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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCatalonia (Spain) in crisis -- austerity policy again
It started last week in Barcelona, capital of the Autonomous Region of Catalonia, the richest region in Spain. Of the 7.5 million Catalans, between 600,000 and 1.5 millionan astounding 8% to 20% of the population!protested in the streets, demanding independence.Antagonism between Catalonia and Spain has simmered for a long time. But the financial fiasco that Spain is mired in deepened the fissures. Out-of-money Catalonia had to ask the central government for a bailout. Catalans are frustrated. They claim that under the current fiscal setup, Catalonia transfers 16 billion annually to the central government, and that these transfers bankrupted the region. Now, in exchange for the bailout, the central government has imposed austerity measures that cut into health care, education, and other services.
On Thursday, Catalan President Artur Mas met with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, originally to beg him for a new tax deal. But the massive demonstration in Barcelona had added independence to the agenda. Rajoy brushed him off, with references to the constitution that didnt allow regions to secede.
Constitutions may or may not be modified, but they do not subjugate the will of the people, Mas lamented after the meeting. As leader of the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia and chairman of the governing Convergència i Unió (CiU) coalition, he represents the middle class and has supported Catalan independence only in an ambiguous manner. Until now. Catalonia will follow its path, he said. Parliament would meet next week to consider the next steps.
Illegal and lethal, howled Foreign Minister José Manuel 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 Spains veto would bar Catalonia indefinitely, he said.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/wolf-richter-catalonia-cries-for-independence-while-the-spanish-military-threatens-to-crush-the-vultures.html#zq0WczAbJ3JVS8Cu.99
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Catalonia (Spain) in crisis -- austerity policy again (Original Post)
HiPointDem
Sep 2012
OP
tama
(9,137 posts)1. Redux?
Catalonian people have not forgotten their anarchist roots and Spanish civil war. And the fascists of Spanish army have not forgotten their roots:
Colonel Francisco Alaman promised to crush the vultures if they chose independence. Independence for Catalonia? Over my dead body, he said. Even if the lion is sleeping, dont provoke the lion, because he will show the ferocity proven over centuries. Words of the crazed fringe? Apparently not. Deeply-rooted thinking in large parts of the armed forces, explained retired Lt-Gen Pedro Pitarch. And it opened a whole new chapter in the Eurozone saga that, despite all assurances to the contrary, simply keeps getting more uncertain.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/wolf-richter-catalonia-cries-for-independence-while-the-spanish-military-threatens-to-crush-the-vultures.html#kufmpyEKfF6tk9Td.99