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The Countdown To Europe’s Next Crisis Has Started: 28 Days To Go
The European Union has been experiencing a true rollercoaster of emotions lately. The Greek crisis has just been solved, but the next existential crisis is already silently and quietly erupting, and not in Greece. The mainstream media seems to be forgetting it isn’t just Greece which has announced snap elections, but the same thing has happened in Catalonia, an autonomous region in Spain.
Source: Wikipedia
After feeding the nationalistic feelings for quite a while, the Catalan president Artur Mas has called for new elections, hoping to get an even stronger mandate to secure the independency of Catalonia from Spain. As you might remember from last year, Catalonia has already held a referendum to find out the people’s sentiment about being independent, and the central government in Madrid has done everything it could do to sabotage the referendum. And Madrid was right, as almost 80% of the voters voted ‘yes’ on the question if they would like to see Catalonia as an independent nation. The turnout was pretty low, but we would expect the aye and nay-sayers to be very close to each other.
Mas is very popular in the region and has proven to be a brilliant politician by quietly increasing and strengthening the ‘Catalan identity’, and the region has undergone a real metamorphosis in the past 10-15 years as it has quietly removed itself further and further away from the central government in Madrid.
As part of creating/emphasizing the Catalan identity, the use of the Catalan language (which seems to be a weird mix of Spanish and French) has been encouraged and is now the standard language in Catalan schools (despite being challenged in front of the Spanish Supreme Court). Not only did Madrid not like this, the central government was also pretty furious the Catalan educational system isn’t even using Spanish as first language. Catalan is everywhere. Street signs? Catalan. Super market descriptions and bills? Catalan.
And it didn’t stop with the language. Catalonia has slowly gained additional autonomy. Public transportation? It started with the buses, but in the past few years, Catalonia has actually taken the reigns of railway transportation as well and now operates all rail services inside the region. Needless to say the ‘Catalan identity’ is at its highest level since Barcelona was conquered by the Spanish army in the 15th century.
It has even evolved to the point where cities and villages are now waving not just the Catalan flag, but the flag to symbolize the Catalan independency (with the white star in the blue area). We have seen this type of identity-creating before; in Germany during the interbellum. Will the separatist parties win? There’s a decent chance as the recent polls seem to indicate there’s no clear winner yet, but in a more surprising move, the pro-independency parties have now teamed up and will combine their forces in the September 27 election.
Other autonomous regions are keeping an eye on further developments and the president of Aragon, a neighboring region, has already said he is open to investigate to include Catalan as an official language in his region.
If the Catalan nationalists would win the election, Madrid will have some serious headaches as a clear vote for Catalan independency undermines the central government’s authority. On top of that, Madrid can’t really offer Catalonia much more autonomy as the majority of the most important domains have already been transferred to Catalonia (education, public transportation, allowing to use Catalan as the first language,…). So if the Catalans would want to push for more autonomy, Madrid will be paralyzed.
Source: The Economist
And it can’t afford to be. Catalonia is one of the richest regions of Spain with the highest standard of living and lowest unemployment rate. So for the sake of statistics, Spain’s situation would be as bad as Greece’s situation without Catalonia.
A constitutional crisis in Spain will also trigger a crisis on the European level, as a paralyzed Spain under the pressure of a push for independence will no longer be able to focus on meeting its debt and budget commitments. Spain will look for help from the European Union, but the latter won’t be able to do anything at all. Why? Pretty simple, the European Union cannot interfere in constitutional issues inside a sovereign country as long as there are no violations of the international right.
Keep an eye on Spain, as we think this country will trigger the next identity crisis in the European Union, and this is a crisis which won’t be able to be resolved by switching on the printing presses.
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This article demonstrates an astonishing and shameful ignorance.
Catalan sentiment comes from an ancient culture. Catalan language is as old as the Spanish, French, Portuguese or Italian because it comes from the Latin like them. It is by no means a mixture of French and Spanish.
The level of ignorance shown by the Americans in general about anything beyond its boundaries is simply amazing.
You should know that Catalonia already had own parliament in the thirteenth century, only to be oldest in Europe the English and Icelandic parliament.
Artur Mas has not created any sense of catalan identity. Say that stupidity is like saying that Barack Obama has created the American identity. The person who write the amount of crap that says this article, would be suspended in any European school.
Please read a bit, learn something beyond the list of US presidents.
The world is very large and small countries such Catalonia with its own culture, already they existed many centuries before the appearance of the first "proud" American.
And Catalonia will remain when you destroy yourselves under the weight of your obesity and ignorance.
Geez, you are mad at this article? "Mixture" in this context in English means 'lies somewhere in between' or 'has things in common with both' which I'd say is physically and literally correct. Don't get mad at idioms you don't understand, please have a positive outlook on coverage like this.
People reading zh understand the rich history of the area. It goes without saying that the "identity" of Catalonia is not created by Mas, but it has been greatly fostered by him.
What share of the current Spanish government debt will Cataluña assume if it obtains independence ?
A September to remember and hope to forget.
Time keeps on tickin...into the future...not sure how big of a deal this is but we can add another scenario to all the other things going on end of September it seems.
The phenomenon of Catalonian separatism is similar to the Italian Northern League. The motivation in both cases is selfishness - an unwillingness to assist poorer territories of the nation. As both nations claim to be Christian, this is a contrdiction to their proclaimed beliefs. Unfortunately for the Italians, they do not have a linguistic tool to reinforce their program, unless they wish to adopt the Tyrolean dialect - a blend of Italian and Swiss German. The use of language to reinforce separatist political programs is nowhere more evident than in Israel, where Hebrew was artificially reintroduced and forced on the citizenry.
selfishness? unwillingness to assist?
wow...that's what every parasite in America says too.
The socialist refrain of "selfishness" is so misguided. Who do you think made the 0.01% so fabulously wealthy and the poor regions poor? It was the government. If you look at the poor regions of any country, they have the most powerful and active local governments, and the worst income inequality. If you want to force people to be nice, take their pratorian guard away, the government.
With no government every person has the greatest opportunity to succeed. But that opportunity requires people to be strong and brave. That is scary to many. They have chosen to be poor and slaves instead of bold men and women.
The real crisis is that the entire culture of Europe is gradually being subsumed and conquered by Muslim invaders.
Humanitarian crisis indeed! The Crusades lost via consumerism, political correctness, and somnolence.
Europe is not in a crisis as long as Germany's economy is firing on all cylinders. When the Chinese crapshoot unravels and Germany's manufacturing sales begin to stall... then its lights out for all of Europe.
RTFR - RAISE THE FUCKING RATES
Pass it on
Janet dosnt have any balls so no raite rise any time soon. Wish that this shit would accelerat business is imposible. Working 14 hrs a day to pay the bills so I dont sell the precious sucks but ai am a hustler. Spain Greece Italy all have the central banks to continue to bail them out we need a black swan yesterday
Hey, just take a look a this
Catalonia calling the Chinese Navyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln0KZ3tLM2ghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Note it's not a gag, it's a "serious" politics TV magazine.
Believe me. It's just a farce, and everyone here knows it's a farce.
look out below because of this shit?!? please
oh, don't worry. The independence trendtopic is just BS, useful noise for debt negotiations and an excelent enterteinment for nerds. It's not a real issue. Here, in Spain, everyone knows it's just BS, and that's why nothing happens at all.
They could even declare unilateral independece one day, and nothing would happen. I mean NOTHING. As if it had been a dream, another pararel reality.
(BTW, That wiki report is astonishingly naive.)
I'm sorry, but I don't really bealive that that report is authored by Wikipedia. It seems only to be the source of the maps..
1oz Silver American Eagle just €13 @ EurGold
https://www.eurgold.eu/silver/american-eagle-1oz-silver-coin-1-dollar-le...
NeoFascists already prepared:
"The legislation includes fines of up to 600 euros for failing to notify authorities about demonstrations in public areas, even in the case of peaceful protests. Once approved, marches that veer from the approved itineraries could face fines of up to 600 euros.
The fines climb to 30,000 euros for protests that result in “serious disturbances of public safety” near parliament and Spain’s regional government buildings. Unauthorised protests that take place near key infrastructure, such as transportation hubs, nuclear power plants, refineries and telecommunications installations could result in fines of up to 600,000 euros."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/spain-security-law-proteste...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/spains-orwellian-citizens-security-law-gag/...
http://www.rt.com/news/248841-hologram-protest-spain-law/
So if Catalonia is an independent nation, will it still be part of the EU and NATO? Will it have its own foreign policy? The implications are not all economic.
And that's the question. Since they are successful, independent and stubborn, the EU could have a hard time selling it. Along with the disaster the EU has created in Greece is the slow collapse of other southern countries, I wouldn't volunteer for that clusterfuck.....
Fear not!… The House That Brussels Built will remain consolidated and permanently expanding, whether or not the population is aware of it.
care to explain?
please, I really don't bealive to have accomplished a working understanding of power dynamics in Europe, they are so intricate.