Over 100 international observers will be following tomorrow's referendum in Catalonia

Over 100 international observers, including a parliamentary delegation from 16 European countries and Israel, are in Catalonia to follow Sunday's referendum on independence. Today, the Catalan Foreign Affairs Minister, Raül Romeva, received them all in the government headquarters. Among the observers are many academics from around the world who are interested in the Catalan process, such as Philadelphia's Bryn Mawr College Professor H. Rosi Song. "It's not an issue of legality, but of democracy, freedom and legitimacy," Rosi Song told ACN.

According to the Professor of Spanish studies, the measures taken by Madrid to stop the referendum "remind us of other historical times," such as the latter years of the Franco dictatorship. "It is difficult not to draw parallels," between what is happening now and then, she admitted.

According to her, since 2012 it became "very clear" that in Catalonia there was a strong "desire and need to talk about the relationship" with the Spanish State. Rosi Song said she was very satisfied to be in Catalonia to observe the referendum as it offers her the opportunity to grasp "a sense of what is actually happening here". 

"For the people outside, the impression is that there is a lot of tension. But life goes on, people are out, they are joyful," she said, describing the atmosphere in the street.

Also coming from America, Mary Ann Newmann, from the Farragut Fund for Catalan Culture in the US, said that the Catalan independence process is attracting a growing interest in her country. "The struggle is understood as one for democratic rights and, generally, the media portray it like as such," Mary Ann Newmann said to ACN. "People's reactions are very positive," she added.

The expert said that the Catalan question is seen from the US as one of "democracy and the rights of peoples to decide their own future, the rights of sovereignty… And the reaction of the Spanish government has contributed to that impression, because no one understands why there is no dialogue," she said.