But since the Spanish government has blocked his bid to hold a referendum, Mas has cast this vote as an indirect plebiscite on secession.
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The region is holding regional elections on Sunday.
Separatist parties running on a joint ticket are expected to win a majority of seats, according to polls. Nor can we reduce the debate down to independence or the status quo, as Catalan society is more pluralistic and diverse than what is expressed by this twofold option and the political situation is not simply a static snapshot and can change both at State level and in Catalonia, should the public decide so. Catalans, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, need to claim their sovereignty as a nation from a Spanish state he insists has little respect for Catalonia and is an enthusiastic participant in a global capitalist economy he labels as “a war machine that robs, kills and lies”. If the “United for Yes” party wins the regional election, the uncertainty about and possibility of Catalonia’s independence brings forth the question of what happens to deposits sitting in Catalan branches of Spain’s banks.
Several of his leading ministers have joined his drive against the independence movement, threatening that Catalans will be stripped of their nationality and will plunge into financial chaos like Greece if they break away. Catalans vote Sunday in regional parliamentary elections that the breakaway…
Sara Vilà Galan is a social activist and a ICV-EUiA member of the Catalonian Parliament.
Home rule has been highly profitable for the Catalan clerisy, as it has subsidized the diffusion of all sorts of beliefs, such as that Catalonia enjoyed a glorious past before being “conquered” by Spain. For three years he has refused to negotiate over demands for greater Catalan autonomy. One of the most flung around metaphors by supporters of independence is that a couple cannot stay together when one of the parties does not want to.
“Everyone knows Guardiola, and to say that I can manipulate him or any other sports person is to underestimate these people”. Among others, they feel constantly aggrieved by the People’s Party’s questioning of policies dealing with the teaching of Catalan, the old and attractive language that all schools in Catalonia teach, a language that peacefully coexists with Spanish in towns and city squares. But, in Catalonia, they are at par with Podemos.
It’s hard to envision La Liga without Barcelona, who have won five of the last seven league titles and have failed to finish lower than third place for the past 12 consecutive seasons, dating back to 2003. In 2005, 15 percent of Catalans wanted an independent state. While negotiations might prevent that happening, separatists seem unlikely to settle for anything less than a proper referendum-which the government in Madrid, led by prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party, has so far refused. But in order to do so, they will have to wait for the second act: the general elections in December, also of uncertain result.
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Many families are united in their position either in favour or against independence. Their argument is a neat “better together”, in Spain and Europe.
