The choice of the Spanish government not to allow Catalans to vote on their political future prevents any possibility of secession in the short term, but at what cost? The rigid stance of the Spanish state towards claims for constitutional reform already led to Catalan nationalism making a turn from autonomism to secessionism between 2010 and 2012. The current position that no Catalan popular consultation on self-determination is legal has alienated many Catalans who historically felt as much Spanish as Catalan.