Catalonia, a region in the northeast corner of Spain, recently declared that it was seeking independence from Spain. Catalonia’s fight for freedom, which has lasted almost three centuries, has hit the country with great impact in the last two weeks because of Catalonia’s great desire for “nation” status and a break from heavy taxes.

“My government’s priority is to intensively seek the path to dialogue,” President Carles Puigdemont said. “We want to talk, just as strong democracies do, about the existing problem that the majority of the Catalan people want to continue the path as an independent country in the European framework.”

Catalonia is highly industrialized and is the richest region in Spain. They account for 16 percent of the population and 20 percent of the economy. The problem is that Catalonians have complained of paying much higher taxes than they get back in the form of services such as schools and hospitals.

On Oct. 1, Catalonia held independence polls where people could vote as to if they favored independence or not. Following that, Spain responded that such polls were illegal and then sent troops in the area to stop the polls and arrest pro-independence officials. According to the department of health, 761 have been injured as a result of the violence.  

The European Union has said they believe that Spain should stay united and Catalonia shouldn’t be separate, but they also believe that it is an internal problem that should be up to Spain and Catalonia to figure out and resolve. According to some E.U. counties though, they will never recognize a newly independent Catalonia. President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker told the Washington Post that an independent Catalonia would have problems with the rest of the European Union.

“If there were to be a ‘yes’ vote in favor of Catalan independence, then we will respect that opinion,” Juncker said. “But Catalonia will not be able to be an E.U. member state on the day after such a vote.”

Now Catalonia’s leader has avoided clarifying certain intentions regarding independence. Technically, Catalonia should deserve the right to split from Spain because the vote for independence was 90 percent. On the other hand though, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned that if Catalonia declared to split, he would invoke punishments in Spain’s constitution. This would allow the government to take apart the Catalan administration so they would have no possible way of declaring independence.