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Catalonia to split from Spain within 48 hours of secession vote

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Cocaloch

Member
Nations are nations because other nations acknowledge them as such (this sounds weird but i dont know how else to write it)

You're talking about a state.

In the modern era trade with other nations is essential to supply your population with its needs, and trade is created by treaties or in rare cases unnoficial agreements.

States.

The only way for Catalunia to function as a nation is for other entities to recognize it in some form, the same way some do to Taiwan and allows it to prosper.

Again state, but sure. That being said how is that relevant?

Nations are nations because other nations acknowledge them as such (this You can call yourself a nation all you want but it wont matter if nobody else works with you with that in mind.

Right, you have to have both external and internal acceptance, "legitimacy" to be a functioning state.

Good thing this was not a fairly done referendum then.

Yeah, but that poster was talking about referendums in general.
 

PillarEN

Member
Holy crap. They actually won the referendum. I don't know why, but just watching from a far distance I thought this was just going to be another big nothing.

Things suddenly got a lot more interesting.
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Oh dont count on PSOE to fix anything, theyre opportunistic and corrupt as hell.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Holy crap. They actually won the referendum. I don't know why, but just watching from a far distance I thought this was just going to be another big nothing.

Things suddenly got a lot more interesting.

Why is this a suprise? They "won" the "consultation" in 2014 also, only the nationalists turned out in large numbers.

Neither got much of a turnout.
 

Cocaloch

Member
Catalonia is no colony.

All states are the based on the exercise of power. What happens when people start seeing that power as illegitimate? The difference between Metropole and colony and Metropole and province is more one of degree and reciprocal feelings than anything else.
 
I voted yes, and agree with you.
However the number of votes, considering the difficulties we had to face today, is big enough to warrant a true referendum unless we want this to last forever or even violence, because Spanish government seems to have no problems with that.
Yes, something needs to be done. After the events of today, and how Madrid made it even worse with the actions of the police, a solution needs to be found. Either an actual referendum (although not a fan myself as an EU citizen of another country, since I think it will create trouble and Spain is already not in the best shape) or more autonomy - and no backtracking on that like done before.
 

sflufan

Banned
The Kremlin is besides itself with glee right about now at the thought of a political crisis in a NATO/EU member state.
 
Well at least its more than a Micro Nation

All stand of the national anthem of Sealand

p02p4xn1.jpg
 

megateto

Member
If only Spain had some sort of unifying figure, one who was prepared since a kid to deal with situations like this, someone who was even recognized by law as a mediator of the Spanish institutions.

if only....

That would be Felipe's 23F, stepping up like his father did and earning some of his bacon.
 
This doesn't make any sense. Ultimately self determination has become seen as a pretty important part of modern nations. Your logic could have just allowed for Empires to simply decide it was illegal for colonies to leave and that would have somehow settled the issue.

It's because you can keep subdividing until there is nothing left.
There are a lot of non-Catalan in Catalonia.

Almost every country has a region or two which has some desire of independence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_separatist_movements_in_Europe
 
TV3 just had one hell of a heated debate with people from all representations. Go find the same on Spanish media, I'll wait.
La sexta had great coverage with full representation from all parties but I'm really curious to see that TV3 debate. Do you have a link so I can watch tomorrow?
 

turmoil

Banned
Yeah I don't count on PSOE to do anything really, but they are the ones with the keys to out Rajoy of the government, should have worded better.
 

Cocaloch

Member
It's because you can keep subdividing until there is nothing left.
There are a lot of non-Catalan in Catalonia.

Right, that's because nations are social and based on a mutually held feeling.

Almost every country has a region or two which has some desire of independence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_separatist_movements_in_Europe

Okay, what's your point? Again I'm Irish. Should we, obviously meaning the counties of the south, still be part of the United Kingdom?

I'm for the referendum for the same reason I don't have a problem with Northern Ireland being part of the UK. Self-determination must be the basis of a modern state.

Anyway, you didn't response to my point there at all, which is why I have to restate the question here. This logic allows for somethings most people see as problematic.

Saying shut up and fall in line isn't going to be a good answer within current liberal democracy people.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Yeah? I mean I'm not familiar with how things have gone in the past with similar attempts so just seeing headlines about this caught me off-guard.

Well it's also very suspect, so don't view it as accurate or as how this would have happened with a properly conducted referendum anyway. We'll never know.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Yeah I don't count on PSOE to do anything really, but they are the ones with the keys to out Rajoy of the government, should have worded better.

Their strategy is to let Rajoy fix this and take the fall for it. So they won't do anything that removes Rajoy from power.
 

Cocaloch

Member
It's almost exactly like Brexit but for some reason all my fake Leftist friends have decided to support this one.

It's not almost exactly like Brexit, and I don't support either.

This is just reductionist nonsense.

There are a lot of non-Spanish in Spain. Spain shouldn't be a country either...

You realize how silly that sounds?

Probably not, because this is the fundamental conservative understanding of nation-states. Which is to say most people believe that the current group of states is the correct one essentially because it is the current one that exists. People, including this Roman dude with a really big hat, parroting the same ideas were telling the Irish to fall in line in 1916.

What exists now is correct and just. Agree or we hit you. More importantly in this situation, it isn't even allowed to be questioned. Spain needed to let an actual referendum happen. Instead we get this farce. That's combined both nonsense and violence.
 

Kazaam

Member
First of all I want to say I'm not Catalan or Spanish. But I want to say how appalled I am by the actions of the Spanish government. Their actions are right out oppressive and can be retraced to the actions of many extreme governments (I should know, I'm Romanian). I honestly can't think of any EU power that acted like this in recent history... violence against unarmed people (people in wheelchair, old people, women and men) who simply wanted to vote. I understand the complexity of the issue regarding the legality of the referendum or voting, but I can't find any excuse for the behavior shown by the Spanish government. I doubt this but I really hope sanctions will follow and also pressures for the current government to step down. If EU will let this slide it will become something representative and it's a troublesome outlook given the current state of the union.

On a more personal note, another thing made me really sad today. It's anecdotal and obviously not representative, but when I showed a video showing the violence displayed and asked a Spanish acquaintance what she thought of all this, she said "that's the problem and that's what people want to think ... but police is not the problem, they are the problem. And police is doing only what they have to do." When confronted she said "people weren't asked. A lot of people from Catalonia don't want to leave Spain" I said Of course and that I understand and that's why the vote should've been legalized, but then she answered with "and what about us? Cataluna is from Spain and I should also decide and say if I want it inside Spain". She continued with "for me at the moment, they are nazis. I was in Barcelona last month and I asked a woman for a picture. She didn't stop, she passed right by me smiling with a face of bad people, just because I'm Spanish and of course I asked in Spanish". I obviously realise this is a very limited view of the situation, but it's a sad one nonetheless.

I obviously don't think there is any legitimacy to the results of the referendum given the situation, but my personal opinion is that the current Spanish gov should step down, a new one should come to power that would also put forward a legal referendum for the Catalan people. Otherwise things will only get worse
 
Holy crap. They actually won the referendum. I don't know why, but just watching from a far distance I thought this was just going to be another big nothing.

Things suddenly got a lot more interesting.
It was both predictable and inevitable. Just look at the economics of this thing and you knew exactly what would happen.

The question now is what will happen next. I'm not seeing any obligation to accept any vote of this sort or imperative to recognize these requests. You don't just get to come and go from a country you've been part of for hundreds of years just because you're not happen in this brief window of time. Countries will have good times and struggles. Leaving during the hard times is a bitch move. There is 0% chance that Catalonia receives any meaningful international support to be recognized as an independent state.

I expect Spain and all its regions including Catalonia to figure it the fuck out and stop embarrassing itself.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
I obviously don't think there is any legitimacy to the results of the referendum given the situation, but my personal opinion is that the current Spanish gov should step down, a new one should come to power that would also put forward a legal referendum for the Catalan people. Otherwise things will only get worse

You are very obviously not Spanish.

If we go to an election, the current government would increase its majority. There's a reason socialists don't want an election and don't want the government to fall.
 
You can't just grab the population of Catalonia.

US has ~325 million but ~220 million eligible so 30% less than the total pop.

UK 65 million and 46 million eligible, about 30% less than total pop.

UK's EU ref had a 70% turnout but 33 million actually if you just look arbitrarily at 65 million UK population, so this works out to around 25% for yes and no.

US recent election had 132 million voters with 61.8 and 63.5 for each candidate. About one 5th of the country voted for each candidate if you want use this logic to somehow dismiss the vote in Catalonia.

While it's a farce in Catalonia, it's quite a significant part of the population of a probable 5 million eligible? And is not far off typical vote numbers. Could be a 70/30 60/40 leave Spain in a real vote.
 

Cocaloch

Member
It was both predictable and inevitable. Just look at the economics of this thing and you knew exactly what would happen.

The question now is what will happen next. I'm not seeing any obligation to accept any vote of this sort or imperative to recognize these requests. You don't just get to come and go from a country you've been part of for hundreds of years just because you're not happen in this brief window of time. Countries will have good times and struggles. Leaving during the hard times is a bitch move. There is 0% chance that Catalonia receives any meaningful international support to be recognized as an independent state.

I expect Spain and all its regions including Catalonia to figure it the fuck out and stop embarrassing itself.

You live in a state that exists because it violently separated from state it was a part of during the "hard times" of the imperial crisis and British diplomatic isolation. I can assure you the Catalonians of today have a far more developed sense of national self than the Americans of 1776.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
You can't just grab the population of Catalonia.

US has ~325 million but ~220 million eligible so 30% less than the total pop.

UK 65 million and 46 million eligible, about 30% less than total pop.

UK's EU ref had a 70% turnout but 33 million actually if you just look arbitrarily at 65 million UK population, so this works out to around 25% for yes and no.

US recent election had 132 million voters with 61.8 and 63.5 for each candidate. About one 5th of the country voted for each candidate if you want use this logic to somehow dismiss the vote in Catalonia.

While it's a farce in Catalonia, it's quite a significant part of the population of a probable 5 million eligible? And is not far off typical vote numbers. Could be a 70/30 60/40 leave Spain in a real vote.

The % you're seeing is of the electoral census, not the total population.
 

Cocaloch

Member
I have yet to see anyone in this thread posit a framework that gets around self-determination within democracy. I've seen real politik, but this isn't 19th century Germany. We generally think nations should operate based on the consent of the governed. Which is not to say that Catalonia should succeed. It's to say that arguing that Spain would be right to squash any chance for a legitimate referendum is nonsense.
 

Valhelm

contribute something
The Kremlin is besides itself with glee right about now at the thought of a political crisis in a NATO/EU member state.

who gives a shit

not every issue needs to be understood in terms of how it helps us stay stronger than Russia
 

Kazaam

Member
You are very obviously not Spanish.

If we go to an election, the current government would increase its majority. There's a reason socialists don't want an election and don't want the government to fall.

As I mentioned in the beginning of my post I am very obviously not Spanish. (This is not a quip saying you haven't read my post... it's more to reiterate that yes, my knowledge about your political landscape is minimal)

But I can't agree with this being accepted and let it slide or considered a "strike one". Especially by the EU. It creates precedence
 

Tregard

Soothsayer
It’s almost exactly like Brexit but for some reason all my fake Leftist friends have decided to support this one.

"Almost exactly like Brexit" is a hell of a stretch. It's like Brexit in that it is a referendum which would have an effect upon the EU and not much else. The Scottish Referendum is more similar.
 

Theonik

Member
It was both predictable and inevitable. Just look at the economics of this thing and you knew exactly what would happen.

The question now is what will happen next. I'm not seeing any obligation to accept any vote of this sort or imperative to recognize these requests. You don't just get to come and go from a country you've been part of for hundreds of years just because you're not happen in this brief window of time. Countries will have good times and struggles. Leaving during the hard times is a bitch move. There is 0% chance that Catalonia receives any meaningful international support to be recognized as an independent state.

I expect Spain and all its regions including Catalonia to figure it the fuck out and stop embarrassing itself.
I know right we've been saying that about this stupid Yankee experiment for like 242 years now. It's time they grew up and understood there is only one home for them. Also they should pay 242 years of back taxes to the crown.
 
The referendum was illegal. Why should anyone who didn't want Catalonia to secede have gone and voted?

Yep, there's really no reason for anti-independence voters to vote in what is an illegal ballot according to the government they support. Of course this was going to be only secessionists voting which obviously makes the Catalan government announced results anything but definitive.
 
I have yet to see anyone in this thread posit a framework that gets around self-determination within democracy. I've seen real politik, but this isn't 19th century Germany. We generally think nations should operate based on the consent of the governed. Which is not to say that Catalonia should succeed. It's to say that arguing that Spain would be right to squash any chance for a legitimate referendum is nonsense.

Well it's complicated, right? The extreme counterexample is something like the CSA seceding from the Union. From a strictly "consent of the governed" perspective the Northerners didn't have much of a right to reintegrate the south considering at the time of secession slavery was still legal and denying of franchise to slaves was similarly not considered unconstitutional. The argument is more about moral imperatives - that it was right to go to war to destroy that institution and most would agree the South didn't have a right to secede because basically they were doing it for bad reasons as opposed to good ones.

When evaluating movements we usually consider a balance of different factors - is there a "national identity"? Is the region or group being notably oppressed by the central government? Are there any secondary factors that might sway us? How badly do they want the independence, and how significant is the majority that want it? Consent of the governed is definitely the largest single factor we think about, but not really the only one.
 
I know right we've been saying that about this stupid Yankee experiment for like 242 years now. It's time they grew up and understood there is only one home for them. Also they should pay 242 years of back taxes to the crown.
Hey now, We are fine with a reunion of our two great nations , It is you who are scared our Yankeeness would rub of on you if we was ever rejoined /Sips Sweet Tea while enjoying a biscuit covered in gravy.
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
Then I don't get why it was allowed in the first place. It's basically treason, and it makes sense that the police force was used to stop it.
Constitutions aren't the God-given, undisputable pieces of heavenly wisdom Americans seem to think they are.
 

vonStirlitz

Unconfirmed Member
Strange times.

The EU seems to be coping with increasing fragmentation and federalisation at the same time. Countries that had global empires just a few hundred years ago are now insular or fragmenting and looking irrelevant. And countries that preach democracy clearly have a democracy crisis.
 

Theonik

Member
Hey now, We are fine with a reunion of our two great nations , It is you who are scared our Yankeeness would rub of on you if we was ever rejoined /Sips Sweet Tea while enjoying a biscuit covered in gravy.
As long as you pay your 242 years worth of back taxes everything is OK.
 

Javier23

Banned
Constitutions aren't the God-given, undisputable pieces of heavenly wisdom Americans seem to think they are.
Indeed. The Spanish one, for instance, can be reformed anytime. God had nothing to do with ours, we all came together after Franco kicked the bucket to draft something agreeable that wouldn't throw us back straight into civil war.
 

Cocaloch

Member
The meat and potatoes are very much alike. Everything else is just gravy.

Care to explain why in a way that isn't totally reductionist? It's certainly at least got a much longer history to it. Scotland leaving the Union is clearly the better comparison, but even that's problematic because at least the Scottish state, which was hardly particularly democratic, voted for union.

Well it's complicated, right?

Of course.

The extreme counterexample is something like the CSA seceding from the Union. From a strictly "consent of the governed" perspective the Northerners didn't have much of a right to reintegrate the south considering at the time of secession slavery was still legal and denying of franchise to slaves was similarly not considered unconstitutional.

Right, and this is exactly why I've argued multiple times on this site that the conversation shouldn't be centered around the South being traitors but instead being slavers. The problem with the Confederacy wasn't that it left the state it was a part of, it was that it did so to defend slavery.

Of course the other difference is that there was no developed sense of self-determination being a good in itself for all people in the 19th century either, so the context is quite different.

The argument is more about moral imperatives - that it was right to go to war to destroy that institution and most would agree the South didn't have a right to secede because basically they were doing it for bad reasons as opposed to good ones.

Exactly, and I've said as much multiple times on this site.

When evaluating movements we usually consider a balance of different factors - is there a "national identity"?Is the region or group being notably oppressed by the central government? Are there any secondary factors that might sway us? How badly do they want the independence, and how significant is the majority that want it? Consent of the governed is definitely the largest single factor we think about, but not really the only one.

Wait, I think you've misunderstood me. I'm not saying that every state needs to have a national identity associated with it. I'm just saying that the people need to feel that they are represented in the state. I don't have a problem with Wales being part of the United Kingdom because most Welsh people are fine with it.

Self-determination doesn't mean every national identity has its own particular state, it means that people need to feel that their state is legitimate. That the nation feels like it's chosen the state in which sovereignty lies.

You're right that there are multiple factors, but they work together. Liberal Democracy sees states that aren't being run based on the consent of the governed as inherently problematic. There isn't a way around that, because that's part of what Liberal Democracy sees states as. Of course there is also absolutely nothing in this situation anywhere close to the level of moral importance an issue like American style slavery had.

My grandmother is Catholic and from Northern Ireland so I've spent much of my life thinking about the issue. My conclusion is that self-determination in matters of sovereignty is a necessary basis of nations, but that there are times where for moral reasons an outside force can usurp a sovereign. But usurping an occupied nation isn't the same thing as a legitimate state even if it's sometimes a good thing. The difference is the idea that we'd be okay with something being an end in itself statewise rather than a means to an end.

But arguing that Spain should just quash any and all opposition isn't addressing any of the complications we're talking about, and that's what I was calling out.
 

Dierce

Member
That 90% result would make Putin proud. They could have at least gone with 60% or maybe even 70% to make it seem less dubious.

The world already has too many countries, too much division and hatred. Separatism and nationalism is not the solution.
 
That 90% result would make Putin proud. They could have at least gone with 60% or maybe even 70% to make it seem less dubious.

The world already has too many countries, too much division and hatred. Separatism and nationalism is not the solution.

Why would you doubt the number? It's similar to previous referundums and it's obvious anti-secessionists didn't vote.
 
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