Los catalanes, cansados del 'procés'

Barcelona (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE) - The vivid red and yellow Catalan separatist flag is a familiar and colourful sight on balconies across Barcelona, though many have become faded and torn over the years.

But scores of Catalonians are getting weary of political infighting over the region's independence drive which has dragged on for years -- even those who back secession.

"One starts to get tired, it has been a long time and there have been few advances," said 70-year-old Josep Cuspinera at his small shop which sells pots and pans in Barcelona's strongly pro-independence Gracia district.

Further north in the Nou Barris district, Barcelona's poorest and least separatist district, Rosa Martinez, 54, echoed the feeling.

"I'm sick of the topic," she said, after the pro-independence coalition that rules the region fell apart last week when its most radical component -- the anti-capitalist CUP party -- refused to back the regional government's budget.

The development dealt a blow to the coalition's planned 18-month roadmap for independence from Spain by 2017, which it announced after winning a parliamentary majority in regional elections last September.

Without a budget the head of the Catalan regional government, Carles Puigdemont, is not able to take steps to put the roadmap in place, such as setting up a tax system and state structure for Catalonia.

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