The Catalonian UDI declared by pro-independence members of the Catalan parliament who command a slim majority of regional deputies, would be a farce if it were not so tragic.
Don’t be taken in by anti-system youths euphorically waving Catalan Independence flags and emotional memories of Franco’s repression and comments about this ‘day of liberation.’
Spain has had forty years of democracy. It is not run by a dictatorship. It believes in the rule of law and has every right to defend it.
The UDI was declared with scant regard for the opinion of over 50 per cent of the Catalan population who did not vote in the referendum on October Ist because it was unlawful and because they do not want to separate from Spain.
The UDI is a violation of parliamentary legality and Catalonia’s own statute of autonomy.
The UDI is in defiance not just of the democratically elected government of Spain but of all the major opposition parties represented in the democratically elected Spanish parliament.
The UDI has no political credibility let alone legality within the European Union.
THE UDI counts on the support of much less than half the voting population in Catalonia who voted in an unlawful and politically manipulated referendum.
The UDI as democratic as a Latin American military coup , a populist fascist or communist uprising, an African bogus election, or a fundamentalist breakaway Islamic state.
The UDI reeks of the kind of intolerant fanatical nationalisms and anarchy that in the past provoked wars.
It is also a monstrous act of self-delusion given that Catalonia has neither the currency, business support nor security apparatus, let alone international complicity, to self-govern as an outlawed state.Only Putin and the next active cell of Islamist terrorists must be relishing this moment of apparent disintegration.
Catalonia’s UDI is act of folly carried out by a cabal of utterly irresponsible self-serving power intoxicated and in some cases corrupt politicians, driven by their agitprop supporters who vote with their feet, and think that politics is resolved by pulling down a flag and putting up another one or by the numbers of militants you can mobilise on the streets.
My heart goes out to my Catalan friends who are against Independence but must now fear their world will fall apart as they are caught in the cross-fire of those who ignored them for too long both in Barcelona and Madrid. They are watching the attempted destruction of the multinational pluralistic, tolerant outward creative society that was once Catalonia. What a terrible tragedy for Catalonia, and Spain.
Thanks again Jimmy for your view but, as usual I do not agree one bit. The tragedy is trying to speak to a state that still think that Constitutions are written in stone and put away forever more, never to be re-visited. Do I look like a flag-waving anti-system youth? Not one bit and there are thousands more like me. If beating a crowd of peaceful people by hundreds of helmeted police dressed for football hooligans and causing over 800 injured people is not an echoe of Francoism, what is? If taking away our Government to try to restore democracy is Spain’s only try at making things work, does this not remind you of Franco’s coup? Spain needs to change it’s mind frame because force isn’t working. People need love and understanding to begin to believe in a project. Spain offers nothing to Catalunya and has no real project of its own. Catalunya does and these youths (who I incidently respect) and my 91 year-old mother-in-law who lived through the war and thousands of other people, prefer Catalunya’s project to Spain’s, which, to put it bluntly, reeks of moth-balls. Enough said and time will tell.