Saturday, September 30, 2017

Why Madrid Will Never Let Catalonia Go


Zero Hedge: Why Madrid Will Never Let Go - Catalonia Is Closer To The Eurozone Than Spain

As we have detailed previously, the Spanish region of Catalonia in the North-Eastern corner of Spain will attempt to hold an independence referendum tomorrow, against the will of the central government in Madrid.

Apart from the Baleares and the Madrid region itself, Catalonia together with its capital Barcelona is one of the most economically-powerful parts of the country.

Notably, as Statista's infographic below shows that the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of Catalonia lies closer to that of the Eurozone than of Spain as a whole.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The Spanish authorities have gone out of their war to make sure that Sunday's referendum will not proceed .... Catalan leader 'won't give up' as police seal off polling stations (AFP). What's next .... it looks like the referendum vote has been quashed, but these actions have only inflamed separatist sentiment in Catalonia. My prediction .... this crisis is far from finished.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I do not get the separatist movement.

Will they fragment into postage stamp sized countries?

To hold onto them is to swallow a poison pill.

Do the legislatures not work?

Unknown said...

Provence is right next door.

Is France taking notes?

Jac said...

That's not finished at all, because if you go back in the history, Catalonia (French side and Spanish side) was a country by itself. France took the north and Spain the south. That's a revenge and if the Spain part become independent, the French side will want the same (and that's not new at all).

B.Poster said...

Catalonia will eventually get its independence. Spain cannot prevent it. Such thuggery on the part of Spanish authorities only makes matters worse for Spain when it does happen.

Trying to prevent Catalonian independence is a futile effort that cannot succeed. Spain should try and negotiate an amicable separation.

Anonymous said...

The Russians did it.

D.Plowman said...

I find it fascinating to watch the media take on this. It make for a good study project on journalism.

Here we have a democratically country having a major crisis in which a very productive piece of that country wishes to split away, of which Spain is denouncing as illegal.

Judging by what is being reported - police are being used to bully, intimidate and shut down any sort of attempt by Catalonian supporters to endorse this referendum.

If this happened in a authoritarian country, we would see very different reporting taking place. Yet the mainstream media, while reporting the thuggish actions by the police, are seemingly uncaring about the plight of those who are out in support of Catalonia, not to mention they are playing down the actions of the police and trying to represent a view that Catalonia is alone in this battle with most of Spain against this referendum.

Maybe that is the case. Regardless, I still find it interesting how quickly the media will change their perspective and reporting style based on several variables.