BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Artur Mas doesn’t seem like a political revolutionary. He wears sober, expensive suits and has shunned fiery speeches during his three-decade career as a risk-averse, pro-business civil servant.

Yet Mas is the architect of a daring attempt to carve out a new European country by achieving independence for Catalonia, a wealthy region of northeastern Spain, including the city of Barcelona, that is fiercely proud of its language and distinct cultural traditions.