Homage to Catalonia Again by Daniel Dilworth

Hundreds of thousands have rallied for it; numerous political parties in the region support it;they speak a completely seperate language there. Artur Mas has signed legislation allowing a much-sought independence referendum for it.

And yet…Mariano Rajoy and Madrid continue to deny it.

I am talking about is the Catalan Independence referedum, scheduled for 9th November. In recent years a wave of nationalist sentiment in the region – already carrying limited autonomy –  has mushroomed, inadvertently assisted by the policies of successive governments in the far away capital of Madrid. Catalans feel they have been shouldering the brunt of the economic crisis in Spain and that their industries have been subsidising the less-well off regions such as Andalucia. Momentum has grown and at a much faster pace than say Scotland.

But what have these two regions got in common? Both have strong independence movements; both are financially feasible should they become independent – which Scotland has voted against –  a result that would disappoint both William Wallace and Robert “Braveheart” Bruce (no, that is not an error – just showing one of the major inaccuracies of Mel Gibson’s infamously inaccurate films, but that’s for another day);  and both of these regions’ independence was/is opposed by the European Union.

Madrid’s argument that any such independence referendum would be unconstitutional really annoys the Catalan people. Spanish army generals have suggested military intervention should independence be declared.

All of this poses a problem though. Democracy is considered a birthright in Western nations. This must extend to a referendum on autonomy. The hypocrisy is evident: Spain is simultaneously threatening to undermine one perfectly legitimate referendum while questioning the desire the people of the Crimea to vote to join Russia.

This referendum could’ve failed. Spain could’ve kept the independence movement in check by granting more concessions, by sweetening the deal for Catalonia. However, it has decided that scare-tactics work best and these aren’t the scare-tactics as deployed by Westminster in the Scottish referendum, warning of eternal economic gloom. No, Spain’s scare-tactics consist of numerous warnings against the legitimacy of the referendum and threatening military action. And yet it somehow doesn’t seem to expect a conflict like that it waged for decades against ETA.