Catalonia votes on independence from Spain (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Catalonia

This weekend, 700,000 people in Catalonia are eligible to vote in the region's first ever referendum on independence from Spain.

Organised by activists and volunteers, the vote is not officially binding but it is taking place at a tense time in relations with Madrid.

Supporters hope it is the first step towards a formal ballot for a separate state.

Deep in the nationalist heartland of Catalonia, campaigners have been drumming up support for the vote.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8409767.stm




Just a reminder that Europe's nations are less homogeneous than they like to pretend.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Given that the Basques

have yet to succeed fat chance Catlalonia has got.

[mwb970]

2. Spain is actually a rather tenuous federation..

It's sometimes called the "Four Spains": Castilia, Galicia, Catalonia, and the Basque Country. The latter two have been particularly antsy about remaining in the club. Catalonian nationalism has a long history. If you visit Barcelona, all the signs are in Catalan first, with secondary translations in Spanish on them. (Not much English there.) The Basques and the Galicians also have their own languages.

Perhaps the miracle of Spain is that it has been able to masquerade as a "normal" unified nation-state for so long.

[enid602]

3. UK

This does not bode well for the (Not So) United Kingdom, what with the Scotts, Northern Irish and Welsh and all.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. UK, France, Germay, Italy

The big European countries are all the results of conquest and federation/confederation. In some cases, it was by mutual agreement, no matte how reluctant, because of outside threats.

If the EU strengthens and provides a reliable umbrella, I'd expect a lot of those groupings to weaken, if not break up. We could yet see a Europe of the Regions, as some people were calling for decades ago, rather than the current Europe of the Nations.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. That would make World Cup qualifying real fun.

347 countries fighting for 13 slots.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Not being a sports fan, I didn't even think of that

Another effect would be the fragmentation of language, with old dialects and variants and so on being resurrected in the new regions.

Which would, I think, increase the dominance of English as the one truly common European language.

Then there'd be music, culinary traditions, and so on -- all of them more vibrant.