![\"Spain\"](\"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Spain.jpg\")
Hundreds of thousands of supporters of a unified Spain filled Barcelona\u2019s streets on Sunday in one of the biggest shows of force yet by the so-called silent majority that has watched as regional political leaders push for Catalan independence.\nPolitical parties opposing a split by Catalonia from Spain had a small lead in an opinion poll published on Sunday, the first since Madrid called a regional election to try to resolve the country\u2019s worst political crisis in four decades.
\nPolls and recent elections have shown that about half the electorate in the wealthy northeastern region, which is already autonomous, oppose secession from Spain, but a vocal independence movement has brought the current crisis to a head.
\nSpain\u2019s central government called an election for Dec. 21 on Friday after sacking Catalonia\u2019s president, Carles Puigdemont, dissolving its Parliament and dismissing its government. That followed the assembly\u2019s unilateral declaration of independence in a vote boycotted by three national parties.
\nThe regional government claimed it had a mandate to push ahead with independence following an unofficial referendum on Oct. 1 which was ruled illegal under Spanish law and mostly boycotted by unionists.
\nWaving thousands of Spanish flags and singing \u201cViva Espa\u00f1a,\u201d protesters on Sunday turned out in the largest display of support for a united Spain since the beginning of the crisis \u2014 underlining the depth of division in Catalonia itself.
\n\u201cI\u2019m here to defend Spanish unity and the law,\u201d said Alfonso Machado, 55, a salesman standing with a little girl with Spanish flags in her hair.
\n\u201cKnowing that in the end there won\u2019t be independence, I feel sorry for all the people tricked into thinking there could be and the divisions they\u2019ve driven through Catalan society.\u201d
\nThe poll of 1,000 people by Sigma Dos for newspaper El Mundo, which opposes independence, showed anti-independence parties winning 43.4 percent support and pro-independence parties 42.5 percent.
\nThe survey was taken from Monday to Thursday, just as the central government prepared to take control of Catalonia.
\nMadrid said on Saturday that secessionist politicians, including Puigdemont, were free to take part in the Dec. 21 election. The hardline CUP has been unclear if it would.
\nWith weeks still to go before that date, the poll showed the CUP, kingmaker for the pro-secessionists in the dismissed 135-seat Parliament, would win seven seats, down from a current 10.
\nThe pro-independence coalition Junts pel Si, which held 62 seats previously, was split into parties PDeCat and ERC for the poll as they are unlikely to run on a single platform. The two parties would win between 54 and 58 seats in total, the poll showed.
\nIn a speech at Sunday\u2019s unity rally, former European Parliament President Josep Borrell called for voters to turn out en masse in December to ensure independence supporters lose their stranglehold on the regional Parliament.
\n\u201cMaybe we\u2019re here because many of us during elections didn\u2019t go and vote. Now we have a golden opportunity. This time, nobody should stay at home,\u201d Borrell said to cheering crowds.
\nPuigdemont, speaking from the Catalan nationalist stronghold of Girona on Saturday, called for peaceful opposition to Madrid\u2019s takeover. But he was vague on precisely what steps the secessionists would take as Spanish authorities move into Barcelona to enforce control.
\nEuropean countries, the US and Mexico have also rejected the Catalan declaration of independence and expressed support for Spain\u2019s unity.
\nBut emotions are running high and the next few days will be tricky for Madrid as it embarks on enforcing direct rule and putting officials in administrative roles. National police were accused of heavy-handedness during the Oct. 1 referendum.
\nOfficers of the regional police force, called the Mossos d\u2019Esquadra in Catalan, were stationed in main public and government buildings on Sunday.
\nBut the force is believed to have divided loyalties. The central government has removed the Mossos\u2019 chief, Josep Lluis Trapero, and said units could be replaced if warranted.
\nThe main secessionist group, the Catalan National Assembly, has urged civil servants not to follow orders from the central government and to mount \u201cpeaceful resistance,\u201d while the pro-independence trade union CSC has called a strike.
\nSince the return of democracy in the late 1970s Spain has suffered several traumatic episodes, including an attempted military coup in 1981, a violent Basque separatist conflict, and more recently an economic crisis. The Catalan issue is, however, the biggest challenge to the territorial integrity of what is now a progressive European Union nation.
\nThe chaos has also prompted an exodus of businesses from Catalonia, which contributes about a fifth of Spain\u2019s economy, the fourth-largest in the euro zone. Tourism in hugely popular Barcelona has been hit and markets have darted up and down on the fast-moving developments.
\nEuropean leaders have also denounced the push, fearing it could fan separatist sentiment around the continent.<\/p>\n