MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova and Julia Kotlyarenko – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy toed the US-led propaganda line on Crimea and supporting the fascist regime in Kiev, while denying Catalans their right to self-determination, Daniel Estulin, an author and public speaker, told RIA Novosti.
“The Rajoy government supported the Nazis who took over Kiev. After the people in Crimea voted overwhelmingly to join Russia, he [Rajoy] was more than happy to toe the US-led propaganda line that the ‘free will of the citizens in Ukraine must be respected,” Estulin said.
“But now that the Catalans are saying that their free will should also be respected, Rajoy claims that the Spanish Constitution does not allow for a separation,” he added.
On Tuesday, the Spanish parliament held a seven-hour debate and rejected Catalonia’s bid to hold an independence referendum with 299 lawmakers voting against, 47 for, and one abstention.
The ruling party Popular Party, the opposition Socialists and the centrist Union for Progress and Democracy blocked the petition, with only the Catalan and Basque parties voting in favor.
Daniel Estulin believes the economic crisis is the main reason behind the push for independence. “If before Catalan could depend on a certain substantial hand out from the central government, now, with so little money to go around, the nationalists are realizing that they do not need Madrid to survive,” Estulin told RIA Novosti.
“Of course, an independent Catalonia without access to Europe may not survive either, but that’s something that the leaders in Barcelona will need to address,” Estulin added. The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said if Catalonia secedes from Spain it would be "an economic disaster" for both.
Yet the Catalonia region in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula believes it will be economically better off without Spain. Catalonia accounts for about a fifth of Spain's 1.1 trillion euro ($1.5 trillion) GDP.
Catalan President Artur Mas said the region will hold the vote in November anyway, even though Spanish courts have ruled it illegal. “If they say no, they will say no to a law. But they can't stop the will of the people of Catalonia,” Mas told reporters prior to the vote.
According to a recent poll conducted by Catalonia’s Center of Opinion Studies, about half of Catalonia’s population of 7.5 million would vote for independence.
