Divided and Conquered, Catalonia Weighs the Damage

 It might look over, but the Spanish region’s independence bid has long-lasting repercussions.
By Charles Penty , Manuel Baigorri , and Esteban Duarte
Bloomberg

The drama in Catalonia may have reached its epilogue, but the economic and political consequences are still to emerge for a region Spain could never afford to let go.For now, the separatist leadership has been deposed, a would-be European republic snuffed out and a potential bank run avoided.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has gone from lame duck premier dogged by a party corruption scandal to the country's unlikely savior. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont painted himself on Tuesday as a victim of the vengeful state after fleeing to Brussels to avoid arrest.
Yet that winner-and-loser narrative masks a delicate balance. Catalonia's 7.5 million people remain as torn as ever in the stop-start push for their own state since the death of General Francisco Franco four decades ago. A tumultuous month started with an illegal independence referendum on Oct. 1 that police tried to forcibly extinguish. It culminated with a loss of autonomy that’s cherished even by those who want to remain part of Spain.