As an object lesson in how not to do things the Spanish government’s handling of its Catalonia problem is hard to beat. At the same time we have to remind ourselves that Spain is a relatively new democracy without the longevity and experience of the opportunities and limitations of the form of government described by Churchill as ‘the least worst’.
Whilst extolling the virtues of democratic government, the political establishment of Spain still contains many who secretly lack confidence in its reliability. So instead of allowing a legally approved independence referendum, which would undoubtedly have ended in defeat for the separatists who were then in the minority, the government took legal action, which it then enforced with gratuitous police violence reminiscent of the Franco era. This has converted a question about the future to a crisis about the present. It has made a unilateral declaration of independence a real and present danger. The next few days will determine Spain’s immediate destiny.
The world is more than familiar with the problems which occur when a separate nation of people are denied an independent national homeland to call their own and to govern independently. Unilateral declarations of independence, however, very rarely end well. We must hope it does not come to that.