«He that maketh a pit shall fall therein; and he that rolleth a stone shall return upon it.» (Proverbs 26, 27).
Three parties are responsible for the massive violations of organic law of the Spanish state and of the human rights of the Catalan people that the Spanish state has committed, especially since October 2017:
1. The Partido Popular (PP), through whose long-standing Catalanophobic policies the Catalan nation was provoked to such an extent that the originally small Catalan independence movement became capable of gaining a majority. In 1976, seven parties — six of them led by former ministers of the criminal mass murderer and dictator Francisco Franco — had united to form the Alianza Popular. This party brought together the old elites of the Francoist regime of terror. In 1989, the Alianza Popular renamed itself the Partido Popular («People's Party»). The huge corruption scandals of recent years, above all the Guertel affair, cast a telling light on this party and its officials.
2. The Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), an apparently 'social democratic' party whose leading members were involved in a series of corruption scandals, suffered an enormous loss of reputation worldwide, above all due to the involvement of leading members of this party and the Ministry of the Interior it led at the time in the criminal activities of the illegal death squads «Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación» (GAL). Despite all political differences, the PP and PSOE parties have managed for decades to divide up offices and sinecures between themselves. In their disregard for the rights of the Catalan people as well as the Catalan language and culture, they nevertheless differed at least in degree, so that the PSOE generally appeared to Catalans to be the lesser evil compared to the PP.
3. The «Ciudadanos — Partido de la Ciudadanía» party emerged in 2006 in Catalonia, where a significant Spanish minority had been settled since the 1960s as a result of corresponding measures taken by the Francoist government. Its original raison d'être is vehement anti-Catalanism; it recognisably aims to push back the Catalan language and culture and largely replace it with Spanish. Since 2015, the party, which stands to the right of the Partido Popular and in some positions appears to be extreme right-wing, has been active throughout Spain.
In October 2017, these three parties violated the organic law of the Spanish state by abusing Article 155 of the Spanish constitution to declare the democratically legitimised Catalan government deposed, dissolve the democratically elected Catalan parliament and call new elections in Catalonia without the Spanish constitution providing a legal basis for this. As a result, Catalan politicians who ran for high office in the Catalan government were persecuted by an obviously politicised judiciary, prevented from exercising parliamentary mandates, illegally removed from office and publicly defamed. The Catalan people were clearly shown that Spain regards them as an ‘eternal colony’ and unlawfully denies them their human right to self-determination, even by using violence.
After a Spanish court removed the last Catalan president for the time being, Quim Torra, from office in a clearly illegal manner — the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg will probably have the last word — and new elections thus became necessary, the PSOE ensured that these were not postponed to 30 May 2021 because of the pandemic, as the other parties wanted, but were to be held on 14 February 2021. The Spanish 'social democrats' hoped that this would lead to a low voter turnout — it was in fact only 53.54 percent — and subsequently to a clear electoral victory, as they sent the popular Catalan health minister, Salvador Illa, of the central Spanish government as their candidate in the Catalan election campaign.
As is well known, only the very stupidest calves choose their own butchers. The Catalans are not stupid. The three parties responsible for the 'coup d'état from above' of 2017 and the greatest human rights violations seen in Western Europe in decades won the following number of seats in the Catalan parliament for their common political goal of preventing Catalonia's separation from Spain:
Partido Socialista Obrero Español: 33 (2017: 17 seats)
Ciudadanos: 6 (2017: 36 seats)
Partido Popular: 3 (2017: 4 seats)
This brings their total to just 42 seats (down from 57).
The far-right party Vox, a spin-off of the PP, came from a standing start to 11 seats. If the party, which is neo-fascist in parts, is counted as part of the bloc of the three parties of the October 2017 coup d'état, this theoretically results in 53 seats. Leading politicians of Vox, however, are firmly of the opinion that leading politicians of the PSOE, including their Catalan top candidate Salvador Illa, belong in prison just like the Catalan political prisoners, which is why Salvador Illa categorically rejects any cooperation of his party with the right-wing extremists of the Vox party.
The total number of parliamentary seats is 135, the absolute majority starts at 68 seats.
The three parties that are decidedly in favour of Catalonia's state independence are represented in the Catalan parliament as follows:
Esquerra Republicana: 33 seats (2017: 32 seats).
Junts per Catalunya: 32 seats (2017: 34 seats)
CUP: 9 seats (2017: 4 seats).
Another Catalan party that, at least in the past, advocated that Catalans should be allowed to vote on the question of their state independence in a second referendum pact with the Spanish state, but now seems primarily interested in sharing power and working with the PSOE, is Comú-Podem:
Comú-Podem: 8 (2017: 8 seats).
This means that a 'left-wing' coalition between the Esquerra Republicana, PSOE and Comú-Podem parties is theoretically possible, but unlikely, since the vast majority of Esquerra Republicana voters would hardly forgive the party for making a pact with an 'Article 155' party, and Esquerra Republicana, like other parties, had already ruled out a coalition with the Social Democrats in advance. The CUP, on the other hand, would only be prepared to support a minority government of the Esquerra Republicana and the Junts per Catalunya again if it clearly declared its support for the independence of Catalonia and no longer shied away from a determined confrontation with the Spanish state. In any case, the political parties in favour of state independence for Catalonia are represented with more seats in the new Catalan parliament than before. Catalan independence was again desired by a majority of voters in this election, despite the tremendous repression of the Spanish state, with a clear shift towards the CUP, which seeks to challenge the Spanish state, which refuses to engage in dialogue.
It is to be expected that the Spanish state will react to this election result with further repressive measures and human rights violations. However, Spain will only be able to delay Catalonia's independence, not stop it. No matter how hard one tries to dam up a mighty river for ever and ever, one day it will inexorably break its way. This will also have to be realised by the European Union, which is still not ashamed of the political prisoners in Spain, although the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov, in agreement with the competent organs of the United Nations, correctly pointed out three of the political prisoners illegally detained by Spain before the eyes and ears of the whole world. The European Union's attitude towards the massive human rights violations of the Spanish state may be compared to the turning a blind eye of many politicians of the 20th century who considered the persecution of the Jews in Germany and of the Catalans, Basques and Galicians in Spain to be domestic affairs of the two fascist states.
Agence Free Press: «Espagne: les indépendantistes renforcent leur majorité en Catalogne»:
Aljazeera: «Catalan separatists projected to win majority in regional polls»:
Ansa: «In Catalogna rivincono gli indipendentisti»:
BBC: «Catalonia Spain: Separatists set to boost majority in regional parliament»:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56065763
Berria: «Independentistek gehiengo osoa izango dute parlamentuan»:
https://www.berria.eus/albisteak/193669/independentistek-gehiengo-osoa-izango-dute-parlamentuan.htm
Deutschlandfunk: «KatalonienSeparatisten halten Mehrheit bei Parlamentswahl»:
Il Fatto Quotidiano: «Elezioni Catalogna, vincono di nuovo gli indipendentisti: solo loro possono formare una maggioranza. Giù l’affluenza (causa Covid)»:
Le Figaro: «Catalogne : les indépendantistes renforcent leur
majorité au Parlement régional»:
https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/catalogne-les-independantist
es-renforcent-leur-majorite-au-parlement-regional-20210214
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: «Die Separatisten führen in Katalonien»:
The Guardian: «Catalonia election: pro-independence parties increase majority»:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/14/catalonia-regional-election-covid-voting
The Irish Times: «Catalan separatists increase majority in regional elections»:
Le Matin: «Les indépendantistes renforcent leur majorité»:
https://www.lematin.ch/story/les-independantistes-renforcent-leur-majorite-854578231735
Le Monde: «En Catalogne, les socialistes l’emportent, mais les
partis indépendantistes obtiennent la majorité absolue»
The National: «Elections in Catalonia: Pro-independence parties set to retain control of government»:
Neue Zürcher Zeitung: «Unabhängigkeitsbefürworter gewinnen Wahlen in Katalonien»:
Nós Diário: «Agence Free Press: «Espagne: les indépendantistes renforcent leur majorité en Catalogne»:
https://www.nosdiario.gal/articulo/internacional/resultado-historico-do-independentismo-catalunya-mais-do-50-votos-amplia-sua-maioria-absoluta-parlament/20210214232407115835.html
El País: «El independentismo refuerza su mayoría pese al triunfo del PSC»:
Le Point International: «Espagne: les indépendantistes renforcent leur majorité en Catalogne»:
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/espagne-elections-indecises-en-c
atalogne-sous-le-signe-du-covid-14-02-2021-2413898_24.php
Politico: «Catalan election boosts independence camp»:
https://www.politico.eu/article/catalonia-election-boosts-independence-camp/
O Público: «Bloco independentista reforça maioria na Catalunha»:
Reuters: «Catalan separatists increase majority, dialogue with Madrid in sight»:
RTE: «Catalan separatists boost majority in regional parliament»:
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2021/0214/1197014-catalonia-election/
SAPO: «Independentistas reforçados na Catalunha apesar de Partido Socialista ser o mais votado»:
Süddeutsche Zeitung: «Separatisten erringen absolute Mehrheit».
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/katalonien-wahl-separatisten-mehrheit-1.5206146
SudOuest: «Catalogne : les indépendantistes renforcent leur
majorité au parlement régional»:
https://www.sudouest.fr/international/europe/espagne/catalogn
e-les-independantistes-renforcent-leur-majorite-au-parlement-r
egional-1322933.php
De Standaard: «Separatistische en linkse coalitie kunnen in Catalonië»:
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210214_97679095
SudOuest: «Catalogne : les indépendantistes renforcent leur majorité au parlement régional»:
Tagessschau: «Regionalwahl in Katalonien Separatisten holen die Mehrheit»:
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/eu/spanien-katalonien-regionalwahlen-101.html
taz: «Wahl in Katalonien: Ein Ja für die Unabhängigkeit»:
https://taz.de/Wahl-in-Katalonien/!5751965/
TV3: «PSC i ERC empaten en unes eleccions en què l'independentisme supera el 50% dels vots»
VilaWeb: «Pro-independence parties surpass 50% of votes in Catalan election and increase parliamentary majority»:
de Volkskrant: «Spaansgezinde socialisten groeien flink, maar separatisten behouden meerderheid in Catalonië»:
VRT: «Separatisten vergroten meerderheid in Catalonië, extreemrechts voor het eerst in regioparlement»:
Die Welt: «Separatisten bei Katalonien-Wahl vorn – Aber Sozialisten sehr stark»:
Zeit online: «Katalonien: Separatisten liegen bei Katalonien-Wahl vorn»:
https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2021-02/katalonien-spanien-separatisten-regionalwahl-sieg
24Matins.de: «Unabhängigkeitsbefürworter bauen Mehrheit bei Regionalwahl in Katalonien aus»: