Catalonia wants out; Spain says no

In an anti-Catalan-independence rally in Madrid, Fascist salutes were seen.

I would not support armed intervention against that movement, though it is fraught with potential damage for this country.

Morton County police use teargas, a water cannon and rubber bullets against demonstrators from Standing Rock in North Dakota on Sunday night. Protesters braved freezing conditions and percussion grenades as they resisted the controversial pipeline with chants of ‘water not oil’. The company working on the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, has almost completed the system, but lack the permission to drill under the river

I guess my union and yours have quite different origins, and that fact speaks to our different perspectives.

VIELHA, Spain (Reuters) - If Catalonia declares independence from Spain this week, one community in the region’s mountainous north might declare independence from Catalonia.

Most people in the picturesque Aran Valley - a semi-autonomous community nestled among the Pyrenees - want to stay with Spain, and the area has the right to self-determination under a law passed in 2015 by the Catalan parliament.

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The immediate practical consequences of Catalan independence – like those of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal – would have far-reaching implications for the region, its businesses and its people.

As with warnings of City firms fleeing a hard Brexit, industry is already alarmed: half a dozen Spanish companies, including major banks, are moving their registered head offices to guarantee access to their domestic and wider EU markets.

Despite claims by pro-independence campaigners that the EU would not want to lose a wealthy region that would rank 15th or 16th in the bloc in terms of GDP, Brussels has made clear that the region will not automatically become a member.

It would have to apply, and acceptance would require the agreement of every other EU member state – including Spain, which in 2014 threatened to veto an eventual Scottish accession bid precisely to discourage Catalan independence.

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[...]
On Monday, it emerged that the head of the Catalan high court had ordered Spanish national police officers to help protect the court building, which is usually guarded by the Mossos. Explaining his decision in a statement, Jesús María Barrientos said a declaration of independence could disrupt the running of the court and could even result in judges – including himself – being removed.

Speaking on Monday evening, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, called for urgent negotiations, saying Spain was facing its “greatest institutional crisis” since its return to democracy following the death of Franco in 1975.

She asked both Rajoy and Puigdemont to drop their entrenched positions and to talk to each other. “We cannot allow ourselves to jeopardise either social cohesion or Catalan institutions,” she said.

“The results of 1 October cannot be used as a guarantee for the declaration of independence. But they do represent an opportunity to open dialogue and international mediation.” Urging both sides to calm the tensions, she added: “It’s time to build bridges; not to blow them up.”
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Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is facing growing pressure to drop plans to break from Spain ahead of a key address to the regional parliament.
There has been speculation that he could announce a unilateral declaration of independence following a disputed referendum.
France and Germany have both expressed support for a united Spain.
The mayor of Barcelona urged Mr Puigdemont and Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy to "de-escalate" the crisis.
Ahead of Mr Puigdemont's speech to the Catalan parliament on Tuesday evening, Mayor Ada Colau urged him not to declare independence, and also called on Mr Rajoy to rule out direct control from Madrid.
"I ask them not to take any decision that might blow up the possibility of any space for dialogue and mediation," said Ms Colau.
"That is the most courageous act they could do now."

BARCELONA, Spain — What links an anarchist youth group, a conservative party of free marketeers and a left-wing party committed instead to enhancing the welfare state?

The answer lies in the Catalan independence movement, which in the last seven years has morphed from a marginal force into a genuine threat to Spain’s territorial integrity, largely through a marriage of convenience among several unlikely bedfellows.

If this separatist alliance sounds fragile, unwieldy and paradoxical, that’s because it is.

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Quote:

Isaiah Berlin once wrote that nationalism feeds on a sense of wounded pride and humiliation. As Europe tries to sort itself out and prepare for the future – including through grassroots “democratic conventions” due next year across the continent – it would do well to pay closer attention to those wounds left by history. We thought that they had healed – but they really haven’t.