I think it is appropriate for a range of view on the situation in Catalonia to be presented.
As you may have heard, the regional government of Catalonia was planning to hold an independence referendum. The Spanish Constitutional Court has ruled it illegal, and the Spanish Government is sending in police to stop it from happening.
The natural inclination is to want to side with plucky little Catalonia. After all, the central government in Spain is not particularly admirable. Also, the Catalonians have been victims of historic persecution. And the visuals of of the state police moving in are disturbing.
But ask yourself: the Mormons suffered historical persecution. Does that mean the governor of Utah has the right to unilaterally declare that there will be a "binding" referendum on secession, and that can he help himself to millions in taxpayer dollars to pay for it? As for the images of the police: do you think it was wrong for the National Guard to be sent into the Southern states in the 50s and 60s then the governors there declared that they were only bound by the parts of the constitution they agreed with?
Let's look at this in a sequence of ever-widening views.
1) Catalonian's don't want independence. The Centre for Opinion Studies, the polling organization of the regional government, released new figures showing the percentage of people supporting a Catalan independent state dropped to 41.1 percent in June from 44.3 percent in March.
Link to Politico.eu
So why is Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s president, calling for this referendum? Because the unwavering support of those 40-45% people is all that needs to keep himself in office. He is pandering to his base to prop up his administration.
2) The view from Spain as a whole is that what Puigdemont is doing it illegal - and they are undoubtedly right. The country’s 1978 constitution doesn’t allow any region to vote alone on independence: Either all of Spain votes on the Catalan question, or no one does.
The Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that Puigdemont's unilateral decision to hold a referendum was illegitimate. It was a judge in Barcelona - not the central government in Madrid - that ordered in the police in last week.
3) Wider still, the view from the EU is that what Puigdemont is doing is illegitimate. The pro-independence bloc has a wafer-thin majority in the Catalonian parliament. They rammed through the legislation that appropriated the control and the money for the referendum to themselves in violation of both Catalan law and the Spanish constitution. All of which is also a violation of EU laws. The Venice Commission – a panel of experts who advise the Council of Europe on constitutional law – wrote to Puigdemont to inform him that his actions were illegitimate. If Puigdemont insists that he has a legitimate grievance, he could take his case to the European Court of Justice, but he prefers street action instead. As a result, the EU is hamstrung, as they are barred from involvement in internal political campaigns in the member states. However, they have made it clear that if Catalonia leaves Spain then it will leave the EU as well, which is the clearest, strongest declaration they can make.
4) Wider still, there are grounds for international concern that that Russia is stirring the pot in Catalonia. And they do have previous on such matters. Details here: Link to yahoonews
5) Wider still, the UN looked at the question of Catalonia and also decided that the claims of the separatists were illegitimate.
The United Nations does not view Spain's separatist-ruled Catalonia region as having the right to self-determination, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in an interview published Saturday.
"Spain is an independent and sovereign country that includes the Catalan region," Ban told four Spanish newspapers, El Pais, El Mundo, ABC and La Vanguardia.
"It is in this way that it was admitted to the United Nations and acts within the international community," he said, according to a Spanish translation of his comments published by El Pais.
Link to yahoonewsUK
There is no doubt that the scenes from Catalonia show us evidence of a colossal failure of Spanish politics as a whole. But, at the same time, it is equally obvious that the root cause is unscrupulous Catalonian politicians throwing red meat to their base in a manner that our own Republicans would admire.