Catalonia President Orders Independence Referendum On Nov. 9

– Catalonia president orders independence referendum on Nov. 9 (RT, Sep 27, 2014):

The president of Catalonia, Artur Mas, has signed a decree calling an independence referendum for Nov. 9. The secessionist drive of the Spanish region has been rebuked by Madrid, which vowed to block the vote.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has called a government meeting Monday that is expected to provide a legal response to Barcelona’s announcement. Madrid plans to challenge the vote in the constitutional court.

Last week the Catalan parliament voted to hold an independence referendum in November, with 106 MPs in favour and 28 against.

Support in Catalonia for seceding from Spain grew in the relatively prosperous northeast province over years of economic hardships and austerity measures. A recent opinion poll by the Omnibus Opinion Studies Center showed that almost 60 percent of Catalans would vote for independence.

Madrid insists that holding a referendum would be illegal and unconstitutional.

Following Mas’s statement, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the Madrid government will hold an emergency cabinet meeting within days and that the referendum will be challenged in the Constitutional Court.

This referendum will not be held because it is unconstitutional,” she said during a press conference on Saturday.

1 thought on “Catalonia President Orders Independence Referendum On Nov. 9”

  1. This is is a very interesting and telling article. The entire EU with member status totals 18 members, including Spain.

    Another ten are nations that are members, but do not use the Euro. Then, there are four more that have adopted the Euro unilaterally, but have no plan to join.

    All 32 have their monetary policy controlled by the ECB.

    This entire collection of nations are loosely held together, and in there lies much trouble. If Spain is already fragmenting as this article describes, what happens to their EU status?

    If other nations wish to withdraw from the EU, what happens? This entire system was not well planned, and there are few regulations and laws to hold the nations in place. They were so anxious to become a strong economic coalition that they did not take the time and effort to make it strong. Putting something this big together requires more thought than they put into it.

    It seems to me there are no strong or sane laws holding them together. Germany has loaned money to Spain to help it avoid bankruptcy. If it breaks apart, what happens to the German loan?

    When the South tried to secede from the US in 1861, a bloody war between the states ensued; a war so bitter the anger is still palpable today. When I was young, one could still see the marks where that bastard Sherman burned his way to the sea. War brings out the worst, and when it is fought brother against brother, the pain and anger never goes away. It is far worse than US history books ever acknowledge. (Remember, history is always written by the winners.)

    Civil war has the abilities to keep nations divided for generations. If one starts in Spain, it will remain divided, regardless of who wins. The Euro is too weak to have such things happening so early in its history.

    Reply

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