Barcelona - Spain's governing conservative
People's Party (PP) pledged on Friday to prevent the north-eastern
region of Catalonia from approving a declaration saying it had the right
to become an independent state.
Catalonia's governing nationalist party CiU and
its more radical separatist ally ERC on Thursday agreed on a
declaration which they intend to submit to the regional parliament on
January 23.
The declaration says the region of 7.6 million
residents is a “sovereign” entity which aims at becoming a “new state
within the European framework.”
Separatist parties have a majority in the
Catalan parliament, which was expected to approve the declaration as a
first step toward staging a referendum on independence by 2014.
Catalonia will discuss its independence process
with Spain, European institutions and the international community,
according to the declaration.
Catalan Prime Minister Artur Mas reportedly
knows in advance that the government in Madrid will reject his
referendum plans. In that case, he has pledged to challenge Spain at
European courts.
The declaration also said that the Catalan
authorities will launch an information campaign to encourage residents
to participate in the referendum.
The Catalan branch of the PP was studying
“legal and political mechanisms” to prevent parliament from approving
the “illegal and anti-democratic” declaration, regional PP leader Alicia
Sanchez-Camacho said.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government intends to block the planned referendum through the Constitutional Court.
Spain's economic crisis has fanned separatism in Catalonia, which has traditionally been the country's economic powerhouse.
Many Catalans feel the region would have
weathered the crisis better if it had not been required to transfer part
of its tax revenue to poorer regions.
1 comMENTS:
The last two lines are very true, people all over Catalonia try to cinvince everyone about independence through that idea. I don't think it's as easy as they say anyway, and i definiteley hope it doesn't get approved and that catalonia stays part of Spain.
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