NRT: Spain refuses to respect Catalonia’s election.

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, January 16th, 2018 - 12 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, democracy under attack, International, Politics, the praiseworthy and the pitiful - Tags: , ,

Reposted from I/S at No Right Turn.

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Last year, the Spanish government in Madrid dissolved Catalanoia’s regional government and forced regional elections in the hope of overthrowing a seperatist majority in the regional Parliament. They lost. Catalans marched to the ballot boxes in record numbers, and re-elected the people Spain wanted to get rid of. They now seem set to re-elect the Carles Puigdemont – the man Madrid overthrew – as President. So naturally, Spain is having another tantrum:

Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned Madrid will continue to run Catalonia’s government if separatist leader Carles Puigdemont tries to govern from Belgium, where he is living in self-imposed exile.

Separatist parties last week agreed to reinstall Mr Puigdemont as Catalonia’s president of government, following fresh elections in which they kept their majority in the Catalan Parliament.

[…]

In a speech at his centre-right People’s Party headquarters on Monday, Mr Rajoy said: “It’s absurd that someone aspires to be president of the Catalan regional government as a fugitive in Brussels – it’s a case of common sense.”

Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo added: “Parliamentary rules are very clear. They do not contemplate the possibility of a [parliamentary] presence that is not in person.

Maybe Spain’s parliamentary rules do. But Catalonia’s parliamentary rules are a matter for Catalans. And I’d look to Catalonia for their interpretation, not Madrid. As for Madrid’s threat, the will of the Catalan people is clear: they want the seperatists as government and Puigdemont as President. Spain needs to respect that. But that’s the whole problem, isn’t it?

12 comments on “NRT: Spain refuses to respect Catalonia’s election. ”

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  1. Draco T Bastard 1
    16 January 2018 at 10:49 am

    It’s becoming increasingly clear that a large number of UN members don’t follow or like the UN Declaration of Human Rights which specifically guarantees a nations right to self-determination.

    If Catalan wants to be independent then they have that right and the members of the UN must guarantee it.

    • Bill 1.1
      16 January 2018 at 11:10 am

      The definition of ‘what is a nation’, becomes a silly season thang in the hands of various, and supposedly august, institutions/organisations.

      I’d punt that various political bodies (eg – the EU) would hold that Catalonia, like Scotland, is not internationally recognised as a nation, and so falls outside the ambit of whatever fine words have been drawn up with respect to “nations” and “rights”.

      Which is a nice pointer on the attitude of powerful political elites towards that thing they, nevertheless, routinely claim to be so anxious to spread by way of their latest and most necessary war.

    • Instauration 1.2
      16 January 2018 at 7:04 pm

      Yes
      Key: Nation – Validation
      +++++++++++++++++++++
      Abkhazia – Elections
      Crimea – Referendum
      DPR / LPR – Survival
      South Ossetia – Elections
      Kosovo – Imposition
      Palestine – Intent and compliance failures of GA181, SC242 and Rogue Nation status of Israel
      Transnistria -Pending
      BSF – WTF ?

  2. adam 2
    16 January 2018 at 11:22 am

    Elections, somthing that doesn’t mean anything if the bosses don’t like the result.

    Who would have thought it…

  3. satty 3
    16 January 2018 at 6:49 pm

    If Bavaria decides to “leave” Germany and become an independent nation, which they considered in the past mainly because of the Länderfinanzausgleich – a mechanism to transfer some money from richer states to poorer ones within Germany – is this considered un-democratic if the rest of Germany doesn’t accept it?

    Or within New Zealand, if a very rich province (or Remuera, they prefer ACT as Government anyway) doesn’t like the central government anymore or would like to reduce their taxes, can they simply announce to be an independent nation and do their own thing?

    When is a piece of land / group of people considered an “independent nation” instead of a “region within a nation”? What is the international process to split up a nation into multiple nations? Shouldn’t this involve the citizen of the whole original nation and not just the vote of the people within the single region?

  4. greywarshark 4
    17 January 2018 at 10:17 am

    Mountains forming barriers, land formations and history seems to go a long way in forming a small separate nation.

    I am thinking of Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, Switzerland.

    San Marino – Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino
    San Marino is the world’s oldest republic that still exists. It was started in A.D. 301 by a skilled builder called Saint Marinus. Its written constitution was adopted on October 8, 1600. The very small nation was recognized by Napoleon’s France in 1797, and by the other European nations at the 1815 Congress of Vienna.

    San Marino – Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino
    San Marino officially the Republic of San Marino also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is an enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy, situated on the Italian Peninsula on the northeastern side of the Apennine Mountains. Its size is just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi) …
    ‎Economy of San Marino · ‎History of San Marino · ‎City of San Marino · ‎Dogana

    What would happen if the South Island declared itself independent? Became
    Te Wai Pounamu (the waters of greenstone) – or as countries are usually named using one word, perhaps Pounamu for a quick reference.

  5. D'Esterre 5
    17 January 2018 at 10:28 pm

    Satty: “is this considered un-democratic if the rest of Germany doesn’t accept it?”

    Bavaria was an independent state before Bismarck. Bavarians haven’t forgotten.

    We have family there: a lot of years ago, a relative told us that not only do many Bavarians not like being part of the EU, they dislike being part of a united Germany, and would prefer a return to being a principality, as was the case before Bismarck.

    As to whether it’ll happen and when: who knows. But the UK’s pending departure from the EU may tip the balance in favour of more disaggregation.

    Note EU hypocrisy in respect of Catalunya aspirations for independence via a vis those of Kosovo. Serves them bloody right if a bunch of states make a bid for independence all at the same time. Bugger all they could do about it.

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