What Catalans and Scots say about state of EU unity

“Freedom for Political Prisoners and Exiles” reads a banner across the balcony of the government building in Barcelona. It is written in Catalan, and in English — the latter to ease accessibility to the message for an international audience. It is not written in Spanish. Barcelona, and Catalonia, the province of which it is the capital, voted to secede from Spain last October. The Catalonia-Spain dispute dates back to before the Spanish Civil War. This most recent and most seri