Catalan President Carles Puidgemont and his PdeCat party, as well as their allies in the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERL), have effectively surrendered their independence back to the Spanish national government after last month’s successful referendum. Instead of demanding freedom, they will now beg for scraps from their national masters.
“The draft follows this line. It is not finished. It seems like a good route to work on,” PdeCat party coordinator Marta Pascal said in a recent interview, desperate to create justification for her party’s surrender.
Madrid had imposed draconian sanctions after the people of Catalonia voted to secede from their national government last month by an overwhelming margin of over 90 percent. Direct rule was imposed on the Catalans, and the government was dismissed. Instead of fighting back under the imposition of this tyranny, the Catalan government – desperate to protect its own power – has turned its back on independence, despite double-talk from lowly bureaucrats desperate to spin their craven moves as progress.
“The process of building a republic has started. We want this to be negotiated,” said Roger Torrent, who serves as the spokesman for the ERC in the Catalan parliament.
“This is why we urge the Spanish government to accept the results,” Torrent said.
But there is virtually no chance for a Catalan secession and independence movement to take place anymore outside of the fantasy world of disingenuous politicians, as foreign policy analyst Jason Ditz explains.
“The parties aren’t given up on forming a Catalan republic, but now seem to believe they need a Spanish imprimatur to do so,” Ditz said at Antiwar.com. “That’s going to be tricky, however, as Spain has insisted any consideration of independence amounted to sedition against the crown.”
With the leftist secessionists already bending over backwards to capitulate, they will never be arguing from a position of strength with the enraged Spanish government. The leftists in the Catalan government have already flinched in the face of Spain’s repression, and now Madrid has nothing to fear from the Catalans.
