They could have gone the legal route, and push to amend the constitution first.
Not doing so shows the manipulative/dishonest nature of the leaders.
Not doing so shows the manipulative/dishonest nature of the leaders.
There are very good reasons why the Catalans would not go for a push to amend the constitution.
- They believe it's a lost cause, since they are heavily outnumbered and the rest of Spain would be insane to just accede to losing 30+% of their wealth
- They know that the government of Spain will never let this happen.
- They do not accept the authority of the government of Spain, and therefore also not the constitution.
As the majority does not want to do as I want, I take my way, without any other consideration.
Even the catalan people is not supporting this as a majority, you're ruling without considering the 50% of catalonian people.
This is why it is selfish.
Somewhere else in this thread someone mentioned that 90% the vote in Catalonia was 90% for secession, and included half the population. It seems unlikely to me that of the half that didn't vote, more than 90% are anti-secession.
Keep in mind, I don't live anywhere near the area, so I can't get a gut feeling that someone from there might be able to get.
Are voter turnouts normally that high in Spain?
There were regional elections on December 2017 and the independentist parties put together got 70 seats of 135 (less than the 72 they had before). More recently, in the elections for the national government this April, they only got 22 seats of 48 (some of the independentists refused to participate in Spanish elections after declaring independence, but turnout was still very high, more than 75%). The independentists never talk about these numbers, only the 90%. And I think that, many of them, seriously believe they are the 90%.
That's a lie. The current catalonian separatist government got about 50% of the votes from the catalonian people. 90% of secession it's just not true.
Arguably this wasn't fair. Splitting a country in two affects everyone, so why couldn't everyone vote? But if the rest of the country could vote then there'd not have been even a tiny hope the SNP would have accepted the results. In fact, they did not accept that they lost anyway, even when voting was restricted to Scotland. But it's easy to understand why the referendum was designed the way it was.
Ironically it might be that these days the rest of the UK would kick Scotland out, if they were given a vote. It's not necessarily true that everyone cares about the Union.
Should the Americans have instead pursued their cause in Parliament, where they were unrepresented?
You are right that they don't do, specially the authorities there. And this is particularly concerning and completely anti democratic. It cannot be tolerated. They are out of the law, and many have been convicted because of this. Every thing needs to be done under the law. And if you don't like it, within the law, you need to push to change it. It's the only way.
It is only anti democratic if you accept that this is the way the majority of your people want this. These people think that it's a tyrany. That's it's one laid upon them by an outside majority does not help.