As a tactic to keep the country together, it won’t work any better in Spain than it did in the United Kingdom. If they win on Sunday, nationalists say they will have a mandate to break up Spain.
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Profound questions about the post-Franco constitutional settlement of 1978 have been circulating throughout the country, and change is in the air. The prospect of meaningfully reforming the Spanish state has receded.
The regional elections in Catalonia, Spain on September 27 are set to be explosive.
Former coach and player Pep Guardiola has been outspoken in his support of the independence push, which has gained force as Spain became immersed in a severe financial downturn.
Increasing numbers of Catalan people are wishing for the independence of Catalonia.
They argue that the Spanish government has consistently refused to allow a legally recognised referendum, ignoring an unofficial vote backing independence in November 2014.
“Sunday is a special day for the future of Catalonia”.
Most Spaniards are baffled, hurt and angered that so many Basques and Catalans, whose regions appear to have done so well out of the new Spanish state, are so determined to leave it. a few say the independence movements are motivated by a selfish lack of solidarity with the state’s poorer regions.
– The first one would be a solemn declaration from the regional parliament that the independence process has started.
Carlos Rivadulla, a Catalan lawyer and businessman, also resents the campaign for independence and believes that most of the region’s business people feel the same.
To outside observers, Catalan politics is only getting more labyrinthine.
Mr Mas said in an interview this week that he will consider a victory on Sunday for his nationalist alliance tantamount to a “Yes” vote for independence.
In the elections following the adoption of this resolution, the majority of the pro-referendum parties won the most seats in parliament. Any failure to achieve a majority of seats would deal a serious blow to the movement. But in order to do so, they will have to wait for the second act: the general elections in December, also of uncertain result.
The memories of that time still linger, and have been stirred somewhat by a number of recent moves on the part of the central government perceived by Catalonia as reducing its powers of autonomy. This culminated in the decision to submit to demands from Madrid in October 2014 to cancel the planned consultation on independence on November 9. Also on the cards are discussions over increased central government spending on infrastructure projects. It is certainly more high profile: in 2010, when Merce Escara hung a Catalan flag from her Girona flat window, she was asked to remove it by her apartment administrator. If the yes campaign fails to win a majority, Catalonia will continue its protracted struggle with Madrid.
A low-intensity conflict is certain.
Under the 41-year-old Fernandez, the party has succeeded regionally in tapping into the same anger at Europe’s austerity measures that has vitalized far-left European parties like Syriza in Greece that eat into traditional support for social democrats.
Spain’s conception of its national identity is deeply and profoundly territorial. Given the extreme rigidity of that position, if Madrid seeks to make life harder for Catalonia, it may attract worldwide attention and perhaps intervention.
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After earning a reputation as a gifted debater in parliament, Fernandez and CUP’s radical rhetoric have struck a note with pro-independence Catalans who are angry about the languishing economy and firm in their belief that Catalonia does not get back what it pays in taxes to Madrid. All of Spain has 46 million people.
