美国国家公共电台 NPR After Barcelona Attacks, Catalans Look Ahead To Independence Vote

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Many Europeans have become accustomed to seeing candlelight vigils and piles of flowers in city squares - memorials to terror victims. They're in Paris, Berlin, London and now Barcelona, where ISIS plowed 1 a van into pedestrians 2 last month.

As Lauren Frayer reports from that city, the commemorations in Barcelona have been different. They're colored by the region's upcoming independence referendum.

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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Chanting) No tinc por. No tinc por.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE 3: No tinc por. I am not afraid, they chant in a local Catalan language at vigils and marches across Barcelona since ISIS killed 16 people in and around the city. When Spain's king joined marchers last weekend in solidarity 4 with the terror victims, the tone changed.

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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Foreign language chanted).

FRAYER: Locals booed and yelled at him to get out and go home to Madrid. Catalans are using that refrain - I am not afraid - to express defiance 5 not only against terrorists but also against the Spanish state. Separatists rule this northeast region of Catalonia, which has its own culture. The ISIS attacks hit during a campaign for independence. So when Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy arrived several hours after the attacks, he called for unity 6.

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MARIANO RAJOY: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: That infuriated independence activist 7 Liz Castro, an American convert to the Catalan cause.

LIZ CASTRO: Right after the attack, a lot of people in the independence movement had this feeling that the attack was being used by the Madrid press and politicians as a way of attacking independence. There were immediately editorials that said Catalans must give up this silly game of independence because this is really serious.

FRAYER: Catalan leaders say they will not give up. They'll go ahead with a referendum on October 1 and declare independence from Spain if the yes votes win. Madrid says the whole thing is unconstitutional.

The terror attacks have given Catalan and Spanish politicians one more thing to argue about. They trade barbs 8 daily over which level of government - regional or national - is to blame for failing to detect ISIS militants 9 before it was too late. When Catalonia's interior minister, Joaquim Forn, read out the names of the terror victims, he made a distinction between Catalans and Spanish nationals.

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JOAQUIM FORN: (Foreign language spoken).

FRAYER: "It was as if they are already from two different countries." Meanwhile, rank-and-file police officers are trying to get to the bottom of how a Muslim imam managed to quickly and quietly radicalize 12 local youth into ISIS attackers. Inspector 10 Albert Oliva with the Catalan regional police says the regional and national forces have actually been working well together.

ALBERT OLIVA: (Through interpreter) Within 15 minutes of the attack, we set up a coordination 11 center together so to color the police response with controversies 12 and accusations 13. That's the unfortunate work of politicians and the media.

FRAYER: Politicians and the media exploited the deadliest Islamist attack in Spain, the Madrid train bombings in 2004. Those attacks came days before national election, and the party favored to win lost. The Catalonia attacks happened six weeks before an independence referendum. And it's unclear how voters will react at the ballot 14 box this time. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer in Barcelona.