Parliament of Catalonia officially launched the process of secession from Spain, which according to the Kosovo model should be finished without a referendum, in no later than eighteen months. A total of 72 MPs from ideologically different parties, united by a common goal to achieve the independence of the Spanish province, voted for a resolution that envisages the establishment of an independent republic of Catalonia, until 2017. Against were 63 MPs, but based on the previously adopted laws such decision requires a simple majority.
After an urgent government session in Madrid, Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy said that he will request a suspension of the initiative from Barcelona, because the Spanish constitution does not allow the redrawing of national borders. However, the Catalan Assembly in its resolution highlighted that it will not take into consideration court decisions from Madrid.
As part of the process for creating a new state was predicted that Catalonia will have republican order, and in the next few months is planed forming of independent institutions and drafting of the constitution. These dramatic events are shaking the Iberian Peninsula, at the time when at the conference of UNESCO in Paris was rejected Kosovo’s membership in this international organization. Spain is one of five EU countries which openly oppose the recognition of Kosovo’s independence and voted against joining the southern Serbian province in UNESCO, despite the pressures coming from different sides, writes daily El Pais.
