A Slumbering European Crisis Awakens: Catalonia

Ted Galen CarpenterA troubling development that has largely fallen through the cracks while media and public attention is focused on Syria ’s turmoil, is the revival of serious political tensions in Spain’s Catalonia region.Pro-independence Catalans pressed their agenda in 2017, attempting to hold a referendum on secession from Spain.In doing so, they badlyoverreached.The national government in Madrid barred the referendum, and Spanish security forces sent to prevent the ballotingbrutallyattacked mostly peaceful demonstrators in Catalonia ’s largest city, Barcelona.Spanish authorities then arrested the referendum ’s organizers, taking some into custody while others fled the country.The pro-independence movement has remained largely quiescent since then.Unfortunately, that relative calm has come to an end in dramatic fashion.Just as Catalan independence advocates miscalculated and overreached in 2017, the Madrid government appears to have done so now, imposing draconian prison sentences on the political rebels in its custody.Spain ’s Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders to prison terms ranging between nine and 13 years for their role in the failed independence bid.Oriol Junqueras, former vice president of Catalonia ’s regional government, received the harshest sentence.The court ’s decision has triggered mass protests throughout the region.Protesters in theseparatist stronghold of Girona burned tires on the train tracks, shutting down the high-...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 17, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Ted Galen Carpenter Source Type: blogs