Catalonia Must Return to the Fold

The Spanish Government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has just announced the way it intends to bring Catalonia back to a normal legal status. Invoking the constitution's article 155, the Government asks the Senate's permission to intervene in the government of Catalonia with steps to remove the Catalonian leadership and restrict its decision-making powers until elections can be held. The measures are moderate and clearly aim to bring down the temperature and allow the resumption of democratic order. 

Here (once more, for those who have read my previous blogs on Catalonia) are the main reasons why Catalonia cannot rightfully claim independence: 

1. One cannot make such a drastic claim without a clear majority backing. This is not the case in Catalonia. The government of Catalonia is based on a parliamentary minority, 47% of the voters in the 2015 elections. The remaining 52 % have not asked for independence. All opinion polls in recent years have shown separatists to be in the minority. The conduct and results of the October 1^st referendum are in serious doubt due to the turbulent circumstances under which it was held and the disregard shown for internationally accepted procedures, considered inacceptable by international observers, as well as being deemed illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court.
2. Catalonia has never suffered acts of repression by the Spanish state in the democratic era since Franco's death.
3. Catalonia voted by over 90% in the 1978 referendum to accept the Spanish constitution.
4. Catalonia has a high degree of autonomy by international standards, including its own official language. 
5. The Catalonian government used its parliament to knowingly break the law by passing two measures on September 6 and 7 intended to guide the implementation of the independence process, taking for granted that the planned referendum was legal in spite of the high court's decision to the contrary many months before.