A demonstrator covers his face with a mask depicting ousted separatist leader Carles Puigdemont during a protest outside the Catalan parliament on January 30th, 2018, in Barcelona, Spain.
People hold banners in front of Barcelona's city hall on December 4th, 2017, during a demonstration demanding the release of jailed separatist leaders.
Bad timing, political limitations, and a lack of effective legal recourse are keeping the European Union out of the fight over Catalonian separatism.
The European Union has failed to endorse the results of the referenda in both Spanish Catalonia and Iraqi Kurdistan, which is striking given that referenda are supposedly democratic expressions of popular will.
President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont arrives at a meeting to launch the self-determination referendum campaign on September 14th, 2017, in Tarragona, Spain.
Helpful advice to the politically embittered: start with a spiffy new flag this weekend.