Catalan premier talks about "divorce" from Spain, in Finacial Times

Artur Mas, premier of Catalonia, talked last monday in an article in Financial Times about "divorce" between Catalonia and Spain if the central government were to refuse the new economic deal that is demanded from Catalonia. “So our project in the short term is fiscal sovereignty ... In the longer term, we’ll see” he said.

Mr Mas drew parallels with the situation in Scotland, where there ares similar demands for independence, although Catalonia has more economic weight in Spain than Scotland has in the UK.

Mr Mas stressed on the fiscal drainage that Catalonia is supporting and cannot carry on anymore, wich is more than 8% of GDP: that means some €17bn per year.

He talked also about the disrespect for catalan identity and language issues: “There’s a growing divorce because in a continuous, repeated way, Catalans have the sensation – and they’re right – that we are not respected on identity or language issues and not helped on economic and social issues."

You can read the whole article, by Victor Mallet if you follow this link .