News

Support to independence outweighs rejection in Euskadi

Government survey finds that 74% of citizens want a vote on the country's future to be held · If the referendum was organized, 39% say they would vote "yes" to independence, 29% would vote "no"

35% of Euskadi citizens agree with Basque independence, while 33% reject it, according to a December survey by the Basque Government's Sociological Survey Office. A further 20% say they could favor independence depending on circumstances, while another 12% do not know or refuse to answer.

According to the Sociological Survey Office data, this is the first time since 1998 that support to independence outweighs opposition. For the first time too, those in favour of seceding from Spain are the largest group (see picture and click on it to enlarge; green line is for independence supporters, red for opponents, blue for "dependings", yellow for don't-knows).

Large pro-referendum majority

On the possibility of holding a vote on the future of Euskadi, 51% say they want it irrespective if the Spanish government agrees or not, 23% say they want it only if agreed with Spain, and 16% say they do not want the vote to be held.

If an Euskadi-Spanish government agreement was ever reached, 39% say they would vote for independence, 29% against it, 20% do not know or refuse to answer, and 12% would abstain.

Excluding those who say they would abstain, support to independence is now at 44% while rejection is at 33%. The undecided are the remaining 23%, and would thus hold the key to victory.

When asked on other similar processes in Europe, 73% believe the London-Edinburgh agreement on the referendum for Scottish independence was good. As regards Catalonia, 39% say the Spanish government should have accepted the independence vote and its outcome, while a further 29% believe Madrid should have offered enlarged self-government to the Catalans in exchange for not holding the vote.

Basque identity largely dominant

The survey also asked on citizens' sense of identity. 28% say they only feel Basque, while a further 21% declare they feel more Basque than Spanish. 34% report to considere themselves as Basque as Spanish, 4% say they feel more Spanish than Basque, and 6% declare they only feel Spanish.

The addition of predominantly Basque answers (49%) is the highest one of all the survey's historical series, starting from 1995.