Rally against Catalan independence
With breakaway crisis continuing, pro-unity gathering in Barcelona shows how divided region is
TENS of thousands of people took to the streets of Catalonia’s capital Barcelona yesterday to express their opposition to any declaration of independence from Spain – showing just how divided the region is on the issue.
The protesters rallied in central Barcelona, waving Spanish and Catalan flags and banners saying “Catalonia is Spain” and “Together we are stronger”, as politicians on both sides hardened their positions in the country’s worst political crisis for decades.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said at the weekend he would not rule out removing Catalonia’s government and calling a fresh election in the region, if it claimed independence, as well as suspend its existing autonomous status.
The stark warning came days before Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is expected to address the region’s parliament tomorrow, when he could unilaterally declare independence.
“We feel both Catalan and Spanish,” Araceli Ponze, 72, said as she rallied in Barcelona yesterday.
“We are facing a tremendous unknown. We will see what happens this week, but we have to speak out loudly so they know what we want.”
The wealthy northeastern region of 7.5 million people, which has its own language and culture, held an independence referendum on Sunday last week – in defiance of a Spanish court ban.
More than 90% of the 2.3 million people who voted backed secession, Catalan officials had said.
But that turnout represented only 43% of the region’s 5.3 million eligible voters, as many opponents of independence had stayed away.
The Spanish government had sent thousands of national police into the region to prevent that vote.
About 900 people were injured when the police fired rubber bullets and charged crowds with truncheons in scenes that shocked Spain and the world, and dramatically escalated the dispute.
Losing Catalonia is almost unthinkable for the government.
It would deprive Spain of about 16% of its people, a fifth of its economic output and more than a quarter of its exports.
Catalonia is also the top destination for foreign tourists, attracting about a quarter of visitors to Spain.
The stand-off has pushed banks and companies to move their headquarters outside Catalonia.
Concern is growing in European Union capitals about the impact of the crisis on the Spanish economy – the fourth largest in the eurozone – and on possible spillovers to other economies.
Some European officials are also worried that any softening in Spain’s stance towards Catalan independence could fuel secessionist feelings among other groups in Europe – such as Belgium’s Flemings and Italy’s Lombards.
Yesterday’s demonstration in Barcelona was organised by the Catalan Civil Society, an anti-independence group, under the slogan, “Let’s recover our senses”– to mobilise, what it believes, is a silent majority of citizens in Catalonia who oppose independence.
“The people who have come to demonstrate do not feel Catalan so much as Spanish,” engineer Raul Briones, 40, said. “We like how things have been up until now in Spain and the region – and we want to go on like this,” he said.
It was a second day of protests yesterday, after tens of thousands of people gathered in 50 cities across Spain on Saturday, some defending Spain’s unity and others calling for talks to defuse the crisis.
Until the weekend, Rajoy had been vague on whether he would use article 155 of the constitution, the “nuclear option”, which enables him to sack the regional government and call a regional election.
Asked if he was ready to trigger the article, Rajoy said: “I don’t rule out anything that is within the law.
“Ideally, we should not have to take drastic solutions, but for that not to happen there would have to be changes.”
The conservative prime minister has ruled out using mediators to resolve the crisis – something Puigdemont has said he was open to.
Rajoy has said the issue will not force a snap national election and that the government will prevent any independence declaration.
“Spain will continue being Spain,” the prime minister said.