BARCELONA, Spain — In an auditorium as chilly as a meat locker, in a tough working-class neighborhood, Catalonia’s amateur boxing championships were staged here over the weekend. In the ring, the pugilists pounded each other as their trainers shouted from the corners, some in Spanish, others in Catalan: “Hit, hit, jab, finish him!”
But after the bell rang and the three-round fights were over, the exhausted boxers embraced.
The audience, the competitors and the coaches represented the gamut of emotions and politics swirling in Catalonia on the eve of Thursday’s early election to replace the secessionists and others tossed out of office by Madrid after a chaotic referendum and unilateral declaration of independence in October — events declared illegal by the constitutional courts, the central government and even Spain’s King Felipe VI.
In the stands around the boxing ring, there were staunch pro-Spain unionists beside pro-independence Catalans — as well as plenty of people who were sick of the whole debate over whether the well-to-do Catalonia region, with its unique language and culture, should remain a part of Spain or go its own way.
As much as the various sides disagreed about the coming parliamentary vote, they appeared to share a sense that the people of Catalonia are more divided than ever — and that Thursday’s election, described by pollsters as too close to call, is unlikely to settle matters.
This idea of a fractured, weakened Spain going into 2018 worries Europe, which faces its own surge of nationalist, populist movements.
“Society is broken,” said Rafa Martin, 55, owner of the Barcelona Verdun gym and the son of political refugees from the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.
“There is more hate; things that were underground, that were unspoken” are again said in the streets, he said.
Martin explained: “Anyone who thinks differently is bad. If you want a united Spain, you’re a fascist. If you want an independent Catalonia, you’re a traitor.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his government, evoking the untested powers of the 1978 constitution, called the early election in Catalonia after dissolving the region’s parliament Oct. 27.
Rajoy has urged Catalans to oust the separatist politicians, telling supporters of his conservative Popular Party in Barcelona that he wants to see a massive turnout to say “no” to their cause.
The former president of the Catalonia region, Carles Puigdemont, fled across the border and into self-exile in Belgium in late October. Now he is seeking to return to power, addressing crowds back home via teleconference links from an office in Brussels.
