First of all, I’d like to thank you for spending your time in writing about the “Catalan problem”. Nevertheless, I am really disappointed that you didn’t actually spend much time corroborating what you’re writing about. Although the reader can have a vague idea of what is going on in Catalonia, there are a lot of facts that are not completely true, or maybe there’s some missing information, and would certainly give a totally different point of view of the whole issue.  To start, you say that the independence is not in the interest of Catalonia. I’d really like to know why it is not, and even more, how do you know that? You continue saying that the independence of Catalonia is an aspiration of the president Mas. Excuse me? His party never wanted independence, there was a massive social movement claiming independence, while he was already president, and he just tried to put into practice what the people wanted (isn’t this what every single governor of this world should do?). But don’t worry, this is not your problem, everybody against the independence says that Artur Mas is the promoter of the movement. But he is not. He just wanted to take the most of the situation and win some votes (and actually, if was the other way around, he lost a lot of votes)  Then you mention that this “divorce” would be bad, economically speaking, for Catalonia. Well, first of all, although Artur Mas is constantly speaking about the economic suffocation that Catalonia is suffering from Spain, the majority of the people want independence for reasons that have nothing to do with money. Second, you say that Catalonia will have to assume a part of Spain’s debt. Well, it depends. If the “divorce” is agreed by both parts, then yes, we’ll obviously have to assume a part of the debt, but also a part of the patrimony. It does not make any sense to assume only what’s bad, not what’s good. Also, you say that we’re gonna be out of the Euro. (Personally I think it’s better, this was one of the problems that leaded to the crisis). Do you know that it is not the currency that choses the country, but the other way around? Why is Andorra using euros as the official currency if they are not in the European Monetary Union? Because they want to.  About the language… well, Catalan is spoken in more regions of Spain, not only in the ones you mention, and also in some regions of Italy. But well, it doesn’t matter. This doesn’t change anything. But it seems to me that you say that one of the reason why we should not be independent is because we’ve never been a kingdom. Well.. first of all, Hurray! I hate monarchy. Secondly, were all the current countries kingdoms in their past? No.  You also mention that there are 5 official or co-official languages in Spain. That is completely wrong. There are 4, Aranese is not official. Together with other languages which are spoken in Spain, but are not official. But having 4 official languages is not a sign of respect from Spain to this minorities, as you said. It is the strength of this minorities that keeps these languages spoken, and almost by obligation, official. Do you imagine that after Franco, in a democracy, a language spoken by more than the 20% of the country not being official? It is REALLY IMPORTANT to mention that the party currently governing Spain (Partido Popular) was founded by members of the Franco’s regime. And that one of Franco’s ministers was also in the ranks of this party. And, while we’re speaking of Franco, and before about kings.. did you know that the king that we had for more than 30 years, Juan Carlos I de Borbón, was there ONLY because Franco wanted him to be the king? His father, Juan de Borbón, was supposed to be the king, but he renounced even before being in the throne, therefore, his son didn’t have the right to be the king (and even less with a dictatorship of 40 years in between). So why was him the king? Because it was Franco’s desire. Yes, the dictator.  Then you continue with the economy.. you say that although Catalonia sends more taxes to the center than it gets back, it is a heavily indebted region. Isn’t this kind of obvious? I earn 10, and I need to pay 5 for my living costs, but my boss keeps my salary, and then he only gives me 4. I’ll definitely be indebted. There is no need to be economist to know this.  Then you say that independence may fail because of Jordi Pujol’s, Artur Mas mentor, case of corruption. First of all, compared to corruption in the central government, this is just a molehill. But, anyway, this corruption scandal was brought to light by the central government in an attempt of stopping the independence movement. Which it is by itself illegal, to use confidential information for political purposes. And trust me, the reason for independence of “having clean politicians” has been never mentioned by Pujol/Mas party, but by other minor parties which are growing every day.  About the immigration and people speaking other languages, Catalonia is a multicultural country, and we welcome anybody that wants to live in here. That’s why, despite the fact of being born in another part of Spain or even another country, a lot of immigrants agree with the independence.  Then you mention the fake referendum. Of course it’s fake, it was legal until the spanish government reported it to their friends, the Constitutional Tribunal, and then made it illegal. But, again, it was not at first. Then, what did we do? A “fake” referendum, not as a real enquiry, but as another massive movement claiming that we want to vote. (another mistake, we’re still not asking for independence, we’re asking for a referendum to know if we want or we don’t want independence, but if Spain just ignores us.. or goes against us.. then that’s why some people are talking about a Unilateral Declaration of Independence).  Then it’s funny because you write about how a member of the monarchy (again, there because of Franco) went to live in Barcelona and work for a Catalan company. Don’t you know that this member of the monarchy was responsible of one of the biggest cases of corruption in Spain? (see case “Noos”). And trust me, the new king, Felipe VI, DOES NOT SPEAK CATALAN.  And finally, you mentioned that there has never been a Catalan Prime Minister in Spain. Not only this, but a member of the Popular Party (now governing Spain) said that he does not want any Catalan governing the country. Imagine if it was the other way around, a Catalan saying that we don’t want an Andalusian, Castilian, Valencian, or whatever other Spanish, as a Prime Minister. Even more, this member was from the region of Andalusia, and did you know that we had a Andalusian-born president in Catalonia?  We don’t want to leave from Spain because we’ll be better economically speaking, but because we’re constantly reading and listening offensive comments against Catalan on the internet, the radio, the TV.. even by politicians. But it doesn’t matter, because the hate against Catalonia is, unfortunately, something quiet extended in Spain.  Do you imagine living in a country were they discriminate you only because of your place of birth? But you were born in that country!!!!!!! Yes, it is as stupid as it sounds.
Spain is a success story for democracy and development, and a net contributor to the global liberal order over the last four decades. One reason for this success has been Spain's ability to maintain national unity for over five hundred years despite ethnic and linguistic diversity. A push for Catalan [...]