54.7% of Catalans would vote for independence in a referendum

Barcelona (ACN).- According to a poll from the Catalan Centre for Polling (CEO) released on Friday, 54.7% of Catalans would vote “yes” to independence while 22.1% would vote “no” and 15.7% are undecided. The ‘Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió’ (CEO) is a body managed by the Catalan Government. The CEO poll shows similar percentages than the other polls issued in the last few months from several different institutions and companies. Percentages do not register significant variations over the last year, oscillating between 52% to 57% for independence, and 21% to 24% for the “no” option. According to the CEO, this would show the maturity of the independence debate in Catalonia. On top of this, if abstention was not taken into consideration and only cast votes were considered, the “yes” option would win a hypothetical referendum with a percentage around 70%.

Furthermore, this Friday’s poll indicates that for the first time, independence is the clear preferred alternative among the possible formulas for the relationship between Catalonia and Spain. Independence would be the preferred scenario for 48.5% of Catalans, while those in favour of a federal Spain with Catalonia having greater powers represent 21.3% of the interviewees. Finally, the Catalans that prefer maintaining the current status quo would be 18.6% and 5.4% would like Catalonia to be a mere region within a centralised Spain. In the last year, the percentage of Catalans choosing independence as their main option has passed from 34.5% to 48.5%, which is the highest percentage ever.

The CEO Director, Jordi Argelaguet, stated that the percentages are only indicative at this stage, since an independence referendum has not been called yet and the exact question has yet to be announced. According to him, if these two factors were set, the results from such a poll would be even more indicative. However, he stated that he does not think that it would lead to a radical change in the trends shown by the poll.