CATALONIA -- Catalonia will vote | catalan views

Catalonia will vote | catalan views:

Catalonia will vote

By Josep-Maria Ter... on Fri, 23/05/2014 - 17:58

More on:

• European elections

• European Union

• self-determination

We have many problems in Catalonia. Among others: high unemployment
rates, social exclusion and few opportunities for our youngsters.
Catalan citizens have mobilised themselves strongly to look for
solutions from different ideological stances. The greater part of
Catalan society has organised itself in order to allow us to decide on
our future as a country by voting. We want to decide whether we want to
become an independent State. We want to vote to provide ourselves with
the necessary tools to govern ourselves and solve our own problems.

The international press talks about a solution to the Catalan
problem. Undoubtedly they have understood the strength of civic
mobilisation in Catalan society and they observe the lack of answers
from the Spanish Government with perplexity. We, the Catalan
Independence Left-Wing, want to build a new State that can contribute to
shaping a new Europe. We are pro-European and for this reason we want
to change Europe, making it more democratic and open. Based on its
founding principles, the European Union needs to set a democratic
example by allowing the Catalan people to express itself freely and by
respecting its decision.

We want more democracy, more Europe and more Catalonia. We propose a
federal model for Europe, in which Member States would give the EU
greater powers. We European citizens have a unique opportunity to
reclaim the project envisioned at the foundation of the EU and to build
it on new equality criteria. Catalonia wants to become an example of
this and for this reason the opposition to some Spanish laws has been
led from our country, for example opposing the new regulation on
abortion, the civic security law that attacks freedom of expression and
the new education law that aims "to Hispanicise Catalan pupils", in the
words of José Ignacio Wert, Education Minister in Mariano Rajoy's
Government.

For this reason we want to vote and we will vote. More than 80% of
Catalans demand it. Democracy is the best tool to solve conflicts, and
the European Union is an example of this with valuable experience. We
propose building a new State within the European Union, from a
Centre-Left, democratic and pro-European perspective. We are going to
Brussels and Strasbourg to present our democratic endeavour, but also to
bring our knowledge and experience. We want to be listened to but we
will also work for building the New Europe that so many Europeans are
dreaming of. And for all of this, Catalonia will vote on the 25^th of May and on the 9^th of November.

 

by Josep-Maria Terricabras

Main candidate of the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (Esquerra
Republicana de Catalunya, ERC) in the 2014 European Parliament Elections

 http://www.catalanviews.com/node/110