We want to Vote

A simple but hugely important event will take place in Barcelona this Wednesday, 23 January 2013: the Catalan Parliament will vote and most likely adopt a Declaration of Sovereignty. This declaration will solemnly proclaim that the people of Catalonia is a sovereign political and juridical subject, and will thus set the legal basis for the start of the self-determination process of Catalonia.

A majority of almost two thirds of the Catalan Parliament –a large majority by any standard– will vote in favour of this Declaration, which establishes the right of the Catalans to decide on their political future on the basis of five principles: transparency, dialogue, social cohesion, Europeanism, and international legality. In this clear, simple, and transparent manner, the majority that emerged from the election on 25 November 2012 will exercise its democratic mandate. The Catalan deputies in Parliament will vote so that we Catalans may vote in a forthcoming referendum on our political future.

What has been happening in Catalonia over the last couple of years is nothing short of a democratic revolution. We could describe this process in long paragraphs and complicated sentences, but at the end of the day it boils down to this simple concept: the people want to vote. We Catalans want to express our views on our collective future –some wish an independent State, others a federal Spain– through that most simple of political acts: placing a vote in the ballot box. What can be dangerous about that? The Spanish parties that have been running their own corrupt show for thirty-five years are terrified about the Catalans’ peaceful, democratic revolution. The tapestry of lies and corruption that they have been weaving all this time to camouflage the rotting remains of Franco’s dictatorship is finally unravelling. They will say that their Constitution –written under threat from the military and used to curtail freedom rather than to foster it– does not allow for such an exercise of liberty; that we can only hold a referendum if the Spanish parties that will always oppose it, no matter what, agree to it; that all Spaniards should vote on the future of Catalonia; and that the only legality that could ever be invoked on this issue is the same Spanish legality that will never accept that we vote on our future.

Yet on Wednesday the people’s representatives will honour their democratic mandate and will pass a Declaration of Sovereignty. For we, the Catalan people, are the only rightful masters of our own future. Nothing will stop us from exercising our democratic rights. We want to vote, and we will vote. 

Spanish

Dr. Josep Anton Fernandez
Associate Professor of Catalan Studies at Open University of Catalunya (UOC)
@JosepAntonFdez
Executive Member of "Plataforma per la Llengua"
http://www.plataforma-llengua.cat

@llenguacat