“YEah but my understanding is those pushing for separatism are the hard left.”
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So what? For example, if the leftist elites in SoCal want a CalExit for their Mexifornia paradise, let them go (and a new state of Jefferson created in NorCal). It isn’t only conservatives who should have the right to secede from a government that does not represent their interests.
There is no such thing as a “right to secede”.
You have the ability to TRY, but then you must win the ensuing conflict, because the central government is charged with protecting the territorial integrity of the nation.....obviously Spain sucks at that *cough* migrants, but that doesn’t mean they sure aren’t going to try when a chuck of metropolitan Spain tries to break away, because if they win, that will be the end of Spain as all of the other regions, especially the Basque, will be on the exit tomorrow.
A neo-Francoist Spain may result from the chaos.
So you think Catalan residents should just be handed over to the hard left? The majority, most of whom did not vote because they were scared away by the masked leftists at the polls the last time around, when only 30% of registered voters voted, actually were opposed to independence in the survey done a couple of months ago.
This voting was insane, the leftist dream vote: ballots not sealed, dumped on the floor so you could see the name just in case anybody voted against independence, carried from place to place, printed on home printers, no supervision except from the “independence” party that had called the election...
I agree that the Spanish government handled this badly, but there have been years of radical leftist provocation behind this. Don’t forget things like the supermarket bombing in the 80s and other attacks by Esquerra Republicana (allied with ETA and the PLO).
Catalonia has the highest percentage of Muslims in Spain, and most of them turned out for “independence” - give Catalonia 10 years, and it will be Europe’s first officially Muslim state.
As the South at the start of the American Civil War, they’re cutting off their nose to spite their face - and to protect a few privileged commercial and political interests.
“So what? For example, if the leftist elites in SoCal want a CalExit for their Mexifornia paradise, let them go (and a new state of Jefferson created in NorCal). It isn’t only conservatives who should have the right to secede from a government that does not represent their interests.”
I’m onboard as long as we build a big, beautiful wall around Mexifornia.