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Posted on 09/30/2017 10:29:51 PM PDT by aquila48
A potentially violent showdown looms in Spain on Sunday, where tens of thousands of Catalans intend to carry out an independence referendum deemed unconstitutional by the country’s courts.
Hundreds of independence supporters slept overnight on Friday and Saturday in some 160 schools that are designated polling places, vowing to keep them open for voters.
But local police planned to remove them on Sunday — by force if necessary, Spanish government sources told Reuters.
Catalan officials have said polls will open at 9 a.m. The Madrid government has ordered separatists to vacate the schools by 6 a.m.
And while both sides were urging non-violence on Saturday, thousands of national police billeted in two ships off Barcelona were ready to halt voting.
“We trust that citizens understand and will follow those instructions” to leave school polling stations, said Enric Millo, the region’s top Spanish government official.
Carles Puigdemont, the pro-separatist president of the wealthy region in northeast Spain, is undaunted. Catalonia has a right to decide its own future, he told separatists.
“Friends,” he said, “so that victory is definite, on Sunday let’s dress up in referendum [clothes] and leave home prepared to change history.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’m trying to care. I really am, but we have so many things to worry about on our own American shores right now.
Is this vote in Spain anything similar to the Brexit Vote in Great Britain? That was a concept I understood rather well.
I know the Basque people are composed of both French and Spanish influences. The Basques are in conflict with the main political parties and have been since the Spanish Civil War. That’s about all I know on this.
Is this California in the not-too-distant future? Better for CA to split into 3-5 states than for it to secede. I know it can’t legally secede but if the people there want to then we have another civil war based on secession in the making.
It can’t split up without the consent of its Democratic-controlled State Assembly either, and the Democrats there are never going to let the conservative areas of the state be free of them.
We’re going to Barcelona in a couple of weeks. Nobody’s expecting a repeat of the Spanish Civil War just a lot of noise.
Is there something wrong with your Caps Lock key?
Catalonia wishes to secede.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_self-determination_referendum,_2014
*chuckle* - Seriously, though, the government in Madrid needs to be careful here. Using excessive force could boomerang in terms of Catalan support for independence. I saw some clips of the Spanish PM that sounded pretty tone deaf. Telling people they can’t have a democratic vote just because “it violates the Constitution” could quickly lead one to wonder if living under such a “Constitution” is worthwhile..
Better to let them blow off some steam with an unbinding independence vote that less than half of Catalans polled would be in favor of ...
Seriously, though, how hypocritical is it to live in a state that claims to be democratic but then prevents (or tries to) its citizens from excercising a fundamental right?
I love how the the nation of one of my great-great grandfathers handled it - the only sane way - when Slovakia wanted out after the fall of communism, the Czechs said “go right ahead”. Those folks lived their convictions, rathen than just mouthing pieties to them when it suited their interests ...
The Basques will be next. I’m really kinda surprised they weren’t first. Tough, proud, good people there.
Do a search on Monty Python Spanish Inquisition and watch the video. If you don’t get it then, I can’t help you.
These are not Basques.
Catalonia has it’s own language and culture by the main reason they want to be independent is they are a wealthy region that pays more tax than they receive. But they are also a liberal region so Spain would be better off without them.
These days I actually get some good real news from rt tv. If you can wade through the propaganda they have reporters ever where around the world. They have headline news every hour on the hour. Just reported live from barcelona. The Spanish police are currently breaking into the polling places arresting people and terrorizing them in front of their children.sick. only makes them want independence more. Rt is also on the ground on the frontline of the isis battle in sryia. The allies are kicking isis’ ass.
Spain’s “Quebec.”
My family had planned on taking a villa for a few months outside Barcelona....but I talked them out of it....
Is there something wrong with your ability to recognize references to a classic line of a Monty Python comedy skit?
Nobody expected the 1936-39 civil war. But what a rip-snorter it was.
Then there were the Carlist wars of the 19th Century, over who would get to sit on the Spanish throne.
Spain is made up of more groups than just Catalans and Basques.
As an example, google “Spanish cuisine”. Many regional versions; paella is unknown to some.
No, there is something wrong with my ability to give a damn about Monty Python skits.
And yet you do give a damn about people using CAPS LOCK to interject humor into a thread...
It would have been just as stupid without the caps.
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