Talking about the referendum we are going to hold tomorrow, I have to say that it is a complicated subject, even hardest to understand for a person from other countries.
I think this link of an article of the newspaper The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,1792096,00.html might be a bit useful to understand more regarding this mater. I'll try to explain you a bit. The issue is that thanks to the Catalan citizens we got our politicians to fight for more self-government for our region, Catalonia. It was after 30 years since we got the actual level of self-goverment. As it was after Franco's death, we couldn't ask for lots of power, and we got only a bit of what we wanted. For a lots of people it was bullshit, and we had to wait over 30 years to improve that big mistake in terms of government.
The Catalan Parliament has 5 parties. Four of them (the 5th is PP a nearly fascist party and represents only less than 10% of our popullation), on the last September 30th agreed for a new semi-Constitution for Catalonia, even though we still would keep belonging to our neighbours: Spain. For me it wasn't enough but it was a big, a huge step forward. The Catalan people had illusion, it was one of the times you could be proud of your politicians, in fact, strangely they were doing what they must do: defending the rights of the people they represent. But that illusion disappeared as the smoke of a cigarrette in a windy day.
A country is also made of betrayers, and in our history, it is one of our worst problems. Two of the main parties decided to stop working for Catalonia and together, hand by hand, with the 90% of the Catalan Parliament that had said yes to that rules. They betrayed our people and negotiated a different Estatut (like a Constitution but belonging to Spain): An Estatut that was cut by 65% less than what the Catalan Parliament had decided!!!! (The Spaniards are the worst doing this kind of business and if some Catalan politicians betray their own people, there is nothing to do)
It was still a good autonomy Constitution but 65% less than what we had already decided. Can you imagine, you elect a government this goverment choose something and after 3 months what you voted is for nothing, your opinion as a citizen is nule! Even tough the Spaniard president had said: "I'll accept the Estatut that will come from Catalonia" (sic).
One more lyer. Tomorrow there is the referendum. I live in Ireland and I couldn't travel to Catalonia, therefore I would not be able to vote as I am still waiting for the post, to vote by post (although today was the last day!!!!). I feel really cheated and if I could vote (tomorrow is going to be impossible) i would vote NO. The people who will say NO (like myself) is people who feel absolutely cheated by the Spaniards and by the majority of the Catalan politicans. If tomorrow the answer was NO (probably will be YES because they control ALL the medias) the message would be very clear: We have had more than enough. The next step is the independence, Catalonia is going to be the next country in Europe. Although if YES wins it is a really tiny step forward.
Thankfully everyday more and more Catalans realize that there is no future if we keep belonging to Spain. If we want to have the same rights as the other countries in Europe, we will have to become a new country in Europe. It is a mater of survival as a people.
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