Spain: Catalan lawmakers drive forward for independence by 2017

Catalan lawmakers began the process of secession in the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Monday. The aim is to achieve political independence by 2017, despite strong opposition in Madrid. Seventy-two pro-independence parliamentarians voted in favour of the resolution for secession from Spain, despite sections of Spanish nationalists attending the vote, waving the national flag of Spain in protest. Anna Gabriel, a spokesperson of the CUP party, said in her parliamentary address that Catalans must "leave behind the subordinated Catalonia, but we also have to leave behind the Catalonia of economic cuts, privatisation and corruption. The future and the present cannot look like the past." Such sentiments were echoed by Raul Romeva, a member of the Together for Yes party, who said the lawmakers were seeking a Catalonia that is not "just a nation, but a state, with everything that this condition implies." Catalonia is a region of Spain with approximately 7.5 million people. The productivity of the region accounts for around a fifth of Spain's GDP. Madrid has sought to constitutionally block any attempt to cleave the region away from the Spanish nation state, ignoring a referendum in 2014 that saw over 80 percent of voters express a preference to leave Spain.