Poll finds 43 percent Catalans favour independence

Nearly 43 percent of Catalans would vote for independence from Spain if there was a snap referendum in the northeastern region, a survey showed Thursday.

A total 42.9 percent of those polled by the Centre of Opinion Studies said they would vote for an independent Catalonia and 28.2 percent said they would vote against.

Another 23.3 said they would abstain and 4.4 percent were undecided, according to the telephone survey of 2,500 people commissioned by the region’s nationalist government.

The survey reported a 2.47 percent margin of error.

The government of Catalonia, a wealthy region which counts Barcelona as its capital, has been led since November by Artur Mas, leader of a conservative nationalist coalition, Convergencia i Unio.

In Spain only the state has the right to call a referendum, not the regional governments.

The survey, published in the Spanish media Thursday, posed the question: “If a referendum was held tomorrow to decide on the independence of Catalonia, what would you do?”