Catalan leader Artur Mas is pressing ahead with a referendum on independence from Spain, after all.  Yesterday, he announced the planned referendum on 9 November was cancelled.  But now, Mas says the will be a non-binding vote on that date for secession-minded Catalans.

“I don’t consider what happened yesterday as the burial of the consensus in Catalonia,” Mas said as he announced the new plan for a ballot.  “The real adversary isn’t within Catalonia, but it is the Spanish state, which is doing everything possible to deny us the right to vote.”

It’s not clear how the new ballot plan is all that different from the old one, which was condemned by Madrid and ruled illegal by the Constitutional Court.  Mas emphasizes that the new vote is “non-binding”, although the other plan hardly carried the weight of law in the first place.  He added that his government had the right to organize such an expression of popular will and that doing so would not violate Spanish law.

“We have sufficient strength to do what we said we would do, which is to consult the people of Catalonia,” said Mas.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is still willing to negotiate with Mas, but he will not entertain any independence ballots.

“Spain is a democracy and an advanced country, and to comply with the law is an obligation for everybody,” Rajoy said.

Catalonians believe they are not getting their money’s worth out of Madrid, which like every government in the world redistributes tax revenue from wealthier to poorer regions.  Catalonia has 16 percent of the population and produces 19 percent of Spain’s output.