Catalonia independence vote rejected

[Nemo1024]

Catalonia to press for independence despite red light from Madrid:
http://rt.com/news/catalonia-independence-referendum-spain-177/

[bryant.coleman]

Catalonia to press for independence despite red light from Madrid:
http://rt.com/news/catalonia-independence-referendum-spain-177/

Good decision. EU must first get its house in order, before it pokes its nose in to Ukraine. Catalonians don't have to worry anything. They have a population of 7.5 million, and can easily assemble an army of 100,000 people.

[Balthazar]

I hope that final result will be similar to something like this:

[bryant.coleman]

I hope that final result will be similar to something like this

Except in this case, they don't have an ally like Russia to protect them from Spain. Both Spain and France have made it clear that they will not allow the Catalonians to declare unilateral independence.

[Balthazar]

There are few EU trolling solutions possible.

One of them is signing a confederate treaty with Iran or another extreme EU-unfriendly state. There are no common borders with Iran, but that's not a problem if government of Iran will decide to sign such treaty. As a result, Catalonia de jure becomes an Iranian territory (while keeping independence and sovereignity de facto) and any aggression against them will mean a threat of response from Iran. They own enough rockets to fix this issue.  

[RCHumphrey]

It makes sense that Catalonia and other autonomous regions in Spain want independence: their wealth is being inequitably redistributed to support the extreme poverty that is affecting Andalucia/Murcia/Extremadura...

This vote should come as no surprise, the Spanish voting need Catalonia's cash...

Having lived in Bilbao and the Basque Country for a while I'd be surprised if we didn't see an escalation (military/violent) in the coming months in their bid for complete independence...

[bryant.coleman]

Having lived in Bilbao and the Basque Country for a while I'd be surprised if we didn't see an escalation (military/violent) in the coming months in their bid for complete independence...

I sympathize with the Basque people. For many decades now, the terrorist regime which is in power in Madrid has tried to destroy the Basque culture. Until recently the language was banned from schools and media. The situation was much worse than Catalonia and Galicia. Now they are on their path to independence and Spain won't be able to stop it.

All the northern ethnic groups, Catalans, Basques, Leonese, Cantabrians, Mirandese, Asturians, Aragonese, Galicians.etc will break away from Spain in the near future.

[RCHumphrey]

Having lived in Bilbao and the Basque Country for a while I'd be surprised if we didn't see an escalation (military/violent) in the coming months in their bid for complete independence...

I sympathize with the Basque people. For many decades now, the terrorist regime which is in power in Madrid has tried to destroy the Basque culture. Until recently the language was banned from schools and media. The situation was much worse than Catalonia and Galicia. Now they are on their path to independence and Spain won't be able to stop it.

All the northern ethnic groups, Catalans, Basques, Leonese, Cantabrians, Mirandese, Asturians, Aragonese, Galicians.etc will break away from Spain in the near future.

Controversial hehe... ETA have done some pretty rancid things in the past, but it does seem to be justified in a sense... the repatriation of prisoners is a really contentious issue (and one which causes still weekly ''gatherings'' in central Bilbao) but I'm not sure I'd go as far as saying Madrid has a terrorist regime...

I did some work for the peace museum in Guernica and a lot of people in the Basque Country are just sick of how they have been ostracised by the rest of Spain, even the Catalans...

Now the Catalans are mobilising I wonder whether the Basque's recent quietness (in relative terms) is soon to end.

[countryfree]

Both Spain and France have made it clear that they will not allow the Catalonians to declare unilateral independence.

I understand that. France is afraid an independent Catalonia would want the Perpignan area, and then the Basque would ask for the other side of the Pyrenees, so it has a lot to loose. When you start to change the borders, there's no end. I've never understood why so many people are nationalists or "regionalists". The worse was the people in Crimea saying they wanted to be Russians. I wish everyone to become stateless.

[bryant.coleman]

I'm not sure I'd go as far as saying Madrid has a terrorist regime

Any regime which prevents the people from using their native language is a terrorist regime. Language is one of the main aspects of the culture, along with religion. The same goes for the current rag-tag government in Kiev, who have banned the Russian language.

[Nemo1024]

I've never understood why so many people are nationalists or "regionalists".

For Catalonia (or Venice) it's a question of who is feeding whom. When your taxes stand for the most part of the country's welfare, yet you yourself see little of that welfare, you'd want to get out to actually enjoy the fruits of you hard work. Add to that suppression of your language/history/national identity and you definitely want to get out

The worse was the people in Crimea saying they wanted to be Russians. I wish everyone to become stateless.

You can't blame Russians who just happened to be given as a present to Ukraine, and lately having been more and more robbed of their identity, while their region didn't see any investments to want to go back to their country of birth, taking their land with them. See my point above.

[Balthazar]

http://rt.com/news/189208-catalonia-independence-vote-spain/

The Catalan parliament has passed a law giving its regional president the power to carry out a non-binding consultation vote on secession from Spain.

Republic of Crimea/Republic of Abkhazia/Republic of South Ossetia/Transnistrian Moldovan Republic scheme is in progress.

[cookmac]

Scottish NO vote will have a resonance in Catalonia interestingly... Although both countries are different.

[Balthazar]

Catalonia president orders independence referendum on Nov. 9


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUzdfBidiuI

[Paya]

Destruction of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo case opened up a can of worms and there is no turning back now. By the way, Spain did not recognize Kosovo as an independent country. Reasons are pretty obvious.

Madrid knows very well that Catalonia would surely go if they allow referendum, that's why they are fiercely against it. As a matter of fact, I am not sure that London would have agreed with the Scottish referendum either if the independists there had such strong initial support like those in Catalonia (and yet, Scots almost succeeded). Besides, Madrid is afraid of the Basque, perhaps some other regions too - after the Catalonian independence it becomes nearly impossible to stop others from doing the same.

So, let's see how far are Catalans ready to go. If they really want separation so badly, well... sometimes, unfortunately, there is no other way but to fight. Literally.

[RitzBitzz]

The only true way to be independent is to fight for it. If you have as many supporters as ou say you do you will likely win but it you don't like Scotland you will lose.