Politics in Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, with a long history, its own culture and many traditions. It has been a region of Spain since 1714, when Spain conquered Catalonia in the The Catalan Revolt (in Catalan: Guerra dels Segadors).

As an autonomous community, Catalonia has its own Parliament. It has been like this since 1980, but it has had the equivalent of a Parliament since 1283. The current Parliament has 135 members (diputats).

Spain has a Congress and a Senate which makes laws for all the country. Catalonia has to comply these laws. In addition to that, Catalonia, like the other communities, has the official institutions to make its own laws.

There are lots of political parties. The most importants are Convergence and Union (CIU), a right-wing party, which forms the Government; and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), a left-wing party, which forms the majority of the opposition. There are other parties: PSC, PPC, ICV-EUiA, C's and the CUP.

The actual president is Artur Mas, leader of CIU.

Lots of people in Catalonia disagree with the current situation and consider that Catalonia should be an independent country, completely separated from Spain. The parties which support this are: ERC, CUP, ICV-EUiA, and partially CIU. Lots of people have wanted this for a very long time and there have been lots of demonstrations. A process has started to make this happen.

In our class, most people are independentists, only two people aren't. There are also a few who don't know what would be better. Everybody in our class dislikes the current Government, and we think that there should be a change. Most people in our class aren't in favor of an existing party, but the few who are, are in favor of indepentist ones.

In conclusion, the political situation in Catalonia is very complicated, there are a lot of conflicts and it's bound to change.

Sergi G.C. and Abel