Spanish clashes a worry for EU

Violence is no answer to Catalonia’s independence aspirations. Leaders of the Spanish government and the regional administration in Barcelona need to understand the only sensible way ahead is to talk calmly, not to provoke more confrontation. Both bear a heavy responsibility for the brutality and bloodshed that accompanied voting in the referendum called by the Catalan parliament but ruled “illegal and undemocratic” by Spain’s Constitutional Court. It reflects poorly on the Madrid government’s heavy-handed methods in seeking to crush the independence movement, and the irresponsibility of the regional administration in going ahead with the referendum after a questionable vote in its parliament.

Spain’s five million Catalans have long felt cultural, language and economic resentment about their lot. This dates back to the Franco dictatorship, which ended in 1975. But demands for independence are not supported by all Catalans. A June poll commissioned by the regional government showed the separatist cause was backed by only 35 per cent of Catalans, down from 50 per cent in 2013. Only one in 10 Spaniards supports granting Catalonia and other regions the chance of independence. Despite these findings the Catalan government pressed ahead with the referendum after a rushed parliamentary vote, won by a slender majority. It has decreed that a simple majority, irrespective of voter turnout, would be enough to seize independence. Such provocation was always bound to provoke a stern reaction from Madrid.

But the forceful action to disrupt the referendum is unlikely to have done much to end the independence drive. There seems little doubt, too, that with Spain’s Basques, the Scots in the UK and Lega Nord in Italy watching the separatist militancy manifesting itself in Barcelona, the issue is one that has the potential to create a crisis as big as Brexit for the EU. Brussels leaders fear Catalan independence would lead not only to the breakup of Spain but also provide a spur for regional independence movements across Europe. Calm must prevail.