Spain braced for possible Catalonian independence declaration

The Telegraph ^ | 10/10/2017 | James Badcock

[Trump20162020]

The Spanish government warned Carles Puigdemont "not to do anything irreversible" on Tuesday, ahead of a scheduled address in which the Catalan president may declare independence.

Uncertainty remains over whether Mr Puigdemont will risk a head-on conflict with the Spanish government by openly proclaiming a new Catalan republic when he speaks at at 5pm BST, or back down from his promises and pave the way for negotiations with Madrid.

"We call on Puigdemont not to do anything irreversible, not to pursue a path of no return and not to make any unilateral independence declaration, which would lead to illegality," government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told reporters.

The official line from the Catalan government is that Mr Puigdemont will “fulfil his obligations” under the self-determination referendum law, which states that a Yes vote would trigger a meeting of parliament to “effect the formal declaration of independence of Catalonia, specifying its effects and starting the constituent process”.

The referendum law was suspended by Spain’s constitutional court and the Spanish government was widely criticised for a violent crackdown on the referendum vote that went ahead on Oct 1. Catalan officials have claimed preliminary results show 90 per cent voted in favour of independence.

[Mouton]

Maybe Gov Brown and his cohorts can send them some advice on how to go about becoming “independent” while not actually doing so.

[pepsi_junkie]

I am not an expert in Spanish politics but I did live in Spain for a year so there's that. A passing familiarity with the Spanish people and some of the regional politics.

At first blush this looks almost like the Scottish independence referendum of a couple of years ago (which failed) except the Scots are a money sink for the UK government. A lot of government money goes into Scotland, little comes back in tax revenue. But from what I understand Catalonia is actually the economic powerhouse of Spain. Yet the central government has made it impossible for them to thrive independent of Madrid. For example they've made direct flights into Barcelona difficult, most of the time you have to go through Madrid. Same with shipment of goods from their ports. This hamstrings them while at the same time their tax burden is disproportionate to the rest of Spain in terms of collections versus expenditures on infrastructure and the like. They are essentially the bill payer of Spain.

Troops will march in before Spain gives that up. And that would put the EU into crisis. Hence a compromise where Catalonia gets some more autonomy is probably the most likely outcome at this point.

[MeganC]

It’s rather hypocritical of the EUropeans that they violently supported Kosovo (Muslim) independence from Serbia while it’s shaping up that they’re going to support the violent suppression of Catalan sovereignty.