Spain Says Catalonia Can’t Vote for Independence, But Catalans Will Go Ahead Anyway
"This will have no effect on the process," shrugs a Catalan government spokesman
In a Tuesday ruling, Spanish judges found Catalonia’s planned independence
referendum to be unconstitutional, but secessionists in the Spanish
autonomous region (called a “community” in Spain) have vowed to proceed
regardless.
“This will have no effect on the process,” said the Catalan government’s spokesman Francesc Homs on local television.
Although stifled under the yoke of the Franco dictatorship, Catalonia
has long felt cultural and linguistic disctinction from the rest of
Spain. In recent years, it developed into a powerhouse of the nation’s
economy. However, amid the country’s financial crisis, Madrid has been
urging national unity.
“No one can unilaterally deprive the
entire Spanish people of the right to decide on their future,” Spain’s
conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told the parliament, which is
due to debate the referendum on April 8.
Catalan leaders have
compared their situation with Scotland’s, which will hold a referendum
on independence in September, but the Spanish Constitutional Court found
that the country’s charter does not allow such a poll.
Last
September 11, Catalonia’s national day, hundreds of thousands of
Catalans formed a vast human chain across the region to call for
independence. The referendum, if it goes ahead, is planned for Nov. 9
Demonstratorshold Catalan flags during a protest calling for independence from Spain in Barcelona, October 2013.
JOSEP LAGO—AFP/Getty Images
http://time.com/38137/catalonia-independence-referendum-ruled-unconstitutional-spain/
