Spain, unemployment of over 25% and youth unemployment of over 50%. Last week in Barcelona, capital of the Autonomous Region of Catalonia with a population of 7.5 million Catalans, between 600,000 and 1.5 million—8% to 20% of the population!—protested in the streets, demanding independence. Out-of-money Catalonia had to ask the central government for a bailout. They claim that under the current fiscal setup, Catalonia transfers €16 billion annually to the central government, and that these transfers bankrupted the region. Catalonia have an economy the size of Austria. Now, in exchange for the bailout, the central government has imposed austerity measures that cut into health care, education, and other services.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy declared the constitution that didn’t allow regions to secede. “Illegal and lethal,” said Foreign Minister José García-Margallo and threated Catalonia with exclusion from the EU if it chose independence. Decisions in Brussels as to which country will be allowed to accede to the EU have to be unanimous, and Spain’s veto would bar Catalonia “indefinitely,” he said.
Catalan President Artur Mas rebutted “Constitutions may or may not be modified, but they do not subjugate the will of the people,”
Meanwhile within the powerful military, a serving army officer, Colonel Francisco Alaman, compared the crisis with 1936 – when Gen Francisco Franco seized power – and by vowing to crush Catalan nationalists, described as “vultures”.
“Independence for Catalunya? Over my dead body. Spain is not Yugoslavia or Belgium. Even if the lion is sleeping, don’t provoke the lion, because he will show the ferocity proven over centuries,” he said.
Retired Lt-Gen Pedro Pitarch, a former army chief, said the words reflect “deeply-rooted thinking in large parts of the armed forces”
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy declared the constitution that didn’t allow regions to secede. “Illegal and lethal,” said Foreign Minister José García-Margallo and threated Catalonia with exclusion from the EU if it chose independence. Decisions in Brussels as to which country will be allowed to accede to the EU have to be unanimous, and Spain’s veto would bar Catalonia “indefinitely,” he said.
Catalan President Artur Mas rebutted “Constitutions may or may not be modified, but they do not subjugate the will of the people,”
Meanwhile within the powerful military, a serving army officer, Colonel Francisco Alaman, compared the crisis with 1936 – when Gen Francisco Franco seized power – and by vowing to crush Catalan nationalists, described as “vultures”.
“Independence for Catalunya? Over my dead body. Spain is not Yugoslavia or Belgium. Even if the lion is sleeping, don’t provoke the lion, because he will show the ferocity proven over centuries,” he said.
Retired Lt-Gen Pedro Pitarch, a former army chief, said the words reflect “deeply-rooted thinking in large parts of the armed forces”
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