Will this lead to what the Spanish Prime Minister has called the “mutilation” of Spain i.e. the secession of Catalonia and the Basque country? Is it likely to encourage other minority regions throughout the European Union to seek more self-determination e.g. Scotland, Brittany, Wallonia, Sardinia etc?
Independence party makes huge gains in Catalan elections
The cry of “independence” rang through Catalonia yesterday after the spectacular advance in Sunday’s regional elections of a party calling for freedom from Spain. The Republican Left (ERC) increased its seats from 12 to 23 in the autonomous parliament - not enough to rule, but decisive in deciding Catalonia’s next government. The separatist mood has sent shudders through Madrid. The long-governing conservative nationalist Convergence and Union (CiU) and opposition Socialists each lost to the ERC. But the CiU emerged with most seats, 46 in the 135-seat parliament, enabling it to claim victory with some conviction.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=464764
The catalan sentiment goes up and down, I recall it was very big in 80's and even in 90's. During college some of my pals from barca referred to themselves as catalan and not spanish, but with the whole EU thing happening they seemed to calm down, or maybe it was that they did not have free time anymore.
I do not think that there will be a seperation there, there are many supporters, but many more ppl who are ambivalent about it, they may support the Catalan's in elections but may not be so quick to go for a seperation.
Although from an economic perspective it probably makes more sense now than it did back then..
here is a question, if they do break away, would they automatically be part of EU and get grandfathered in or apply to get in?
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*Originally posted by Fraudz: *
here is a question, if they do break away, would they automatically be part of EU and get grandfathered in or apply to get in?
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I believe they would be admitted to the EU automatically like East Germany. The separatists in Catalonia and Scotland have always emphasised that they want be independent but as part of the EU.
well independent but not part of EU would mean economic suicide for them. I wonder how they would feel when the control is not from London or Madrid but from Brussles in terms of EU directives :)
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*Originally posted by Fraudz: *
well independent but not part of EU would mean economic suicide for them. I wonder how they would feel when the control is not from London or Madrid but from Brussles in terms of EU directives :)
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That's what the whole EU constitution debate is about, namely setting up federal EU institutions like a Presidency, foreign policy supemo and army, but at the same time devloving power back to the EU regions. How they square those goals to please the Catalans, Scots and others is another thing.
Do these parties have populat support for all their mandates? I dunno bout catalans but my scottish pals say that more autnomy would be nice but not indpendence and that their stance represents the popular sentiment.
I believe that polls have shown that about a quarter of Scots have consistently supported outright independence from the UK. This figure used to be quite a bit higher, but has fallen since Scotland acquired it's own parliament, but of course demands for total independence will always remain from a hard core of people. If the Spanish state decides to devolve more power to it's regions, then it may well do the same trick and dampen down separatist sentiments in Catalonia, and other non-Castilian speaking regions.