The poll showed that Catalan’s opinions change in the case that the question for the referendum is formulated in the manner the regional government wants, namely "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state with the republican system of government?" More precisely, when asked the aforementioned question, 47 percent of Catalans are forecast to vote for independence, whereas 44.4 percent are likely to oppose the change.
In addition, 11.3 percent of Catalonia’s citizens have not decided whether to come to the polling stations and 17.5 percent plan to ignore the vote.
When asked about holding the referendum without Spanish authorities’ authorization, 61 percent of Catalans expressed their support for the initiative, while 32.2 percent do not approve it.
Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont, who pledged to look for an agreement on independence from Spain already in fall 2016, said on June 9 that the region’s independence vote would take place on October 1, 2017. The move came when, in late May, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refused to hold Puigdemont-proposed talks on the terms and conditions of the referendum in which the citizens of Catalonia would decide the political future of the region.
Previously, approximately 80 percent of the Catalans who took part in the non-binding referendum on the region's status as part of Spain on November 9, 2014, voted in favor of Catalonia becoming an independent state. Madrid declared the referendum unconstitutional.
