Posted on 09/12/2014 7:46:41 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Barcelona (AFP) - Catalans fired up by Scotland's independence referendum massed in Barcelona's streets in red and yellow shirts Thursday, forming a giant "V" to demand a vote on breaking away from Spain.
Drawn up in lines of red and yellow to form stripes with the Catalan colours, hundreds of thousands of flag-waving demonstrators of all ages massed in the sunshine to mark Catalonia's national day, the Diada.
The commemoration, which marks the Spanish conquest of Catalonia in 1714, was more sensitive than ever this year, coming amid calls for a November 9 vote on Catalan independence.
-snip-
"Now more than ever, Catalonia needs a state that will defend its language, its culture and its economy," she said, waving a Catalan independence flag: red and yellow stripes, plus a white star on a blue background.
As the V-for-vote formed to the singing of a choir and cheers from the crowd, a girl at the head of the rally placed a paper in a symbolic ballot box.
- Taxes, culture, nationhood -
Spain's national government has branded the November vote illegal and vowed to block it, but Catalonia's regional president Artur Mas has vowed to push on with the plan.
"If a nation such as Scotland can vote, why not Catalonia?" he said in an interview with AFP.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Great. Europe fracturing back into little petty states. Ditto the ME. What’s old is new again.
They want to trade their Castilian masters for Brusselian ones since they want to join the EU and be net payers as soon as they have their own State.
Is Scotland going to have to fight for their independence from England, as we did?
Why hasn’t Obama spoken up for maintaining the “territorial integrity” of Spain and the UK? If they can vote for independence, then why can’t the people of Kurdistan and Crimea?
Just like the Scots. These independence movements of Euro principalities away from a national allegiance to a continental paradigm really only make sense if they're viewed through the prism of something orchestrated by those who favor a one-world government.
Catalonia is the area where the Andalusian branch of the New Caliphate is being promoted. Their succession and ‘independence’ would be the first area of Europe likely to join the New Caliphate.
The Muslim population of Catalonia is around 6%. Doesn’t seem likely they’re going to take over.
Or the people of Texas and Montana.
I would argue two events have occurred over the past decade or two, which make this all possible. First, the EU arrived and set up an environment where small countries can get into the Euro (a somewhat stable currency is required to survive), and an open-border trading situation made commerce stable. Second, the bolder and more enriching regions of countries (particularly true in Spain and Belgium) realized that for every Euro of taxation they paid...they got roughly seventy-cents back into their revenue bucket.
I would add that two states in Germany (Hessen and Bavaria) are mounting a revenue challenge to the national supreme court in Germany...that they also pay enormous amounts of taxes (via their residents and commerce), and get less back. In their case....they want to force the state to reallocate the money to them, period. It’ll take at least two years for this to make it to the high court and have a decision.
I think socialism today in Europe, has a price-tag. When you count up all the various taxes that you as the private citizen contribute to...it’s hefty. So, you tend to think you ought to get your fair share back, and that’s simply not the case.
England would do well to be free of Scotland and the socialists it sends to Parliament.
Montana needs a right to work law.
Europe’s other independence movement, the Spanish government says it won’t stand for it.
Good points.
The problem is, in the long run, smaller states run the risk of being “eaten up” by militarily adventurous actors. So, for example, over a period of decades, a Russia, or some other force who comes to the fore, can nibble away, never striking at the whole of Europe hard enough to force an effective reaction. Some will arm, including with nukes, but eventually, either Europe will be too fractured and weak to effectively fight back in a conventional war, or it will realize what’s happening too late to prevent a truly big war, or, someone will miscalculate and the nukes will fly...
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