Catalonian Independence

Actually, this is something about which I have no strong opinion.

The Catalonian parliament has declared independence from Spain.  Here’s the BBC‘s report.  In the same way as the referendum had an overwhelming majority in favor, but low participation, so, too, there were 70 yeses, 10 noes, and 2 abstentions, but there were 53 other legislators out of the 135 members who boycotted the vote entirely.  Supporters say that independence is the only way to preserve Catalan language and culture. The Spanish government has reacted swiftly:  the upper house voted almost immediately to impose direct rule on the region, which had operated semi-autonomously.

Now, presumably, this independence bid will be squashed pretty quickly, and I don’t think there’s enough determination on the part of the Catalans to actually go to war, or even put their economy at risk.  I presume that they don’t feel so mistreated by the Spanish government as to be willing to make particularly many sacrifices.  (Though, at the same time, one could make the case that the American revolutionary leaders’ list of complaints was not really all that long, in the grand scheme of things, either.)  But in a democracy, is the central government acting unjustly in rejecting this bid for independence, if this is truly the will of the people?

And that’s about all I have to say; this post is primarily an invitation for readers to get on their own soapboxes in the comments.

Image:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACatalan_National_Day.png; By Ivan McClellan (Flickr: Catalan National Day) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons