Almost 200,000 people joined together Sunday in Spain's Basque Country to create a 202-kilometer (125-mile) human chain to make the case for having a vote on independence.
The chain was organized by the Basque group Gure Esku Dago (In Our Own Hands), and stretched from the seaside resort of San Sebastián west to the city of Bilbao and then south to Vitoria, the home of the Basque parliament. With 175,000 participants, according to Gure Esku Dago, the group almost doubled the 100,000 it said it would need to link the chain.
"The need to decide here in the Basque Country is what has brought together more than 175,000 people today. We are not afraid of freedom. The future is in our hands. Gure Esku Dago! #BasquesDecide," Gure Esku Dago wrote in a Facebook post.
The chain wasn't strictly about the right to vote for independence. It was also about the right of governance, and importantly, the right of Basques to control their pensions. Organizers drafted a document including 2019 reasons defending their right to decide the independence of the Basque Country. The document was handed to the Basque Parliament in Vitoria.
The Spanish constitution, which was ratified in 1978 after the regime of dictator Francisco Franco, states that Spain is both "common and indivisible" and maintains that any independence ballot is illegal.
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TheUbermensch:
Countries of today can't remain "common and indivisible" for so long. Someday they'd split into smithereens. It's inevitable.