This is the first time that I am living abroad when
there are elections for the government of my Country. I am from Catalonia, a
small country between Spain and France, a Nation without a formal state. We
have an own language and culture, and we want to be able to decide our future
Last 11th of September 1.5 million of
people occupied the streets of Barcelona asking for the freedom of Catalonia,
requesting Catalonia as the next state in Europe. After this manifesto from
Catalan population and the negative of the Spanish Government to satisfy the
economic requests of the Catalan Government (we only asked for keeping our own
money and our own taxes that we generate due to our GDP, not very weird overall),
he decided to dissolve the parliament and call the citizens to vote again (last
elections took place 2 years ago, and we have elections every four years).
During the election campaign, the main political party
of Catalonia and the other parties that support the independence of Catalonia,
have announced that their main goal for the next two years is to ask for a
referendum in order to all the Catalan citizens can vote whether they want to
continue be part of the Spanish Kingdom or they want that Catalonia becomes an
own State, the next State in Europe. Obviously the Spanish Government has
already manifested his position related to this democratic act, as they think
that it is pointless and useless to ask to the people of Catalonia what they
want to become and be in the future, in fact they do not care what Catalonia
wants and what their citizens decide. They said that this referendum is not
legal and in case we organize, it will not have any effect on the future of
Catalonia. Moreover, they think that all the citizens of the Spanish Kingdom
should be able to vote it. It would be the same that the citizens of England and
North of Ireland vote whether Scotland has to become an own state, kind of a
joke.
This Sunday people from Catalonia will go to vote and
they will choose the next government, and in some way they will choose if it is
fine that Catalonia becomes the next state of Europe or at least if it is fine
that we organize a referendum in the next two years to choose our path. I do
not expect that Spain will help us in this way, but at least I hope that Europe
will be comprehensive with the willingness of Catalonia and what they citizens
decide, cause there is not point to reject what a nation wants to be, and even fewer
that Europe ignores it.
This weekend we will decide our government and the
people that we want that guides us to our goal. We only ask for a referendum,
that citizens being able to decide the future of the nation, we do not ask for
more.
"It's gonna be a long walk home, hey pretty darling don´t wait up for me, gonna be a long walk home"
Long walk home – Bruce Springsteen
