At around 10pm last night, the air was filled with a familiar sound. A few minutes earlier, some of the residents of my block had slid open their doors and stepped out onto their balconies. They were ready to protest.

However, there were no banners and there was no shouting. There wasn’t even much light, apart from the TVs flickering through the blinds in living rooms. This was to be a protest of noise. A protest of pots, pans and spoons, to be exact.

The cassolada had begun.

Differing viewpoints in Madrid and Barcelona

Several hours earlier, the former Catalan president Artur Mas had been charged by a court in Madrid. His crime was running a referendum on Catalan independence in 2014 after the Spanish government had declared it to be illegal. His punishment was to be a ban from holding public office for two years, as well as a fine of €36,500.

The contrast in the reactions to this punishment across Spain is telling. While in Catalonia some people took first to their kitchen, and then to their balconies to protest, in other parts of the country the punishment was thought to be too soft.

One headline in El Mundo from this morning reads “Why has Artur Mas been given such a lenient punishment?” It’s a sentiment that was echoed on various TV breakfast news debates this morning. However, it should be said those debates were taking place in Madrid.

In Catalonia, the feeling is different. When I moved to Barcelona in September 2014, I arrived just in time for the annual La Diada march on September 11. The Catalan national day felt more like a mass declaration of independence. It was followed two months later by the vote on independence for which Mas has been charged.

Catalans want their voices heard

Just after the march in 2014 came the vote on Scottish independence. There were even a number of Scottish flags on display during La Diada in 2014. As a Brit, I was asked a lot at the time about my opinion. I came away with the impression that what struck Catalans more than anything was that the Scots were being given a choice. They had the opportunity to decide their future. It was something the Catalans I spoke to felt they were being denied.

Coincidentally, around the same time Artur Mas was being charged yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon was calling for a second Scottish independence referendum. The irony wasn’t lost on the current President of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, who tweeted that it was a contrast in what democracy could and should be like.

Although it’s not guaranteed that there will be a second Scottish referendum, it’s pretty unlikely the UK government would reject it as it would be seen as undemocratic. In Spain it’s a bit different. There’s no law in the Spanish constitution about referendums. This has long been Madrid’s standpoint. That there’s simply no conversation to be had.

In the autumn of 2014 I stood on my balcony and listened to the banging. To a protest of pots, pans and spoons. Now the percussion has started up again, and the end result is as uncertain now as it was then.