I won't go into detail, but the insults and threats coming from Spain are reaching scary proportions. Including the use of force and the army if the Catalan government decides to ask the people whether they want the independence. It doesn't sound very democratic, does it? If you ask the people what they want, we'll bring the cavalry!
Now I'd like to run some numbers for you, to get an idea of how much are people supporting the idea of an independent Catalunya, a Catalunya as a new european state. Let me state here the first number in this writing: Catalunya has 7500000 inhabitants, that's 7 and a half million.
In the last Catalan national day, September 11th, there was a demonstration in Barcelona in favor of Catalan independence. Let's take a look at some numbers:
 |
| From comunicacio21.cat |
Number of participants:
- According to the organizers: 2 million
- According to the Barcelona police: 1.5 million
- According to the Spanish Government: 600000 (600 thousand)
There was another demonstration in Barcelona against Catalunya's independence in October 12th, which is the Spanish national day. Spain celebrates the discovery of America, and therefore the start of massive slaughter; many south-american countries are still bitter at this celebration.
Number of participants:
- According to the organizers: I couldn't find that information
- According to the Barcelona police: 6000 (6 thousand)
- According to the Spanish Government: 65000 (65 thousand)
What I've read from the Spanish side of the conflict is that the October 12th demonstration is so big that shows that Catalunya definitely should not be independent. The same people say that even if the participants in the September 11th were 1.5 million, that is so small number compared to the total population that doesn't give any base for say that Catalunya wants to be independent. Really.
If you've tried to put together 1.5 million people, that's quite a lot. Actually that is a huge lot of people. And that included kids, grandmas and grandpas and it was a totally pacific demonstration. I'll say it again, 1.5 million of the Catalan people got together to claim what we want, pacifically and what we get is threats of violence. Really.
Now, if they are so sure that a massive number of the Catalan people doesn't want the independence, they should encourage us to have the referendum to decide and they would laugh at as afterwards. But no, the reason why they don't want to ask the people is because they are afraid of the answer. "The law is above the democracy" is one of the least democratic statements I've heard in a while and it is the strongest argument they are using to prevent, and it sounds funny, asking people what they want.
Would an independent Catalunya be free of problems, debts, economical crisis and turn into a paradise? No it wouldn't. But it would be our own fault, and it would be our business to solve it. People are asking for the right to decide.
At the same time of this discussion, Scotland and UK have agreed on the independence referendum rights: link to bbc news .
Let's go back to the numbers. In the last election to the Catalan parlament 5.3 million people from the 7.5 millon population could vote. From those, 3.1 million did actually vote. Voting in your hometown it is way easier than going to Barcelona for a demonstration. And so, half the amount of people that voted in the last elections went to the streets to ask for the right to decide, pacifically.
What we want is democracy. What we want is the right to decide. We ask it politely, pacifically and with a sheer amount of people that causes cold shivers. We are reasonable.
Why are we threatened? We can hope that the international community will condemn the threats, and will support us in the right to decide.
When we have that right, we will decide. And when we know the decision it will be time to take the next step. The numbers are there.
