Catalonia

[Dubious]

So yesterday I just had a chat with a Catalan postdoc and his views about Catalan and Spain...Thought a thread should be open to highlight their plight too :


Catalans protest over independence on National Day - in pictures

On the 300th anniversary of the end of the siege of Barcelona, hundreds of thousands celebrate the National Day of Catalonia with protests for and against independence from Spain

People holding placards with the colours of the Catalan flag demonstrate in Bilbao for independence from Spain. The Diada de Catalunya marks what many see as the day they lost their autonomy, 11 September 1714, when Barcelona fell to Spanish and French forces in the War of Succession.Photograph: Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

Adolfo Munoz Sanz, general secretary of the Basque union ELA (Basque Workers’ Solidarity), takes part in a demonstration in Bilbao in support of a Catalan vote on independence from Spain. The banner reads: ‘Now it’s time!’Photograph: Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

Demonstrators hold torches during a pro-independence demonstration in BarcelonaPhotograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

A man waves an estelada flag - a symbol of Catalan separatism - in Barcelona. A week before Scotland votes on whether to break away from the UK, separatists in north-eastern Spain were trying to convince Catalans to demand the right to hold a self-determination referendum next November.Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Musicians dressed as soldiers from the year 1714 perform during a tribute to the Catalan victims of the War of Succession at the Fossar de les Moreres square.Photograph: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images

A Catalan opposed to independence gives a fascist salute as he takes part in a demonstration for the unity of Spain.Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Bikers with estelada flags ride past the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.Photograph: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images

Anti-independence Catalans hold Spanish flags and a banner reading ‘against separatist manipulation of history’ during a demonstration in Barcelona for Spanish unity.Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Catalans in Barcelona join a 250-mile (400km) human chain as part of the independence campaign.Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

 

[Dubious]

An anti-independence Catalan woman marches in Barcelona.Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of Catalans throng the streets of Barcelona to demand the right to vote on a split from Spain.Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters



Catalans protest over independence on National Day - in pictures | World news | theguardian.com

Pro-independence Catalans march on Barcelona streets

COURTESY: RT's RUPTLY video agency, NO RE-UPLOAD, NO REUSE - FOR LICENSING, PLEASE, CONTACT http://ruptly.tv

Almost two million people according to the local police gathered in Barcelona on Thursday to celebrate the National Day of Catalonia and demand a referendum for independence. Demonstrators marched through Diagonal Street and Gran Via, converging to form the letter "V" for "vote" and "victory". Protesters also waved pro-independence flags and shouted "we want to vote" and "independence". Many personalities addressed the crowds from three different stages along the march.
According to demonstrators they did not feel Spanish and merely viewed Spain as a neighbour but not as part of their national and cultural identity.

Pro-independence Catalans march on Barcelona streets — RT In motion


'No mock referendum in Catalonia: Why Barcelona looks to Edinburgh?'

Pro-independentists gesture at anti-independentists demonstrating for the unity of Spain in the centre of Barcelona during Catalonia National Day (Diada) on September 11, 2014. (AFP Photo / Josep Lago)

The Spanish government has always denied a Catalan entity, but Scotland will pave the way for democracy and the right to self-determination in the region, Anna Arque, Catalan spokesperson for the 'European Partnership for Independence' told RT.

RT: Both Scottish and Catalonian referendums are to take place soon. What can you say about them? What are the main similarities and differences between the Scottish and the Catalonian cases?

Anna Arque: In Catalonia we are not having a mock referendum, we are having a referendum about the independence of Catalonia that has been agreed by the majority of the political parties in the Parliament. So it is a legal, agreed and political binding referendum. The Scottish referendum as well as the Catalonian referendum, doing these referendums is [an illustration of] democracy. So obviously the fact that the Scottish referendum is taking place before ours is great news, and a lot of Catalans will be very happy with a “yes” result. Actually it’s a long time that Catalans are working to have their own referendum.

RT: Why hasn’t Madrid given Catalonia the chance to decide? What kind of reaction do you expect from Madrid when the referendum takes place?

AA: I guess there will be a different position in Madrid once Catalans are voting at a referendum. The Spanish government is still working on the heritage of the regime of 1978. Obviously they are going to just keep denying the reality, but that at the same time that is going to be the Spanish people that will recognize Catalan’s right to vote and to self-determine, [the government] will accept the results. Some of the democrats accepting the results will actually try to arrive at a half-way agreement or will just make things easy for a nice post-independence relationship between Catalonia and Spain. But the Spanish government has always been denying what the Catalan entity is, so we don’t expect much for the moment, also because at the moment it’s all just a prospect. Once we vote, it is going to be a reality and then we will see who the real democrats in the Spanish state are.
RT: Aren’t there any doubts that Catalonia’s economy isn’t strong enough for the region to become independent?

AA: Actually the doubts that are rising are quite opposite. Catalonia, and that has been said not only by Catalans but by the US and European academics, is well-off and it is able to maintain itself. The question that is arising more [often] is whether Spain is going to be able to live without the income, without what Catalonia gives to Spain. But on this side many of us are completely convinced that the Spanish state of course will go on and that the Catalans will do everything possible in order for Spain to keep on a good track, and all of us get a promise of a better future. We won’t have any problem, in case it is necessary, to assist [Spain] in whatever is necessary, because we do not want any fallout from the Spanish state.
RT: The Scots and Catalans are not the only to fight for independence. Why is the independence movement so strong in Europe?

AA: We need to understand that the feeling and the need to be independent by those nations that are at the moment in the states that are not their own states, it has been there for a long time, it is not something that suddenly happens, and it is not a spark that flies in the air. What happens is that the Scottish and the Catalan independence show that this is possible. People may actually see that democracy and the universal right of self-determination is feasible, with the right to be exercised. It is something that each country will have to walk towards. But the point is that we don’t have to see independence as a narrative thing. It’s a good thing, and a good test to prove Europe’s capacity to accept the sign of the times, with democracy that people can vote whether they want or not independence.

Pro-independentists gesture at anti-independentists demonstrating for the unity of Spain in the centre of Barcelona during Catalonia National Day (Diada) on September 11, 2014. (AFP Photo / Josep Lago)

'No mock referendum in Catalonia: Why Barcelona looks to Edinburgh?' — RT Op-Edge

September 11, 2014 5:01 pm

Catalans stage mass protest in Barcelona to back referendum
By Tobias Buck in Madrid

The Catalan independence movement held a mass rally in Barcelona on Thursday as part of an intensifying campaign in support of a planned November referendum on the region’s future political status.

Dressed in red and yellow, the colours of the Catalan flag, hundreds of thousands of protesters assembled on Gran Via and Avenida Diagonal, two of the city’s main arteries. Seen from the air, the rally formed the shape of a giant V, described by organisers as a symbol of Catalonia’s desire to vote.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7e89144a-39c5-11e4-93da-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3DBpuY47d

 

[Dubious]

Ahead of Scotland’s referendum, Catalonia thinks its own time has come

Sept. 11 marks a far older tragedy for Catalans -- the day in 1714, amid the War of Spanish Succession, when Catalan forces holding out in Barcelona succumbed to the forces of the Bourbon King Philip V. Ever since, this northeastern region has been more tightly in the Spanish fold. Sept. 11 became Catalonia's national day, an occasion once suppressed by the fascist Franco dictatorship, but now cause for an outpouring of Catalan pride and separatist aspirations.

As many as 1.8 million people marched in Barcelona on Thursday in support of Catalonia's latest bid for independence, according to the event's organizers. (Spanish Interior Ministry officials say the figure was 525,000.)

The streets of this elegant coastal city were a sea of red-and-yellow, Catalonia's nationalist stripes. On the same day in 2013, organizers attempted to form a 250-mile-long human chain marking Catalonia's right to self-determination. This time, they formed a giant "V" in Barcelona, symbolizing their desire to vote on the question of secession. About 55 percent of the region's more than 7.5 million people want independence, according to local polls.

Separatists in Catalonia plan to stage a referendum on independence in November, but authorities in Madrid are adamant that the vote should not pass and would be considered illegal. But Catalan leaders see hope in the momentum now propelling the "Yes" camp in Scotland toward next week's referendum there on whether Scotland should break away from the United Kingdom.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned that an independent Catalonia would be isolated and vulnerable, outside the European Union and in need of a new currency. But Artur Mas, president of Catalonia and the region's most outspoken nationalist politician, thinks an independent Scotland can show the way. "The first [factor] will be the reaction of European leaders. I am sure they will accept the result of the Scottish referendum," said Mas this week in an interview with the Financial Times. "The second is that negotiations will start very quickly between Edinburgh, London and Brussels to keep Scotland within the E.U. Both things are very important for Catalonia."

"Once independence is a reality, everybody in the economy accommodates to the new situation," Mas added.

Catalonia has long been one of Spain's main industrial engines, representing one-fifth of the whole country's economy, and its politicians believe its future would be rosier if it was free of the wider dysfunctions of the Spanish economy. Madrid, though, has been far less accommodating of Catalan aspirations than the British government under Prime Minister David Cameron has been of Scotland's move toward independence. Mas told the Financial Times that such Rajoy's intransigence is "putting [Spanish] democracy at risk."

Ahead of Scotland’s referendum, Catalonia thinks its own time has come - The Washington Post

 

[Schutz]

Like the Scottish one its all a load of bullshit, false promises from someone in charge about how the area will change when in reality the only thing that will change is the money the people at the top earn, life goes on for the people the same way it did before and I feel its a tad selfish especially with Spain, you are the same people and the wealthier regions help to look after the not so wealthy and they want to pull out so that millions of people may suffer, it is selfish imo.

 

[Dubious]

Like the Scottish one its all a load of bullshit, false promises from someone in charge about how the area will change when in reality the only thing that will change is the money the people at the top earn, life goes on for the people the same way it did before and I feel its a tad selfish especially with Spain, you are the same people and the wealthier regions help to look after the not so wealthy and they want to pull out so that millions of people may suffer, it is selfish imo.

I think it is more selfish when the fact is the poor people have been raising their voice for 300 yrs...they have been asking for a referendum at least which according to the Spanish constitution is not possible...How is it in a democratic country ....a million plus people cant have their voice heard as it is unconstitutional?

 

[defrank]

There is a huge disinfo campaign about all this being spread by the spanish and european media, there is a huge amount of Catalonians that don´t want to split from Spain, we´ll see what happens anyway on 911, which is the date of the supposed referendum, why did they choose 9 11? I´ll leave that up to you but wake the hell up,

SPAIN is being divided by the POWERS THAT BE following the old DIVIDE and RULE, Divide et Impera.
Barcelona is the Freemasonic and jewish capital of Spain, and they are in charge of the second biggest deception in Spanish modern history after the Civil War which is the coming independence.

People does not seem to understand that many countries in Europe are not being runned by politics or politicians representing it´s people´s interests, they are runned by the industrial complex which at the same time is runned by above mentioned societies.

Once IBERIA is divided, it´ll be easier to socially and economically control it´s people.

 

[notgoodenough]

Europe is falling apart. The eu was a failed concept from the start. Catalonia Basque Scotland New Russia and many other nations will be born within the next decade. There is nothing but a failing piece of paper currency that keeps them together. That and their unnatural fear of the Russian Bear.


Catalonia will be.