Pro-independence positions have reached their highest level ever in Catalan society, according to quarterly opinion survey by the Opinion Research Centre (CEO, Catalan acronym) of the Catalan government released today. For the first time, independence is the favourite answer for the multioption question about the best model for Catalonia: 34% of people say that Catalonia should be an independent state, while 28.7% would prefer a Catalan state within a Spanish federation. 25.4% want Catalonia to remain an autonomous community, while a further 5.7% would like that the country lost its partial self-government and became a region of Spain.

When the question is put on a "yes-no" basis, the pro-independence picture is still more clear: 51,1% would vote for independence, 21,1% would vote against it and another 21,1% would abstain from voting. A further 5,8% do not know what they would do or rather they do not answer.

If only "yes" and "no" answers are considered, it emerges that pro-independence vote would reach 70.8%, while pro-Spanish unionist vote would fall slightly below 30%. This is a substantial change from the results released in March. Then, secession was supported by some 64% respondents.

Catalan identity growing

The survey also asks about the main identity of Catalans. 52.9% declared themselves as "only Catalan" or "more Catalan than Spanish". Those stating their identity as "as Catalan as Spanish" fall to 37.3% (they were five points stronger three months ago). People declaring themselves as "only Spanish" or "more Spanish than Catalan" slightly grow to 7.5% (up from 5.8% in March).

2,500 people have been interviewed by CEO staff in order to get these results.

Further information:

• Full results on CEO's website.