SPAIN: Catalonia's parliament gives green light to an independence referendum

Record ID: 328885

  • Title: SPAIN: Catalonia's parliament gives green light to an independence referendum
  • Date: 28th September 2012
  • Summary: BARCELONA, SPAIN (SEPTEMBER 27, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE CATALAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING SPANISH AND CATALAN FLAGS WAVING SIGN READING "PARLIAMENT OF CATALONIA"
  • Embargoed: 13th October 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA48XYMZ7D556OWQYUL1CN7LKR9
  • Story Text: The parliament of Spain's powerful but heavily indebted region of Catalonia voted on Thursday (September 27) in favour of holding a referendum on the region's independence as it heads for a showdown with Madrid which has forbidden it make such a move.
    The vote in Catalonia, which produces a fifth of the country's economic output, was backed by 84 parliament members including those of ruling party CiU, while 25 abstained, and 21 voted against holding a referendum.
    The vote was held minutes after Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the region could not hold an independence referendum without first consulting with the rest of the country.
    Catalonia brought forward regional elections to November. 25 after Catalan leader Artur Mas' proposal to create a separate tax agency was flatly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, fearing it went against Spain's Constitution.
    Mas' conservative CiU party would likely win an absolute majority in elections, strengthening his mandate to press on towards independence and delivering a blow to Rajoy who has called for national unity to counter the country's debt crisis.
    After the vote, members of pro-independence parties welcomed the result.
    "We have always supported independence and we are therefore happy after this result, very excited and satisfied. We are aware of our responsibility we carry on our shoulders. We are convinced we can go on until the end of this process and do it all right, permitting Catalans to express their will democratically and leading them to constitute Catalonia as a new state of Europe," pro-independence left-winged Esquerra Republicana party leader Oriol Junqueres told Reuters.
    But members of Spain's ruling People's Party (PP) said independence from Spain is not an option for Catalonia.
    "This term and what just happened is a result of those who want to separate Catalonia from Spain. Here we've got a silent Catalonia, a Catalonia that will not accept it and will stand in the front line demanding a Spanish Catalonia and a Catalan Catalonia," Alicia Camacho the PP leader of the region said.
    Popular momentum for independence has never been stronger in Catalonia, a wealthy region in northeastern Spain that generates one fifth of the country's economic output and is home to 16 percent of Spaniards.
    More than half of Catalans say they want a separate state, and hundreds of thousands marched in Barcelona on the region's national day, on September 11, the biggest such show of separatist fervor.
    Many independence supporters of all ages waited for president Mas to leave the Catalan Parliament holding a big banner reading: "Catalonia, a new state of Europe.
    As politicians left supporters waved pro-independence Catalan "estelada" flags while chanting "Mas, be brave. Independent Catalonia."
    "The Parliament is voted for by people and no one can stop people's voice. International agreements protect people's voice. No one can stop us now. In the 21st century no one can tell us we don't exist, that we are not a state. They cannot stop us. Neither with tanks nor the Constitution. If we are here it is only to declare independence," Jordi, a supporter, said.
    Spain's deep economic crisis has fanned a strong independence movement in Catalonia with more than half of Catalans saying they want a separate state.
    Catalans lay claim to 16 billion euros they say they raise in taxes every year but go to other regions and the central government.
    The industrialised north-eastern region, which has an economy the size of Portugal's, is likely to miss its deficit target this year and has had to ask Madrid for a 5 billion euro bailout to meet its debt redemptions.
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