Aday after European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier emphatically declared that Brexit was not a game, egregious forces of separatism on mainland Europe were trying to come to terms with an unpleasant fact they found hard to ingest.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy went on national television to address the nation grappling with the Catalan crisis in its northeast. His message was firm — he called Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont’s bluff.
The semi-autonomous region’s leader, who has vacillated between declaring independence and pulling his punches at Madrid, was asked whether he had declared independence. Rajoy’s message was terse — if Puigdemont didn’t go back, the Spanish government could be forced to invoke Article 155 of the constitution.
The article allows the central government to take some or total control of any of its 17 regions if they don’t comply with their legal obligations. This would begin with a Cabinet meeting and a warning to the regional government to fall into line. Then, the Senate could be called to approve the measure.
The Catalonian crisis’ connection with Brexit is not direct. Of late, Europe has been found to be scuffling with forces that tend to spiral out of control. It all started with Scotland in Britain asserting itself for independence. Citing a different culture and oil revenues, the Scottish desire of seceding from the United Kingdom remained a bagpipe dream. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, however, seems to still nurture such dreams, though she sounds more discreet.
The European Union came out with a strong statement against the derailed Catalonian dream. Urging full respect for the
Spanish constitutional order, European Commission vicepresident Valdis Dombrovskis said the bloc was keeping a close eye on the developments.
The European Union was created as an integration project. Forces inimical to integration have been raising their heads not only inside the union, but across the world. Globalisation was forged to bring about a unity in which nations could become interdependent and goods and services could flow unhindered across the globe. In a globalised world, income inequalities or cultural differences are not supposed to come in the way of integration. The idea of separatism goes against the very grain of globalization.
The idea of the European Union as a supranational state has been present for decades. With a parliament and an executive, the 28 nation bloc has tried to forge an identity across language, geographical differences and cultural variations. There have been bumps on the way.
However, the European project remains intact. The advocates of regional separatism inside European countries would have to deal with a frowning executive, baulking single market and a Schengen area that tends to shun those with fissiparous tendencies, even if their designs to secede are realised.
