Catalonia’s regional president Artur Mas told AFP in an interview this week that he will consider a victory on Sunday for his nationalist alliance tantamount to a “Yes” vote for independence.
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“We would all lose”. According to locals I spoke to, should “United for Yes” win the vote, they will look to declare independence, regardless of what Madrid thinks.
Mr Rajoy argues that because the loss of Catalonia would affect all of Spain, the democratic approach would be for all of the country to vote in a referendum on Catalonia’s future.
While Tebas suggested he was doubtful whether Catalunya would split from Spain, Bayern Munich boss Guardiola – a member of the pro-independence Junts pel Si [Together for Yes] party – suggested otherwise. As understandable as their frustration may be, this is no way to secede from a country.
Like similar movements in Europe, such as the Northern League in Italy or the Scottish National Party, the Catalan bourgeoisie and its petty-bourgeois supporters claim that cuts would not be necessary if Catalonia, the richest region in Spain, did not have to subsidise the poorer regions through taxation.
In response to Mas, Rajoy has stated that, “The elections in Catalonia will be exceptionally autonomous”.
In the elections following the adoption of this resolution, the majority of the pro-referendum parties won the most seats in parliament. These elections have to be the elections that provide us with sufficient political majorities to be able to implement socially just policies, contrary to restricting rights and to privatizations; implacable with the relentless fight against corruption and bad practice in political institutions.
In the impending election, Catalans should not be fazed by threats from the anti-independence camp. “And this has completely reversed my opinion and the opinion of many people I know”, said Badenes.
Both make that in fact this type final result enables one to unilaterally assert independence inside 18 months of the year. (Can you imagine secessionists in Texas jeering while the Star-Spangled Banner played at a Cowboys game?) But with the economic crisis and controversial court rulings has come increasingly serious public debate over the integrity of the Spanish state. Catalonia has long seemed pretty comfortable with its extensive powers of self-government under Spain’s decentralised “state of autonomies”.
On Tuesday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said this would be the case, in response to a query by conservative MEP Santiago Fisas. 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. The “no” campaign has failed to convince, though, usually relying on the position that independence is illegal. Bank of Spain governor Luis Maria Linde has warned that loss of European Union membership would have monetary and other financial effects.
Spain’s Central Bank has said an independent Catalonia will have to leave the eurozone and would be unable to keep the euro as its currency.
Rajoy and others in his administration have made it clear that they will use all legal methods to prevent the independence of Catalonia, which accounts for almost a fifth of Spain’s economic output. There are many temptations in the electoral campaign to disguise reality, whether this be the discourse of fear by State government, or speeches on the idyllic dream of an independent Catalonia.
‘United we will win, ‘ he said in Catalan, against a backing of sad piano music, in the video released today.
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While the pro-independence voters are considered to be fully mobilized, opponents of the secession drive worked until midnight Friday – the last day of campaigning – to urge people in the Barcelona metropolitan area, home to 3.2 million people and traditionally less supportive of independence, to cast their ballots.
