Collateral damage from Barcelona attack: Relations between Catalonia and Madrid

Terrorism has a way of uniting, at least in its immediate aftermath, the country targeted by an attack.

But that does not appear to be holding true for the attack in and around Barcelona that killed 15 people. Instead, it seems to be laying bare the deteriorating relationship between Spain and the region of Catalonia as the latter moves forward with an Oct. 1 referendum to vote on secession.

Catalan authorities have been broadly commended, both within Spain and internationally, for their response to Spain’s first terrorist attack in the new era of the Islamic State. But the region’s pro-independence leaders have been accused of politicizing the tragedy, jostling to take center stage, as if to show the world Catalonia can deal with a state emergency. Pro-Spanish

Widening dividesProof of self-sufficiency?Missed warnings