 16 or over – to 49.4%.
Those in favour of secession have dropped from 44.3% to 41.1%.
A total of 7.8% remain unsure which way to vote, and 1.7% did not give a response or preferred not to say.
Previous figures showed 5.5% did not know, and 1.6% did not respond.
This is based upon a survey of 1,500 between June 26 and July 11.
The result comes as a surprise to the general public in Spain, who believed the central government's persistent refusal to even discuss or acknowledge the subject and reiteration that legal action would be taken if it was put to the vote was pushing Catalunya's people more towards the independence idea as a form of protest.
It has long been thought that the right-wing PP's closed stance, and its criminalising 'democracy' has been creating bad feeling and anti-Spain sentiments among the catalanes, an attitude which would probably not be there if the government had been open to the region's concerns or allowed at least a non-binding opinion poll to go ahead.
The majority of those questioned – 1,121 – were based in the province of Barcelona, home to Catalunya's largest and Spain's second-largest city, with much smaller numbers in Girona, Tarragona and Lleida.
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