BARCELONA, Spain — Hundreds of thousands of people waved flags and joined hands across Catalonia on Wednesday, in a show of popular force that Catalan leaders hope will revive their push for Spain’s economically most powerful region to secede from the rest of the country.
Edu Bayer for the International Herald Tribune
Pomp and cultural pride at a ceremony celebrating what Catalonia’s residents regard as their national day.
Edu Bayer for the International Herald Tribune
The human chain on Wednesday ran for 250 miles.
Edu Bayer for the International Herald Tribune
Secessionists are seeking a referendum.
The human chain was formed on what Catalonia’s 7.5 million inhabitants celebrate as their national day. Last year, hundreds of thousands gathered on the same day in Barcelona, in northeastern Spain, in what was the largest separatist event to date.
Organizers of this year’s event insisted that even more people joined the demonstration, but official government figures were not immediately available. The chain on Wednesday ran for 250 miles through villages in the Pyrenees, close to the border with France, all the way to resorts on the Mediterranean Sea.
The turnout served as a stinging reminder for the central government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy that the separatist push in Catalonia remains one of Madrid’s main domestic challenges, even though Mr. Rajoy has repeatedly warned Catalonia that any independence referendum would violate Spanish law.
Having regrouped after a setback in regional elections in November, Artur Mas, the president of the Catalan government, now appears as determined as ever to push his secession agenda. On Wednesday he told a briefing of foreign correspondents that “there is a Catalan road map that is perfectly established and that we’re following step by step,” all the way toward forming a new state. That road map “goes through the ballot box,” he added.
Mr. Mas shot to the forefront of Spanish politics with last year’s demonstration, organized as a show of popular discontent and separatist aspiration after Mr. Rajoy refused to grant Catalonia the favorable fiscal treatment it demanded. Catalonia’s leaders, who in conversation talk about Spain as if it is a separate country, remain determined to succeed in their separatist push.
Mr. Mas’s setback in November, when voters punished him for shifting attention away from his government’s unpopular austerity measures and other pressing economic issues, gave him unexpected breathing space. It also forced Mr. Mas to focus on Catalonia’s messy internal politics and form a coalition with lawmakers who share his separatist ambitions but not his economic agenda.
He and his parliamentary coalition partners say they are committed to holding a referendum next year, but their ability to stick to that pledge is far from certain, as is the shape that vote will take.
Many participants in Wednesday’s human chain, some wearing the red and yellow flag of Catalonia, said they trusted that their politicians would eventually force a referendum on the region’s independence.
“I want my first-ever vote to be one for independence,” said Judit Buxeda, who recently turned 18, the minimum voting age in Spain. “We want to be in charge and decide how to promote our own history, language and culture without being told by Spain how to do it.”
Mr. Mas has recently left the door open for further negotiations with Madrid, despite Mr. Rajoy’s refusal to cede any ground. This month, after holding what was meant to be a secret meeting with Mr. Rajoy in Madrid, Mr. Mas suggested that a Catalan vote might end up taking place as late as 2016, in the form of a regional election, rather than meeting the 2014 referendum deadline to which he agreed with his pro-independence coalition partners.
While couched in high-minded ideals, much of the recent feuding between Madrid and Catalonia has centered on the more mundane issue of whether relatively affluent Catalonia’s somewhat oversize share of the national budget should be reduced.
At the same time, Catalonia’s own financial mismanagement has come under the spotlight. Catalan politicians are entangled in corruption scandals linked to the construction bubble that burst in 2008. Last year, the government of Mr. Mas failed to meet the budget deficit target set by Madrid. It has also been struggling to reduce about $66 billion in public debt.
In Catalonia’s largest city, Barcelona, there were two separate human chains, one circling the Sagrada Familia, the unfinished basilica built by Antoni Gaudí. Large crowds also gathered in some of Barcelona’s main squares.
“Some people in Spain and around the world were saying that the separatist impulse of last year was dying down or changing, but this is a very visual way to show that this is far from being the case,” said Alfred Bosch, leader in the Spanish Parliament of the left-leaning Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party, which has long pushed for independence.
While the mass gathering came to a peaceful end in Catalonia, a group of extremists, using tear gas, attacked a Catalan cultural center in Madrid in the early evening, leaving five people lightly injured, according to Spanish news reports.
