About the author of this article for Help Catalonia
Jordi Portabella
is the leader of an independentist coalition in Barcelona's City Council.
Poc a poc i bona lletra goes the Catalan saying — literally: slowly and good handwriting — meaning that it is best to take slow but confident steps. This could be applied to Catalan society regarding independence of Catalonia.
A poll conducted by the prestigious GESOP research organisation published last week by El Periódico (a federalist left wing paper) is clear. Independence is backed by a clear majority in Catalonia. Specifically, the poll shows that in the event of a referendum on independence, today 54% of the Catalans would vote for it, whereas only 32% would vote against the creation of the Catalan State. Incredible as it may sound to some, it is as true as ever.
At the same time in the North of Europe, Scotland is about to culminate its process to become a state of its own. According to the latest poll published by the British magazine ‘New Statesman’, 44% of Scots would vote for independence, while unionists -that is, those who agree to keeping the union between Scotland and England- are 45%. However, the trend shows the ‘yes’ option is rising. In previous polls ‘yes’ used to reach just 38%. Unfortunately among the international community the Scottish case is better known than ours despite the fact that, with numbers on the table, in Catalonia there is more social support for independence than in Scotland.
Nevertheless, as we Catalans say: ‘Catalonia is not Scotland and Spain is not the United Kingdom’. On the one hand, Catalonia is not Scotland because our government does not back a plan to move towards independence, although most of the population backs secession. On the other hand, Spain is not the UK since the Spanish constitution neither provides for the right of secession of Catalonia nor the right to hold a referendum on self-determination. We wish Spain were like the UK and would understand that democracy is about respecting the people’s will. We are hopeful that the great majority of the people in Catalonia wants independence and we are confident that we will also be democratically unstoppable in the process of international recognition.
In conclusion, once Catalonia has a pro-secession government with a plan to access self-determination, the international community’s support will be required in order to hold the referendum. We want Scotland to fulfil its dream, as we share the same dream too. On top of that, we think this could be case law for new democratic states such as Catalonia. Catalonia will accept the procedures and the rules but we ask for the United Nations and the European Union for collaboration so that Spain respects them too. We believe in Europe, we believe in the United Nations. We want to contribute to building a better world with our own voice.
Jordi Portabella
wants Barcelona to become the capital of the forthcoming new Catalan sovereign state.
For the record, the UK government in no way endorses Scottish independence, unfortunately. I am a diehard Scottish nationalist and sadly the UK government is doing everything it possibly can to prevent our inevitable secession. Propaganda, scaremongering and negativity are their usual tactics.
Scotland has a devolved parliament, voted for by the Scottish people a decade and a half ago. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has been in power since 2007 and last year gained an overall majority in the election. Between 2007 and 2011, the SNP tried to push through the Scottish independence referendum legislation but failed, after the other parties repeatedly voted it down, despite the Scottish public demanding the right to decide our constitutional future. Even the unionists wanted the referendum but the unionist parties denied the public the right to decide. That isn't democracy.
Now that the SNP have a majority they can hold the referendum, although it hasn't stopped the UK government trying everything under the sun to dissuade the Scottish electorate. It isn't working, as you pointed out support for independence has never been higher and its still rising. The Scottish public trust the competency and efficiency of this government, notably the charismatic Alex Salmond.
The future looks bright for Scotland, and if the Spanish government wisens up and allows the Catalans to declare their independence, it'll be a positive future for you too.
Soar Alba! Free Scotland!