SCOTLAND : CATALONIA: A TALE OF TWO REFERENDA.

Catalonia has become a synonym of serious headaches for Mariano Rajoy. The economic crisis was expected to be his biggest challenge when Spain's Conservative prime minister took office in 2011. But soon the call for an independence referendum on 9aNovember 2014 by the President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, appeared as a new domestic front.

The political row between Madrid and Barcelona has crossed the Pyrenees, as the nationalist challenge came against the backdrop of the referendum process launched earlier by Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond. The Scottish move provoked diverging strategies from Mas and Rajoy. The first has constantly attempted to "Europeanise" the conflict, the latter has drawn a line between the Catalan and Scottish developments.

"The cases of Scotland and Catalonia are very different. The UK does not have a written constitution. Furthermore, if I'm not wrong, the right to self-determination has only been recognised in three constitutions, those of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Ethiopia," Rajoy told a group of European newspapers in an interview.

Mas has visited Brussels twice in a charm offensive to win the hearts and minds of EU officials, since he is aware that the only way to win a majority is the promise that an independent Catalonia will remain in Europe. Some estimates say around a third of Catalans would today support an independent state. Last December, Mas sent a letter to EU leaders and Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to explain his arguments. The move failed. The letter fell on deaf...

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