Posted on 09/12/2012 6:54:35 PM PDT by Kartographer
Police in Barcelona say a march for the Catalonia region’s “National Day” drew 1.5 million marchers — just below the 1.6 million population of Spain’s second-largest city.
A Catalonia regional police official who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because of department policy says many demonstrators bussed to Barcelona for Tuesday’s march.
Many Catalans claim they pay more than their fair share in taxes to the federal government, and many protesters demanded greater Catalan autonomy or outright independence.
Catalonia has said it will ask Madrid for money from a bailout fund. The region’s politicians insist Catalonia wouldn’t be hurting as much if tax revenue was distributed equitably — a long-standing demand. National Day marks the defeat of Catalan forces during the War of Spanish Succession.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No, they are not breaking up; just re-forming into different governmental regions. This whole slew of “independence” movements is part of the divide-and-conquer “Europe of the regions” plan. No more believable than Scottish/Welsh/Cornish “independence” movements in Britain.
my dtr and her husband just left for a Spanish vacation this morning....
We had a Spanish student stay with us this past summer, from a small city in Catalonia. She definitely has regional pride and she uses Catalan as her first language. She mentioned National Day on her FaceBook page.
But I do not think this local pride is toxic like, say, sunnis v. alawites in Syria.
Also, she was a loyal Spaniard as against terrorism. Like most Americans remember where we were on 9/11, they remember where they were when al-Qaeda attacked the Spanish subway trains.
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