Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Explainer: What you need to know about Catalonia’s independence 1-0 referendum
Explainer: What you need to know about Catalonia’s independence 1-0 referendum
Apr 4, 2025 1:24 PM

Voters who took part in yesterday’s national 1-0 referendum overwhelmingly supported Catalonia’s independence from Spain, and images of the Spanish National Police brutally suppressing the election have flooded the international media. But any honest accounting of the 1-0 referendum requires a deeper nuance that leaves no party looking heroic.

The 1-0 referendum

On October 1, Catalonia held an election asking voters,“Do youwantCatalonia to e an independent state in theform of a republic?” Catalonia, which has seen its autonomy wax and wane since the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile united in the mid-to-late fifteenth century, already enjoys considerable autonomy.

Some 90 percent of the 2.2 million people who cast a ballot on Sunday voted for independence, according to Jordi Turull, a spokesman for the Catalan government. Officials say 770,000 votes were seized by Spanish police or otherwise lost. Police closed 79 of the 2,315 polling stations nationwide.

Although the vote produced a lopsided majority, several issues keep the results from being as definitive as portrayed.

By any measure, the referendum was illegal

The Spanish government is correct to say that the 1-0 referendum lacked legal authority. Section 2 of the Spanish Constitution, which 90 percent of Catalans approved, states:

The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, mon and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it posed and the solidarity among them all.

Section 92 adds that “[p]olitical decisions of special importance may be submitted to all citizens in a consultative referendum” called by the president (or king) and authorized by Congress. The 1-0 referendum had no such authorization.

Early last month the Spanish Constitutional Court suspended Sunday’s election, pending a full decision on its constitutionality. Nonetheless, Catalonia’s regional president, Carles Puigdemont, pressed forward – and he plying with a law to determine whether he was using national taxpayer funds to agitate for independence.

As a result, the prime minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, and others have treated the vote as a non-entity. “Today there was no referendum on self-determination in Catalonia,” Rajoy said. European Commission agreed the aborted vote was “not legal,” in a statement delivered by chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas.

Procedural issues aside, 90 percent would be a clear mandate for independence – if that total represented the entire region.

The 1-0 referendum’s results were inconclusive – despite the “90 percent” figure

While 90 percent of 1-0 voters backed Catalan independence, they represent only 42 percent of the region’s registered voters. The vast majority did not participate. That tracks with previous polling results, which found only 48 percent of Catalans supported holding a referendum if it were declared illegal. In all, 41 percent said they would vote for independence according to the region’s official polling firm, the Centre for Opinion Studies.

Pro-independence sentiment has only inched up since the last vote in November 2014. At that time, 80 percent voted to leave Spain – but only half of all registered voters took part.

The 1-0 referendum drew motivated pro-independence voters to the polls, but they did not speak for most Catalans.

Polls in July showed support for independence slipping, with a majority opposing it – at least, before Madrid’s response on Sunday.

“Worthy of Venezuela”: How Spain’s free market leaders reacted

International television captured Spanish National Police breaking up the election by firing rubber bullets, swinging batons, and dragging voters out of polling stations by their hair. As of this writing, 893 people have been injured by their aggressive tactics. Yet Prime Minister Rajoy placed the full blame for the National Police’s actions “solely and exclusively” on “those who promoted the rupture of legality.” And foreign minister Alfonso Datsis dismissed many of the photos as “fake.”

Pro-free market leaders in Spain condemned the police violence, without upholding the legality of the referendum.

“Today, we have lost the international image of a civilized country,” wrote Roxana Nicula, the president of the Fundación para el Avance de la Libertad, a Spanish free market think tank. “Rajoy will be remembered in history books as the politician who permanently expelled Catalonia from Spain.”

“I do not want to live in a country where my government sends the anti-riot forces against a civilian population,” she wrote. “It is disgusting, worthy of the Venezuela of Maduro.”

Partido Liberatrio wrote in a press release that it is “evident that the referendum held today [lacked] the minimum international standards and, therefore, has no legal value whatsoever.Precisely because of this, it was not necessary and counterproductive to prevent it by force.”

What’s next?

President Carles Puigdemont has always said that, if the referendum passed, Catalonia could declare independence within 48 hours. “Catalonia’s citizens have earned the right to have an independent state in the form of a republic,” he said on television after the vote.

Meanwhile, more than 40 unions and civic organizations have called for a nationwide strike on Tuesday.

Severing Catalonia’s 500-year-long tie with the rest of Spain could have negative repercussions for both regions.

What would the economic impact of independence be?

Catalonia’s economic output of nearly $250 billion (U.S.) last year weighs heavily in the decision. Its largely industrialized economy accounts for 20 percent of Spain’s total GDP. More jobs are created in Catalonia, and its citizens have a higher GDP-per-person than other regions of Spain.

However, Catalonia is also among the most indebted regions, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 35 percent. Its economic balance with the national government is not as bad as it is portrayed. And, as in Scotland, independence would not necessarily bring Catalonia its desired ends of prosperity and EU membership.

Independence could harm both Spain and Catalonia’s fiscal outlook. In January, Fitch Ratings gave Catalonia a “BB” credit rating, with a “negative” outlook. On Friday, S&P Global Ratingsconfirmed Spain had a “BBB+” rating…but threatened to revise the outlook “if the current tensions between the central government and the regional government of Catalonia escalated and started weighing on business confidence and investment, leading to less predictable future policy responses.”

An independent Catalonia would not automatically accede to EU membership. If Catalonia declares independence from an EU member, “the territory leaving would find itself outside of the European Union,” Schinas said. Like Scotland, it would have to go through the normal application process for membership.

As harmful as the economic impact would be, it is hard to overstate the damage done by the Spanish government’s harsh crackdown against voters.

WWAD: What Would (St.) Augustine Do?

The Western tradition has held that laws should be implemented fairly, impartially, and with the minimum of force required. “Christian emperors,” wrote St. Augustine, often choose to “grant pardons [to guilty parties] … in the hope of reform.” If they must act harshly, pensate with felicity for those affected. “As often as they are forced to make harsh decrees, pensate with the gentleness of mercy and an abundance of kindness,” he wrote. Such rulers “are divinely-favored.”

Imagine that Prime Minister Rajoy allowed Catalan officials to hold their illegal election, and then announce its underwhelming e. Seizing control of the region’s finances punitively, instead of preemptively, would draw less international outrage and galvanize public sentiment against Puigdemont. Politicians dedicated to separatism enjoy fragile support, win or lose. Continuing to pursue independence like the white whale after failing to deliver undercuts secessionists – as it has in Scotland, where the nationalist first minister saw her Scottish Nationalist Party decimated in June’s UK’s snap election. But affection, as St. Augustine saw, creates stronger bonds of unity than intimidation.

Few people pledge allegiance to the government swinging the baton.

This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Explainer: The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Government Prayer
What was the Greece vs. Galloway case about? The short answer: The constitutionality of saying religiously specific prayers (e.g., praying in Jesus name) at government meetings and functions. The (slightly) longer answer: In the town of Greece, located in upstate New York, the Town Board sessions were opened by a prayer from local clergy, mostly leaders of Christian congregations although in a few instances members of other faith traditions offered the invocation (a Jewish man, a Baha’i leader, and a...
Now Available: ‘On Exchange and Usury’ by Thomas Cajetan
Christian’s Library Press has released a new translation of two treatises on exchange and usury by Thomas Cajetan (1469-1534), a Dominican theologian, philosopher, and cardinal. Although best known for mentaries on the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, Cajetan also wrote dozens of other works, including short treatises on socioeconomic problems. Published under the name On Exchange and Usury, these treatises reflect on the banking industry of the early modern era in the context of the Church’s usury doctrine, examining which transactions...
The Bible and the Principle of Moral Proximity
“The Bible does say a lot of justice and the poor,” notes Kevin DeYoung, “but if we are to be convicted and motivated by truth, we must pay more careful attention to what the Bible actually does and does not say.” An example is a concept that DeYoung says can be derived from the Bible, the principle of moral proximity: The principle is pretty straightforward, but it is often overlooked: the closer the moral proximity of the poor the greater...
Amnesty International: Release Nigerian Schoolgirls But Legalize Prostitution
Yesterday, Joe Carter wrote about Boko Haram, the terrorist group that has kidnapped hundreds of girls in Nigeria from the Christian school, and is now threatening to sell them into the sex trafficking trade. Salil Shetty, Secretary General of the human rights organization Amnesty International, is calling upon the Nigerian government to initiate a transparent investigation of the girls’ kidnapping and an immediate release of the girls. The horrific abduction shows the serious nature of violations of international humanitarian and...
Chinese Government Destroys Church; Denies Persecution
Wenzhou, China, is known as the “Jerusalem of the East” because of its large Christian population, a population that had, until recently, enjoyed the Sanjiang Church for worship. A massive structure, Sanjiang Church took over 12 years to build and was a site of pilgrimage for Chinese Catholics. Last week, however, the Chinese government (which had previously lauded the structure’s architecture) deemed the structure “illegal” and destroyed the entire building, bricking off massive statues to hide them from sight. The...
Is Mass Incarceration the New Eugenics?
“Has the War on Drugs revived the 19th Century progressive crusade against ‘degenerates’?” asks Anthony Bradley in the second of this week’s Acton Commentary. The United States currently has over 2.3 million prisoners incarcerated in federal, state, and local jails around the country. According to an April report by the Sentencing Project, that number presents a 500 percent increase in incarcerations over the past 40 years. This increase produces “prison overcrowding and fiscal burdens on states to modate a rapidly...
‘Destitute And Dying:’ A Human Trafficking Survivor’s Story
Rani Hong was a very young girl in rural India when her life was snatched away from her by human trafficking. In desperation, her mother allowed her to be taken away by a woman she thought she could trust, a woman who promised to care for Rami. And she did, for a while. However, the lure of money was too great and Rami was sold into human trafficking at age seven. I was taken to an area where I did...
Explainer: Boko Haram and the Kidnapped Christian Girls
What is going on with the mass kidnappings of children in Nigeria? During the night of April 16, dozens of armed men from the terrorist group Boko Haram captured over 300 Christian girls aged 12 to 15 who were sleeping in dormitories at Chibok Government Girls Secondary School in northeast Nigeria. About 50 students managed to escape, but 276 were still being held according to Nigerian state police. The group has since captured 8 more girls. The kidnappers took the...
Poverty, Justice, and Christian Love
“We have replaced charity with humanitarianism, says Michael Matheson Miller in the first of this week’s Acton Commentary, “a hollowed-out secular and materialist vision of Christian love.” Concern for the poor is at the heart of Christianity. Saint John Paul II called poverty one of the greatest moral challenges of our time, and to ignore the plight of the poor has consequences for our eternal souls. Pope Francis addressed poverty in Evangelii Gaudium: “Almost without being aware of it, we...
Why McDonald’s Has Become a School for Remedial Work Skills
“Clean up your own mess. Your mother doesn’t work here.” That was a sign, printed on dot matrix printer paper, which hung in the breakroom of the McDonald’s where I worked. While that was nearly thirty years ago, I suspect that same sign is still there (though probably reprinted on a laser printer). But the idea behind it has changed. Your mother may not work at McDonalds, but pany—and others that hire low-skilled employees—are increasingly taking on the role of...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved