Pep Guardiola joins call for referendum on Catalan independence


Pep Guardiola may have played to bigger crowds but none quite like the one he addressed in Barcelona on Sunday when he presented the case for a referendum on Catalan independence.

Speaking on the steps of Montjuïc before an estimated 40,000 of his fellow citizens, and flanked by an enormous banner with the slogan “Love Democracy”, the former Barcelona and current Manchester City manager read out a brief manifesto in Catalan, Spanish and English.

“We have tried on 18 occasions to reach an agreement on a referendum and the answer has always been no,” he told the crowd.

“We have no other option but to vote. We call on the international community to support us and on democrats the world over to help us to defend the rights that are threatened in Catalonia, such as the right of freedom of expression and the right to vote.”

On Friday, the Catalan government announced that a referendum on independence from Spain would be held on 1 October. The defiant gesture met with a familiar response from Madrid: not only would such a vote be illegal, it would not be allowed to go ahead.

“They can announce a referendum as many times as they want … but the referendum is not going to take place,” said Spain’s deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. Another minister dismissed it as “a new step in a strategy that’s leading nowhere”.


Carme Forcadell, the leader of the Catalan parliament, received a huge ovation at the Barcelona rally when she told the flag-waving crowd “there is no Plan B, the only way forward is a referendum”.

Catalonia held an unofficial referendum in November 2014 in which 80% voted for independence, but barely a third of eligible voters turned out.

“I think the turnout will be higher than in 2014 because a lot of people want to have their say,” said Jesús Espinosa, waiting in the 30-degree heat for Guardiola to speak. “We’ve been striving for this for 300 years and we’re not going to stop now.”

“What I want is for us to have the opportunity to vote and to become an independent Catalan republic and to do it legally and peacefully. Madrid will respond as it’s always done because Catalonia is a source of income and they’ll fight with all they have to keep it.”

After the mass rallies in recent years that have attracted more than a million people, Sunday’s turnout of only tens of thousands, according to the Catalan government, might be viewed as disappointing. According to a poll at the end of March, support for independence is falling, with 48.5% of Catalans opposed to seceding from Spain, while 44.3% supported breaking away.

Raül Romeva, the Catalan foreign affairs minister, told the Guardian the regional government had a duty to put independence to a popular vote. “We have tried to reach a consensual agreement with Madrid but their response has always been no,” he said.

“At the end of the day – given there’s not even been the will to sit down at the table to discuss the question – the Catalan government had a democratic obligation and the mandate to put this to the people of Catalonia so that they can express themselves freely.”

Although Spain’s constitutional court ruled that a previous, non-binding referendum held in November 2014 was illegal, Romeva insisted there was nothing in the Spanish constitution to stop the new vote going ahead.


Madrid has hinted that it could seek to thwart the vote by invoking article 155 of the constitution. In theory, the drastic step would allow it to suspend regional autonomy, order the closure of schools in the region to stop them being used as polling stations and even take control of the Catalan police.

Asked if the Catalan government was planning for such a scenario, Romeva said: “We don’t know how the government is going to stop something that is legal, legitimate and democratic … When we know what we need to respond to, we will.”

Whatever happened, he added, the Catalan government remained committed to a referendum regardless of its outcome.

“We know that people want to be asked the question,” he said. “And if the result of the referendum is no, we’ll respect that result, full stop. And if it’s yes, that result will have to be respected. I don’t know what the result will be – no one does.''


Source
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/11/pep-guardiola-referendum-catalan-independence-barcelona-rally

And Biafra too. We even need it more than the catalonians because in the zoo, the rights of Biafrans are being denied them, sponsored herdsmen are stylishly carrying out genocide against Biafrans plus other atrocities against Biafrans too numerous to mention.

Even Pep Guardiola want referendum

Zoo police. Go and shoot Pep, he wants to secede. Illiteracy go kill una, zoo people

In the cespit called Nigeria, his body would have been embalmed in a mortuary by now for asking for his God-given rights to self determination.

Unity beggars (including myself) are mad - Awolowo.

Zoo people, Pep Guardiola is an IPOB youth.

Is Spain not the country where the Biafrau.dsters opened their 1st Beer Parlour that thay are using to deceive the gullible ones among them as their 1st Embassy.

We’ve been striving for this for 300 years and we’re not going to stop now.

iPods and Biafrau.d agitators or blackmailers, your journey remains 250years in the minimum.

Spain is a civilized country.

The same cannot be said of Nigeria.

Super1Star:
Is Spain not the country where the Biafrau.dsters opened their 1st Beer Parlour that thay are using to deceive the gullible ones among them as their 1st Embassy.





iPods and Biafrau.d agitators or blackmailers, your journey remains 250years in the minimum.

According to illiterates, Guardiola has committed treason.

taguafuo:


According to illiterates, Guardiola has committed treason.

According to iPobic Semi-Illiterates, Guardiola is not a JEWISH HERO because he is not preaching hate message towards Madridstas, he is not inciting genocide against Madridstas and he is not soliciting for funds to wage war against Spain.

To learned mind, he is a gentleman with right to self determination and clamouring for it in a lawful and civil manner without infringing on the right of others or threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Spain with war. That is civility and not a garrulous barbaric and uncouth lunatic bleaching albino.

Super1Star:


According to iPobic Semi-Illiterates, Guardiola is not a JEWISH HERO because he is not preaching hate message towards Madridstas, he is not inciting genocide against Madridstas and he is not soliciting for funds to wage war against Spain.

To learned mind, he is a gentleman with right to self determination and clamouring for it in a lawful and civil manner without infringing on the right of others or threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Spain with war. That is civility and not a garrulous barbaric and uncouth lunatic bleaching albino.

LET AFONJA MUSLIMS KEEP ON USING YOU

IJOBA2:
LET AFONJA MUSLIMS KEEP ON USING YOU

.....and let Osu Jews keep subjugating you.