Yesterday, on a bustling Friday afternoon, with a warm autumn sun beaming down and a breeze rustling the palm trees, Barcelona, capital of Spain’s northeast region of Catalonia, marked a new chapter after a long drawn-out, confusing and controversial battle. It was a dream stoked by politicians for decades, shaped in schools, and recently fueled by what now appear to be false promises and misguided hopes. The new, sovereign Catalan Republic, with a population of 7.5 million, was born. Or at least that is what the wily Catalan regional president, Carles Puigdemont, proclaimed after the 135-seat regional Catalan parliament voted (with 70 ayes, 10 noes, 2 abstaining, and the rest of the parliament boycotting the vote) to declare Catalonia independent from Spain, ratifying the results of a regional referendum October 1. Predictably, the declaration was greeted in Madrid in more or less the way Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were greeted in Rome.

For months, Puigdemont and his fellow separatists, who hold a slim majority in the regional parliament, have pushed the dream of an independent Catalonia, a land where residents, among other things, would be weathier, applauded by the international community and would remain part of the European Union. But even before the declaration, all three of these promises were already looking shaky.

More than a thousand businesses have moved their legal headquarters out of the region in recent weeks. Tourism has plummeted by 15 percent from this time last year, and the European Union and most other countries have declared that they do not recognize an independent Catalan Republic. As matters now stand, the new republic will have to survive without the benefits of belonging to the EU, the World Trade Organization and NATO.

Puigdemont had been wavering on independence ever since the referendum, which had been deemed illegal and unconstitutional by Madrid. The vote was marred by police violence and polling fraud and boycotted by the anti-secessionists. An overwhelming 90-10 vote for independence was cast by the 43 percent of eligible voters who did cast a ballot. (Opinion polls over the summer had shown that a plurality of Catalans were in favor of remaining part of Spain, at 49 to 41 percent.)
On Thursday, after postponing, then canceling, his planned speech on the subject, Puigdemont finally tossed the hot potato to the regional parliament. It then fell to him to announce the outcome. “Citizens of Catalonia!” he began his speech. “Hours are coming in which it will fall to all of us to maintain the pulse of the country, of our country, to maintain it in the land of peace, civility and dignity.”

See more here https://www.yahoo.com/news/streets-barcelona-sweet-dream-independence-gone-wrong-201051226.html

The first comment on the story

Steve3 hours ago
Note to self: To become an independent country you need a plan.

Really there has to be a concrete plan. Its a very high stakes venture beyond the grasp of jokers, empty rhetoric or rable rousers.

Let me comment

AntiGod:


You created a thread that's not on front page and still shouting first to comment

hold your gun in check dear and understand before attacking.

That comment in bold was picked from the comment section on the original Yahoo news link. I wasn't shouting FTC on my own thread