Categoria: Opinions

A critical eye on the path to Catalonia’s independence

De què té por el Sr Mas?

albert 8 Comments

2010-06-17 Artur Mas

L’Artur Mas ha fet recentment unes declaracions dient que per a ell el país no estava “madur” per a votar sobre la independència. Podem deixar que el líder del partit que, segons les enquestes, podria guanyar les eleccions al Parlament pensi d’aquesta manera i no passi res?

Per començar, dir que el país no és madur és un greu menyspreu cap al poble català i evidència un complexe d’inferioritat molt seriós. El poble català és perfectament madur com per a decidir el seu futur lliurement i democràtica ja que decideix cada dia sobre tot tipus d’afers.

En què es basa l’Artur Mas per a pensar que el poble català no vol decidir sobre la independència? És possible que tingui informes secrets que contradiuen tota evidència? Després que més de mig milió de catalans hagin votat als referèndums d’independència i que milers més ho facin demà. Després que totes les enquestes publicades per la UOC o inclús medis dependentistes com La Vanguardia i El Periódico que diuen que la majoria de catalans i catalanes són favorables a un estat propi i que la majoria dels votants de CiU també en són favorables.

De què té por? Que els votants de CiU contraris a la independència el deixin de votar? Que no el voten pas ara aquells que sí que en són favorables?

Necessitem líders que exerceixin com a tals. En moments de crisi calen persones que siguin capaces de liderar la transició entre dos projectes. No necessitem en Mas per fer de “gestor” de les engrunes que rebem d’Espanya.

Diu en Mas que “primer s’ha d’arreglar l’economia” i després pensarem en la independència. En aquest sentit la primera mesura ha de ser la d’alleujar allò que ens fa arrossegar, que ens frena. Una de les primeres coses a fer en aquest sentit és deixar de formar part d’un estat que ha dilapidat els diners catalans i europeus en projectes faraònics impossibles de rendibilitzar com l’AVE, que deliberadament menysprea les infrastructures a les àrees més productives com el corredor mediterrani per tal d’imposar la seva visió centralista, que ens aplica un dèficit fiscal insuportable i que s’està enfonsant ràpidament gràcies a la crisi.

Ara que finalment ha quedat palès que l’encaix a Espanya és del tot impossible, que no està preparada per a ni tan sols acceptar l’Estatutet, necessitem algú que catalitzi el desig d’avançar cap a la llibertat del nostre país, no algú que demani un impossible concert econòmic.

Per a mi el millor mètode per a assolir la independència és mitjançant la declaració unilateral al Parlament però ara que s’estan explorant altres vies, com la iniciativa popular d’en Tena, realment volem tenir al Parlament partits que s’autoanomenen catalans però que votarien en contra de fer el referèndum? Com es pot estar en contra de la llibertat del teu país? Això contradiu els mateixos estatuts de CiU que diuen clarament que el seu objectiu és el d’aconseguir el nivell màxim d’autogovern per a Catalunya.

Les paraules d’en Mas no són les d’un líder, són les paraules de la por. De què té por el Sr Mas?

A les properes eleccions l’objectiu dels catalans ha de ser el de crear una majoria al Parlament favorable a la independència. Tingue’m-ho en compte a l’hora de votar.

Foto: Xavier Trias

Catalan Parliament admits the initiative for a referendum of independence

albert 8 Comments

Parlament de Catalunya

Today the Catalan Parliament has admitted a popular referendum initiative to organise a referendum of independence. Two proposals were made using the recently approved “popular consultations” law which allows the Catalan Government to organise referendums. There’s a catch though, before taking place the referendum has to be approved by the Spanish Parliament .

There were two proposals sent to the Catalan Parliament a few days ago, the first one, submitted by David Vinyals and other members of Reagrupament, just asked the same question that has been voted in the popular referendums for independence “Do you want the Catalan nation to become a state of right, independent, democratical and social within the European Union?” This initiative has been rejected by the Parliament since the question does not abide to the Spanish constitution, where secession is not comtemplated.

The one formulated by Alfons López Tena and Uriel Bertran has been admitted: “So that the Catalan Parliament takes the necessary measures to make effective popular will, do you want the Catalan nation to become a state of right, independent, democratical and social within the European Union?” which basically is abiding to the Spanish constitution since the Catalan Parliament has the right to initiate constitutional amendments.

In any case, even though I support this initiative since I believe we should move towards independence using every tool at our disposal I criticise this initiative for two reasons.

Firstly, by processing a referendum of independence within the Spanish legal system we are implicitly legitimizing Spanish legality. Since Spanish legality is based on the right of conquest of Spain over Catalonia and therefore illegitimate abiding to the Spanish system we are implicity legitimizing the current situation. Not a good idea.

Secondly, since it is a popular initiative the organisers now need to gather 220.000 signatures, which is 3% of the population of Catalonia, the Parliament won’t debate the approval of the initiative until this requirement is fulfilled and this will take until after the elections. If the debate took place right now and the initiative was rejected by the current parties voters would be able to change their vote so that the new Parliament approves a new referendum initiative right after the elections. Otherwise we may have to wait 4 more years.

Finally, the strategy is so that if the Catalan parties finally approve the referendum they’ll have to ask permission to Spain. Spain will never allow this. This will create a conflict of legitimacies that would effectively allow the Generalitat to organise the referendum anyway based on the right of self-determination of the nations under international supervision.

In any case, forcing all the political parties to debate about the issue is an enormous victory of Catalan independentism, we’ll see how this evolves.

No, Mr Zapatero. The era of self-government has just started.

albert Leave a comment

Mr Zapatero

Zapatero declared on May the 25th that: “hemos culminado la fase del autogobierno” (link in Spanish) (this is the culmination of the phase of self-government), you can even check the audio here (in Spanish). Quite explicitly declaring that he has no intention of supporting any further self-government increases for the autonomous communities, like Catalonia, and implicitly telling us what can we expect of the forever delayed sentence from the Spanish Constitutional Court on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy.

Catalan independentism had forgotten about the Statute a long time ago, looking much further into regaining Catalan independence. However, many Catalans still believed in eventually achieving a more comfortable degree of self-government through a hypothetical federal Spain.

PSOE (and especially its Catalan branch) had always fooled Catalans into believing that they wanted a federal multicultural Spain. One that respected the several cultures that currently exist inside the Spanish state as opposed to Partido Popular’s vision of a centralized, monocultural state with Castillian (Spanish) supremacy, similar to the French one. PSOE leaders claimed that Catalonia had three choices: to stay as an automonous community inside of Spain, to somehow become a state inside a hypotethical federal Spain or to regain it’s independent state.

To illustrate this, Catalan president, the socialist Montilla, declared on April the 9th: “I’m a Catalan and catalanist, Spanish and federalist, not in favor of an independent Catalonia” (link in Catalan). Now Zapatero has just made it impossible for a federal Spain to be conceived, effectively leaving Montilla without an alibi and making it clear that PSOE’s model for Spain is just the same as PP’s.

Now there’s nowehere to hide, there are only two choices for Catalonia: to stay in Spain, be assimilated and become a Spanish region (and become bankrupt and impoverished in the process, let’s not forget Spain is one of the european PIGS) or to regain its independence and save itself and, through a lot of hard work, become the rich, modern state it has the potential to be.

Thanks Mr Zapatero. We know now that the era of self-government has just started.

Related articles: an excellent translation to english of an excellent opinion article on the subject (in catalan) by Vilaweb‘s director Vicent Partal can be found here, thanks to Liz Castro.

Picture: Philippe Grangeaud

Gràcies! / Thank you!

albert 3 Comments

5000 pàgines visitades

Today my blog has just reached 5000 views and about 3000 visits. I would like to thank you all for your support. I started this blog inspired by the spirit from Arenys de Munt, I chose english because I realised after having lived abroad for 7 years how little people from other countries know about Catalunya and realising how important to broaden the available information in foreign languages to gain as much support as possible when we declare the independence. We’ll need the other main democratic countries to acknowledge Catalunya’s new status. So from here I wanted to make a little contribution to that. Thank you, I’ll keep sharing my opinions and welcoming the conversation until the time when Catalonia regains its independence.

Avui el meu blog ha arribat a 5000 pàgines visitades i unes 3000 visites. M’agradaria agraïr a tothom pel vostre suport. Vaig començar aquest blog inspirat per l’esperit d’Arenys de Munt. Vaig escollir l’anglès ja que vaig adonar-me, després d’haver viscut a l’estranger vora 7 anys, que la gent que viu a altres països coneix molt poc sobre Catalunya i sabent com d’important és ampliar la informació disponible en idiomes estrangers per a guanyar el màxim suport possible quan declarem la independència. Ens caldrà el suport dels principals països democràtics per a reconeixer el nou estatus de Catalunya. Per tant, des d’aquí volia fer una petita contribució a aquesta causa. Gràcies, seguiré compartint aquests articles i agraïnt la conversa amb vosaltres fins que arribi el moment en què Catalunya reguany la seva independència.

Deconstructing Spain (part 1)

albert 3 Comments

Franco and the Bourbon

This is the first of a series of articles where I’ll explain some probably not so well-known facts about the state of democracy in Spain and the way it affects Catalonia.

In 1969 Franco himself appointed the Bourbon (the current King of Spain) as his successor. The Bourbon swore to the principles of Franco’s “movimiento” after Franco’s death on November the 20th, 1975 to become the head of state. He never swore to the current Constitution of Spain from 1978.

Historically the period after Franco’s death is known in Spain as the “transición”, meaning a transition from dictatorship to democracy. However, more precisely it should be called the “restauración”, the restoration of the Bourbon King.

The Spanish, Catalan and Basque nations were never asked whether they were happy to have a Bourbon back and were never given the opportunity to organise themselves as a Republic instead, which had been the democratically legitimate regime before the Civil War.

The problem is that the legitimacy of the previous fascist dictatorship was never questioned and the whole process was carefully overlooked by the still powerful fascist state structures, especially the military. In any case, the monarchical restoration indeed served to give a layer of legitimacy to the Spanish State after 4 decades of dictatorship in the eyes of the international community.

However, new cracks are constantly appearing on the foundations of the Spanish state caused by the shortages of the restoration. For example, none of the crimes committed by the fascist regime during the dictatorship, which prosecuted the illegalized left wing parties and the Catalan and Basque nations, have been investigated to date. Unlike in the rest of Europe Spain’s fascists have not yet been prosecuted (in catalan and in english). Falange, Franco’s party, is still legal in Spain as of 2010. More about this here.

To illustrate this, Spain’s legal system rates 60 out of 133 in judicial independence just after Nigeria in the Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 by the World Economic Forum.

Another dark chapter of the Spanish restoration was the coup d’état of February the 23rd 1981. A group of armed “guardias civiles” occupied the Spanish Parliament and were supported by general Milans del Bosch who took the tanks out in Valencia in an attempt to go back to a military regime.

The official story made the Bourbon appear as a hero to the public opinion, saving Spanish democracy. However, there were many grey areas in the resulting investigations and the visible leaders were set free in the early 90s. As a result of the attempt much of the Catalan self-government granted by the Catalan Statute of 1979 was further limited using a law called LOAPA.

The concessions to Franco’s ideals in the current Constitution of Spain are many. It contains several articles explicitly aimed against future possible Catalan and Basque national claims. For example:

Article 8, which explicitly allows military action against any secessionist attempt Article 8 “1 . Las fuerzas armadas (…) tienen como misión garantizar la soberanía e independencia de España, defender su integridad territorial y el ordenamiento constitucional” The mission of the armed forces is to guarantee Spanish sovereignty and independence and defend its territorial integrity and constitution.

Chapter III Article 145 which blocks Spain from becoming a federal state. “1. En ningún caso se admitirá la federación de Comunidades Autónomas” Under no circumstance the federation of Autonomous Comunities (Catalonia and the Basque Country fall within this category) will be admitted

Also, the right of self-determination of the nations is not contemplated. Even though Spain signed the Charter of the United Nations which explicitly states the right of all nations to self-determination.

In all this, Catalan politicians are also to be partly blamed. Most of them enthusiastically collaborated during the restoration seeing this as an improvement over the dictatorship and decisively contributing to the political stability in Spain for 30 years while they tried to convince us Catalans that once Spain was rich it would become modern and open minded and Catalan national ambitions would eventually be fulfilled.

Historical Catalanism was aimed at converting Spain in a real confederation of Iberian nations, mainstream Catalan independentism is more recent. But now after 150 years of trying it’s clear for us that not only has Spain not changed but it is now showing in all crudeness its true colors. At least, Catalans can’t be blamed for not having tried.

But unlike Basque politicians, who didn’t agree with the Spanish Constitution and abstained, like the main basque party, PNB, or voted against it, the two main Catalan parties CDC and UDC naively didn’t realise how much they were giving up by accepting those terms and campaigned to vote yes. Only ERC campaigned against it. A full study on what each party campaigned for can be found here (link in Catalan).

The worst Catalan politicians did was that once the damage was made instead of showing us the reality of the situation they tried (and keep trying) to hide it and make the public opinion believe that the Spanish Constitution was a sort of pact between Spain and Catalonia when the reality is that the Catalan autonomy is a gracious concession of the Spanish state. For example, Catalonia has the same degree of autonomy as La Rioja, a region which has never been a nation.

Personally, I still don’t understand how a country with so very little democratic quality made it through to become a member of the European Union. Perhaps the other European states also believed, as we once did, that a richer Spain would slowly change. In any case, the reality is quite different.

25A, the consolidation of Catalan independentism

albert 2 Comments

25A Calella

The numbers are overwhelming for a little country of 7 million people. An unprecedented case in the world. Catalans have organised themselves acting as a State to organise a radical democratic display. 60000 volunteers (the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games gathered 30000 volunteers and was considered exceptional), 500000 million votes cast, 4 rounds of referendums and more than 400 towns and villages, including two of the Catalan capitals, Girona and Lleida. Yesterday the hashtag used to tweet about the referendum, #consultes, was at the top 4 trending topics in Spain during the whole day. An incredible effort that shows that in Catalonia the political option with the greatest support is independentism.

The Spanish media and the unionist Catalan media have tried to use the 20,8% turnout in this round to qualify them as a failure but they intentionally attempt to hide the real meaning behind the numbers. The smaller percentages are partly because the last two rounds have also involved bigger towns and cities and therefore organisation is much more difficult, especially with the official institutions not only ignoring it but in many cases actively blocking the organisers. Just a note, all criticism has targeted the turnout, nobody has attempted to question the methodology or validity of the referendums.

Considering that the traditional Catalan media (including TV3, the catalan TV, influenced by the unionist party PSC) have intentionally ignored them, that official votings require millions in expenses and that these referendums won’t have any immediate political consequences a 20,8% turnout means a huge success. Anyone who insists in denying its strength or claiming that the remainder 79% would vote against independence is making a big mistake or has deeper and darker reasons to despise a popular exercise of democracy like this. And anyway, if they believe the NO will win so overwhelmingly why are the Spanish so scared of them that they don’t want us to organise one?

The first round back in December was seen as a defiance to Spain so it was easier for it to achieve a 30% turnout, the newness. However, I completely agree with my colleague Manel Bargalló (link in catalan). Voting this time was an act of political activism. Having this amount of independence activists means that the independence choice has effectively no ceiling in Catalonia and means that Catalans of all ages, social backgrounds and political ideas agree that Catalonia needs its own State.

But above all these referendums have served a bigger purpose, to create an extremely active transversal network bringing together the underlying independentist movements and associations from where the leaders who are leading the way towards independence are emerging.

There will be another round in June, involving only a few dozen towns. After that everyone will be watching Barcelona, where the referendum will take place on April the 10th, 2011.

I have no doubt that if a binding referendum was organised tomorrow the YES would overwhelmingly win.

Unity

albert 2 Comments

25A the next round of referendums

(This is a translation for this article)

Recently it’s been made public that the strategy that the referendums’ National Coordinators want to follow is to promote a binding referendum using the brand new Catalan referendums law. On paper it looks good, we get the signatures. Then we take them to the Parliament, which will evidently approve it and then we take it to Madrid, where they’ll obviously deny it and then we have the conflict. Next we use the right to self-determination and under the supervision of the international bodies to let the Generalitat organise the Referendum.

This all looks good on paper, but, has anybody stopped to think that the execution of all this requires the Catalan Parliament to be clearly independentist? I mean, does anyone still believe that Artur Mas will do the slightest thing to contradict whatever they tell him to do in Spain? The same Mas who negotiated to cut down the Statute, the same Mas of the eternal “now’s not the time”, etc.

I can’t believe that, for instance, someone as intelligent as López Tena, who has proven to be able to organise the referendums until the last detail hasn’t realised that unless Laporta and Reagrupament achieve enough deputies next autumn (maybe adding ERC’s) the process of the Referendum will never reach Madrid, or if it does Mas will do as told from Madrid, he’ll never be able to challenge the Spanish State, he’s had plenty of chances so far. This is not Mas’ struggle, even thought many members of CiU are independentists, it’s current target is to manage the Autonomous Community, make no mistake. If we leave this responsibility in their hands they’ll spoil it.

That’s why I lean towards a declaration of independence, this is way easier and removes many unnecessary and complicated steps. Through this procedure we’ll create a new legality, then we’ll organise as many referendums as we want without anyone interfering.

However, I support all initiatives to achieve independence, but if we want to use the Referendum way we gotta do it well. That’s why I think that everybody, the National Coordinators, Deumil.cat, López Tena, Laporta, Reagrupament, everyone from the Acte d’Estat from a few weeks ago, etc. Everyone. We must start talking with humility, without prominence, we need to create a solid unity candidacy to achieve the greater number of deputies at the next elections to the Catalan Parliament. If we win, we finish the fast way, if we don’t at least we make sure the independentists have a real representation at the Parliament that will work for the Referendum to succeed. I know many people will call me a dreamer for saying this but I know that sooner or later unity will be necessary to achieve the independence, we’ll have to agree whether we like it or not.

What would be irresponsible is to leave in the current parties’ hands all the hard work done until now, they’ll spoil it. The job has to be finished by those who started it. We need the highest representation at the parliament and unity.

Unitat

albert 4 Comments

25A the next round of referendums

Fa poc s’ha fet pública que l’estratègia que la coordinadora nacional de les consultes vol seguir és la d’impulsar un referèndum vinculant mitjançant la llei de consultes. Sobre el paper tot sembla molt bé, s’aconsegueixen les signatures, es porta a la mesa del Parlament, que evidentment l’aprovarà i finalment es porta a Madrid, ens la deneguen i tenim el conflicte servit. Després ens basem en el dret a l’autodeterminació i sota la supervisió dels organismes internacionals per a que la Generalitat convoqui el referèndum.

Tot això està molt bé sobre el paper, però, algú s’ha parat a pensar que l’execució de tot això requereix que el Parlament de Catalunya sigui marcadament independentista? Vull dir, us penseu que per exemple l’Artur Mas farà el més mínim intent de portar la contrària a allò que li diguin a Espanya? El mateix Mas que va pactar la retallada de l’Estatut, el mateix Mas de l’etern “ara no toca”, etc.

No em puc creure que, per exemple, algú tant intel·ligent i que ha demostrat com gestionar les consultes fins a l’últim detall com en López Tena i companyia no hagin caigut en el compte que a no ser que Reagrupament i Laporta arribin i aconsegueixin una quantitat suficient de diputats (potser sumant-hi els d’ERC) el tràmit del referèndum mai arribarà a Madrid, o si hi arriba Mas acatarà el que li diguin a Madrid, mai serà capaç de desafiar l’Estat Espanyol, oportunitats no li han faltan. Aquesta no és la seva batalla, malgrat i que molts militants són independentistes, CiU, ara per ara, és un partit de gestió de l’autonomia, no ens equivoquem. Si es deixa aquesta responsabilitat en les seves mans mai arribarà a materialitzar-se.

Per això jo sóc partidari de la opció de la declaració unilateral d’independència, perquè és molt més simple i elimina moltes passes complicades. Mitjançant aquest procediment es crea una legalitat nova, i després fem tots els referèndums que vulguis sense que ningú ens hi posi impediments.

Malgrat i això estic a favor de totes les iniciatives per a aconseguir la independència, però si es vol utilitzar la via del referèndum s’ha de fer bé. Per això opino que tothom, la Coordinadora Nacional, Deumil.cat, López Tena, Laporta, Reagrupament, tota la gent de l’Acte d’Estat de fa unes setmanes, etc. Tothom. Ens hem de posar a parlar ara mateix, amb humilitat, sense protagonismes, necessitem crear una candidatura sòlida per a treure el màxim nombre de diputats independentistes a les properes eleccions al Parlament. Si guanyem ho acabem per la via ràpida i si no com a mínim ens assegurem que els independentistes tenim representació real al Parlament que treballarà per a que el referèndum prosperi. Sé que alguns em diran somiatruites per proposar això però sé que tard o d’hora la unitat serà necessària per a aconseguir la independència, ens haurem de posar d’acord per força.

El que seria irresponsable és deixar en mans dels partits existents tota la feina feta fins ara, la malbarataran. La feina l’hem d’acabar aquells que l’hem començat. Necessitem la màxima representació parlamentària i unitat.

(You can find here the translation to english of this article)

April the 25th, independence becomes central to the political debate

albert 3 Comments

25A the next round of referendums

A new round of referendums, after rounds of 13S, 13D and 28F the process has taken shape and is unstopabble. Next April the 25th 200 towns and villages will be involved and more than 1 million Catalan citizens will have the right to vote. By the end of this round around half the municipalities in Catalonia will have organized a referendum. After this the aim is to organise one in Barcelona.

Big cities like Girona, Lleida or Manresa are being involved this time and with supporters like Justo Molinero, a popular radio presenter with a huge influence on the Spanish speaking areas in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, like Cornellà, who will campaign for the right of the Catalans to decide (link in Catalan). Former Catalan President Jordi Pujol recently declared that he can’t be against the independence referendums since the pact with Spain has failed, and the debate for independence has to normalise. These declarations are a huge step forward since Jordi Pujol, who was in power for more than 20 years with CiU never before has openly declared himself to be pro-independence.

Turnout might be influenced by a filtration that the Spanish Constitutional Court will finally give a sentence regarding the Catalan Statute (the law that regulates Catalan self-government) this week (link in Catalan). It has taken so far 4 years for the Spanish Constitutional Court to come up with a sentence. No person or court has the moral right to contradict what the citizens have approved in a referendum, this is the foundational principle of democracy and in Spain this is not being respected since the Catalan Statute was voted by the Catalans. The sentence will very likely be very restrictive and rewrite several of the articles. The filtration also illustrates how little independence there is in the Spanish legal system.

The referendums are difficult to ignore and they put pressure on the political parties to position themselves with respect to independence now that the elections are coming next autumn. José Montilla said that he doesn’t want Catalonia to be independent (link in Catalan). He didn’t support this statement with any arguments. Artur Mas, the leader of CiU, the main opposition party and historically the biggest catalanist party, has recently declared that now’s not the time for a referendum (link in Catalan). He claims that the issue divides Catalan society. Maybe he should pay more attention to what Pujol is saying?

Obviously, Montilla’s opinion is not surprising since he is a Spanish unionist (even thought he disguises himself as a catalanist) but it is intriguing that CiU believe that in order to get back in the power they must be as undefined as possible with regards to Catalonia’s sovereignty.

Mas has illustrated this a few times, he declared months ago that in a referendum of independence he’d vote “yes” but shortly after said that “now’s not the time” to organize one. The problem is that he’s never said when would be, in his opinion, a good time for that.

At least it seems that for a significant part of the Catalan society now is indeed as good a time as any other. To contradict Mas’ statements there are several polls and the independence referendums themselves that show that even in traditionally Spanish-speaking areas what actually unites Catalan society is, after all, the conviction that Catalonia needs to become a State in the EU as soon as possible.

Towards a new map of Europe

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Europe

Seems like the map of Europe will continue changing in the next few years. This is nothing new, it has been in constant change over the 20th century when dozens of the current established countries like Norway, Iceland, Finland, Slovakia or more recently Montenegro or Kosova have achieved their own state.

The UN acknowledges the right to self determination for all the nations in the world and in a European Union where only states have a voice and in a globalisation context in which we live it has become an urgent matter that those nations that have the will for their culture to survive and not be lost in the tide organise themselves as a state. It has become an advantage to the small and to have a distinct voice, to be flexible and to have a unique point of view.

Before the model was the big nation-state concept, which explains the success of states like France or the United Kingdom but now this has changed. We have added another layer of complexity, the European Union, and as a result many of the nations that composed the old big Nation-States have lost their voice completely and feel their culture threatened and their economical development endangered.

Let’s recap the current situation. Scotland is walking towards independence, with SNP in the government that is planning a referendum on independence and with London having already admitted that they’ll respect what the Scottish decide and seem to be the ones who to be in a better position right now. Wales have also seen a rise of their desire for greater autonomy, claiming the devolution of some powers back from London. Flanders, in Belgium the country is divided between the French and the Flemish (a dialect of Dutch) speaking communities and since 2007 parties claiming more autonomy or independence for Flanders have experienced huge growth. Also in Corsica there seems to be a desire for a greater autonomy from France.

In the Iberian peninsula, after almost 300 years it seems possible for Catalonia to recover its independence. Events have been accelerating within the last year culminating so far with the self organised independence referendums and the organisation of Reagrupament, a political association that is committed to declare independence the minute it achieves the majority of deputies in the Catalan Parliament.

Also in the Iberian Peninsula, in the Basque Country’s independentist political community have recently made a very clear statement that violence must stop, paving the way to a non violence scenario that will accelerate events towards its independence.

Small countries have shown to be better prepared than big ones to deal with the challenges of globalisation in general and with the current crisis in particular. That’s why aiming to less layers of administration and bureaucracy makes sense. Small countries know better how to deal with their own problems and needs and to make themselves heard without being diluted by the intermediary.

Since all nations I’ve mentioned in this article are already part of the EU their independence would not require the resulting two states to reapply entrance to the EU and therefore the split would not be traumatic and without violence.

Now it is up to the European Union countries to pay attention and deal with these cases in a constructive way, listen to how europeans want to organise themselves and make sure that their democratic decisions are respected.