Why Catalan separatists want to go it alone

by Dramelin 8:00 AM 0 comments

Some pro-independence Catalans spoke to CNN in Barcelona on Friday about why they favor going it alone.
`Tired of subsidizing` Unless there is a U-turn, he said, the Spanish state "will annul the autonomy, more repression, more police forces and we will have a military intervention.
" Aparici said the motivation for Catalonia`s separatists has always been gaining greater fiscal autonomy.
"We`re subsidizing Andalucia, we`re subsidizing Extremadura, we`re subsidizing, subsidizing, subsidizing .
and it comes a time where we don`t feel like subsidizing any more.
So the only thing that could happen here is that, by force, they make us carry on subsidizing," he said.
"This is what we wanted with the referendum, to know if we were the majority or not.
" `They have made us angry` Mireya Jimenez, 25, a journalism student, said the way the October 1 referendum was handled has hardened people`s views in favor of independence.
Hundreds of people were injured last weekend as police sent from Madrid tried to prevent the referendum going ahead.
"I didn`t feel that repressed until what happened on October 1," she said.
"I think a couple of years ago there were more people who didn`t want it (independence), but after all that has happened, I think there are more people who want it.
Jimenez said she doesn`t feel represented by Spain because of its policies and the way it treats Catalans.
"I believe that by being independent we could .
manage ourselves better; we would have another kind of benefits that don`t exist within Spain," she said.
`A better country` Raul del Hoyo, 56, a logistics technician, said he feels Spanish as well as Catalan but believes in the region`s bid for independence.
"We believe we have sufficient economic potential, social cohesion and initiative to be able to make a better country," he said.
"I`m very sad to have seen how the police took people who were only expressing or demonstrating, democratically, their right to vote, and their right to demonstrate on the street in order to achieve a political objective.
" He said he believes there will be negotiations and that the two sides will find a solution that works for them both.
"There could be violence, but if there is violence, I am sure it will be institutional.
Catalonia, for decades, not just now, for decades, has always demonstrated democratically its claims," he said.
"It`s the part of the peninsula, or the part of Spain, that has always voted more in favor of Europe, of democratic values, of its anti-Franco struggle.
It`s a peaceful people, a people that organized itself around a set of values to grow more.
We`re not going against anything.
" `They didn`t listen to us` Ana, who didn`t want to give her last name for fear of repercussions, said Catalan independence is essential.
"We need to have it.
So that all of us take everything that the state from Madrid takes from us," she said.
A 68-year-old retired administrative executive, Ana has been angered by the central authorities` treatment of Catalans in recent days.
"We`ve been very peaceful.
They didn`t listen to us and attacked the people, elderly people, children, very bad," she said.
"We hope that they engage in dialogue, that they talk and they fix this because we`ve never had an issue, between people who don`t want independence and people who want it.
" She said she hopes the recent tensions won`t deter foreign visitors to Barcelona and the region, saying they will be welcomed with open arms.