Catalans vote for independence referendum with breakaway MP’s from PSOE!

Thanks for three break-aways from the PSC (PSOE in Catalonia) the vote to request an independence referendum in Catalonia has passed.

They needed a two thirds vote and they got it, after three PSC MPs broke party discipline and voted in favour of the measure. Marina Geli, Joan Ignasi Elena & Núria Ventura all went against their party orders.

The head of the PSC, Pere Nevarro (he used to run the traffic police under Zapatero) has asked them to do the honourable thing and resign from the PSC, but all three are forcing the issue and refusing to resign.

The Catalonian government will now ask Madrid for legal permission to hold a referendum on the issue, something which legally they cannot do as the situation stands.

The request is expected to be thrown out of the central Congress when it gets to Madrid, which will cause an even greater fuss.

The three main nationalist parties, CiU, ERC and ICV are working together to obtain the right to a referendum. Marta Rovira of ICV said that this would be the last attempt to politically solve the dispute over whether or not Catalans have the right to decide on their own future.

The PSC (PSOE in Catalonia) party said that any attempt to hold a referendum was provoking a dangerous fire, and said instead that they believe in the PSOE’s nebulous idea of a federal states of Spain. The PSOE has been developing this daft idea, which would devolve even more powers to the regions, á la USA.

Both of the main national parties, PP and PSOE, are determined to prevent any referendum, and see any attempts to organise one as treason against the Spanish state.

However, if the central state refuses a referendum, the Catalan nationalist parties may well force through a local bill organising one anyway, which would really stoke the fires – several Army high-ups have already said that such a move should be stamped out  with force.