I used to live in Barcelona and speak Catalan. I was there when Franco still forbade Catalan in schools, daily newspapers and TV. Main streets were named after fascist generals that helped Franco win the Spanish Civil War, although the people of Barcelona always referred to them by their old names--names the street signs now once again proudly bear. They basically DID accomplish all the goals they strove for under the dictatorship. The schools ARE in Catalan. TV, radio, newspapers, none of that is on any forbidden list any more. The language harmony is more like Switzerland than fascist Spain. In Geneva, you speak French, but can always find someone who understands German. In Zürich, they speak German, but you can always find someone who speaks French or Italian. In Barcelona, everyone understands Spanish, even though among themselves, they'll speak their own language.
Like Lafarge and Brexit, Puigdemont is looking for glory and some headlines, and not telling the people about the true consequences of separation--a new, non-euro currency, a need to start the application process to join the EU ASAP, but which will still take a few years, no money to help with their own influx of refugees, and competition with a new, smaller Spain for banks and industry, with Spain having the huge advantage of already being in the Euro and the EU.
During the dictatorship, Catalunya dreamed of re-integration with Europe and getting their own language and culture back. As soon as Franco was gone, they got all that immediately, plus the autonomy they were seeking for so long. As soon as their top bureaucrats are tired of their fame and headlines, they can award themselves (if they haven't already) huge retirement nest eggs to retire to other Catalan-speaking areas of Spain that won't leave with them, such as València or the Balearic Islands. If they leave, in the time before they join the EU, they would have to erect customs and border police controls with France and Spain, and probably patrol the tiny border with Andorra with KGB-like efficiency, as a tax haven like Andorra would suddenly be a place to stash wealth that would be suddenly subject to potential confiscatory taxes the new government might decide they need. The two main banks of Catalunya have already moved their headquarters out of Catalunya out of fear of separation. This is ridiculous. There is air and train shuttle service between Madrid and Barcelona like the New York to Washington shuttle. They have grown back to one country. It took forty years to do it. To tear it apart now, with all the economic mess, not to mention the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of families who will suddenly find themselves with family members in two different countries--it makes about as much sense as separating east and west Canada. I'm not fond of conspiracy theories, but this is SO detrimental to the region, I have to wonder if there are some people from outside somewhere fanning the flames. It certanly isn't going to do the people of Catalunya any good, and it seems that plenty of them know it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
