Hot on the heels of the independence referendum in Scotland, Cataluña’s parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favour of giving regional president Artur Mas the power to call an independence ‘consultation’.
The Spanish Government opposes the Catalan ‘consultation’ vote and is taking the dispute to the Constitutional Court. Cataluña is, of course, one of Spain’s richest and most highly industrialised regions, but there is much resentment over the proportion of Catalan taxes used to support the poorer regions.
Catalan President Artur Mas believes that Scotland’s referendum has shown the way for Cataluñan independence and he is preparing for a similar vote on November 9th 2014.
Spain’s Constitutional Court is expected to consider the Catalan case on Tuesday and could suspend the region’s vote on independence, although Artur Mas is quoted as saying, “If they think in Madrid that by using legal frameworks they can stop the will of the Catalan people, they are wrong.”