Spain vs Catalunya

Since I have arrived in Spain, about a month ago, every day on the news there was something about Catalunya wanting to separate from Spain. When I would ask my host family or locals what they thought I would get a response along the lines of, "I have no idea why they would want independence." or "They will never get it approved because it is illegal."

So I took it upon myself to do some research on why this region of Spain feels the need to separate. I came across many biased articles that seemed to skew some of the facts. One article written in 2014 came as a great help. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11179914/Why-does-Catalonia-want-independence-from-Spain.html

This article from the telegraph explains that there are many reasons Catalunya would want to claim independence, some of these reasons include cultural differences and a history of independence. The most pressing reason I found was the economical issues Catalunya has with the rest of Spain. In the article, there are a few stats that really put things into perspective, the first is Catalunya represents almost 20% of Spain's GDP and they account for more of the GDP than Madrid. This is a problem because Catalunya seems to not get their fair share of funds for public goods like roads, public transport, parks, and school funding. This is another reason why Spain does not want to divide. They would lose a large part of their GDP.

Amongst the other differences is the fact that Barcelona has banned bullfighting in the city. This was a huge decision and many Spaniards believe that this event got the ball rolling. Although bullfighting in recent years has been controversial it is undisputedly a Spanish tradition.

explains that there may be some parts in the Spanish constitution that could technically permit such referendums.

(http://idpbarcelona.net/docs/blog/legality_referendum.pdf)

Democracy is a relatively new concept for Spain. Before their short period of democracy, Spain was under a dictator by the name of Franco. Recent events in Catalunya have proved that Spain is still in uncharted waters. This is the main argument many Spaniards have who are against the referendum. That is that Catalunya has gone about the referendum illegally. Although Catalans have used democracy to justify the referendum many disagree that it was done legitimately. In a paper written by Joan Vintró. Professor of Constitutional Law it

Today and every day since the vote flags can be seen all around Seville, Spain. This is to show the solidarity and unity of Spain. As for Catalunya, they have a long road ahead of them to entirely claim independence. Although the vote claims that Catalunya is now independent there are many fallacies with the vote. The first of which is there was little to no regulations on the vote. For example, many people voted at multiple voting stations, there was no age limit on who could vote, and finally, there is no true projection on the ratio of Catalans who want independence.

Unfortunately, the road for Catalunya has already had a rough start. With police brutality against peaceful and some not so peaceful protesters.

A link to see some of the terrible event that occurred.

Like all media take what you see and how things are portrayed, with a grain of salt. Do your research and look for as much truth as possible.

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An interesting turn of events today in Barcelona. Although the media only shows protesters for independence there was a very large turn out of Catalans who do not want independence from Spain and showed their nationalism by marching with flags around the city.

Here is a link:( http://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20171008/independencia-cataluna-ultimas-noticias-directo-6330408 )

UPDATE. More protests are planned in Barcelona. There was a travel advisory sent out to warn students to avoid such events. They said we can travel to Barcelona with out fear but to be very cautious to not get caught up in marches.

Another UPDATE!!! Barcelona this week took down their flag of Spain from a government building, as show of independence. CNN had a new report saying "Catalan parlement votes to delclare independence from Spain, as Madrid prepares for unprecedented measures to quash the split". Also Barcelona citizens are looking to their futbol team to give them guidance but unlike athletes in the US players and coaches are not allowed to speak about political issues. There is a great fear for when Barcelona travels to Madrid this season that spectators will not be able to separate sports from politics. The protests for independence and unity both seem to fill the streets of Barcelona and Madrid.