Catalan Independentism - Modern Support For Independence

Modern Support For Independence

The parties explicitly campaigning for independence currently represented in the Catalan Parliament are Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència. They won 11.6% of the total Catalan votes in the Catalan Parliament in the Catalonian parliamentary election, 2010 and if combining all separatists parties they would become the 3rd most important party and having the key for the government. They are present as well in another parliament in the Catalan countries, namely that of the Balearic Islands, where they have one member. They also have an elected member in the Consell de Mallorca which belongs to the autonomic government. Out of Catalan Countries they have one MEP and 3 members of the Spanish Parliament.

A number of members and voters of Convergència i Unió (CiU), nationalist federation of 2 parties with the majority of seats at the Catalan parliament (38.5% of the vote in the 2010 Catalan parliamentary election) also give, usually less explicit, support to independence, although the independence is not formally proposed in their election manifesto, their objective is the maximum autonomy of Catalonia inside Spain, and have abstained numerous times in independence votes in the Parliament of Catalonia. The independentist tendency inside the party has presumably been growing since its leader proposed in 2007 the so called Casa Gran del Catalanisme project which, among other causes, includes the defense of self-determination for Catalonia. Finally, the left wing party Iniciativa per Catalunya (7.5% of the vote in the 2010 Catalan parliamentary election) claims to give full support to self-determination right and has several members explicitly supporting Catalan independence.

The political parties that explicitly reject Catalan independence and self-determination rights are the Socialists' Party of Catalonia, the People's Party of Catalonia and Ciutadans which had 18,6%, 12,2% and 3,4% of the vote respectively in the 2010 Catalan parliamentary election. However, there is a significant fraction within the Socialist Party supporting the sovereignty of Catalonia within a federalized Spain.

Other independentist smaller parties or coalitions, without present representation in any parliament, are CUP, Estat Català, Unitat Nacional de Catalunya, Endavant, PSAN, MDT and Reagrupament. There are also youth organizations such as Arran (the union of Maulets, Coordinadora d'Assemblees de Joves de l'Esquerra Independentista and other organizations), and the student unions SEPC and FNEC.

In recent years, some of the rationale for Catalan independentism has received support from individuals coming from a broader political spectrum other than the usual left or far-left Catalan nationalism. Relevant examples are the liberal economists Xavier Sala i Martín and Ramon Tremosa Balcells (elected deputy for CiU in the European parliament in the 2009 election), the lawyer and former FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta (member of the Catalan parliament as a not assigned deputy) or the jurist and former member of the Consejo General del Poder Judicial Alfons López Tena.

The think tank Cercle d'Estudis Sobiranistes, led by the jurists Alfons López Tena (elected deputy for SI in the Catalan parliament) and Hèctor López Bofill was founded in 2007. Since then it has summoned a number of lawmakers, professors, businessmen, professionals, economists, journalists and intellectuals for the cause of Catalonia's independence.

In Spain, some considered this trend to have been stimulated as a reaction especially against the policy of the latter Spanish governments of the Partido Popular party, and its opposition to certain legislative reforms such as the new proposal of Statute of Catalonia.