This week a group of pro- independence political parties in Catalonia won enough votes in local elections to gain control of the regional government. Catalonia is one of the country’s wealthiest regions and it has a long history of pro-succession politics. The vote has ignited a fierce debate in Spain over the issue of independence and whether it’s even legally possible for Catalonia to separate from the rest of Spain. The federal government insists it isn’t. We’ll examine the implications of the vote with Luis Corteguera, professor of history at the University of Kansas and author of For the Common Good: Popular Politics in Barcelona, 1580–1640. (Photo: Flickr/steve mcnicholas)