Yours is exactly the way Spanish politicians use when dealing with Catalonia, structured and reasoned thinking.Ĭarles, you are entitled to your opinion but let me point out some inconsistencies in your argument (and I am typing this before the results are out). Carles must be happy, you are making his point perfectly. And negating this problem as spanish government does only makes it bigger. The key issue here is, in a few years, people that live in Catalonia and does not want to be part of Spain has grown from 15% to 50%. You can blame god, Carles' article or whatever.
Each time during these years I came back to Barcelona, I was suprised to find more and more friends who declared themselves pro independence, according to them because of lack of sensitivity from the spanish government, hurying to give me a lot of examples. When I left, only around 15% of Catalans were pro-independence, and to be an independentist was to be a kid of radical, estelada flag was also seen a radical flag. Anyway, we are all missing the point, I have lived out of Barcelona for 15 years. So, theye did not allow a referendum (counting votes) and,now that they don't like the result of the election, they count votes. They say that, if we count the votes, YES does not reach 50% (althogh yes has more votes than no). Spanish see a victory of No (even though the yes parties have absolute majority). Now Spanish and Catalan media are all fighting to bring the results to their camp. You will also directly support our mission of delivering the highest-quality commentary on the world's most pressing issues to as wide an audience as possible.īy helping us to build a truly open world of ideas, every PS subscriber makes a real difference.
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It would also enable Catalonia to take steps – impossible under the Spanish government, which collects more taxes from the region than it returns in spending – to protect those who have been worst hit by the crisis. Indeed, there is no shortage of good reasons to support Catalonia’s independence drive.įor starters, independence would advance the cause of cultural preservation, by ensuring, for example, the use of Catalan in mass media, customer-service support lines, and product labeling. I hope that the message it sends is one of support for independence, delivered through a victory for the “Together for Yes” slate of candidates. The de facto referendum, while imperfect, will send a clear message.
But the Spanish government’s staunch refusal to authorize such a referendum has left Catalans with only one option: to demonstrate their will by filling their parliament with candidates who will push for sovereignty. Of course, Catalans would have preferred to have a direct vote on the question of whether to secede from Spain.
PRINCETON – Catalonia’s regional election this weekend amounts to an indirect referendum on independence.