Spanish lawmakers reject Catalonia secession bid

Spain’s parliament on Tuesday rejected a Catalan petition calling for a secession referendum in the country's wealthy northeastern province, with 299 lawmakers out of 347 voting against the separatist movement.

Spain’s major political parties, including the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP), the Socialist opposition, and the centrist Union for Progress and Democracy voted against the request by the Catalonia region to be granted the right to call a referendum after a seven-hour debate. Lawmakers from the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties voted in favour of the Catalan petition.
"I defend [the idea] that Catalonia should remain in Spain because I can't conceive of Spain without Catalonia nor of Catalonia outside of Spain and Europe," Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told the assembly before the vote.
The Spanish leader repeated his argument that the vote would be illegal, since under Spain's constitution referendums on sovereignty must be held nationally and not regionally.
'Economic disaster'
Rajoy has warned that independence would be an economic disaster for both Spain and Catalonia, one of the country's most productive but also most indebted regions.
"Together we all win and separate we all lose," the prime minister told parliament.
Spain's Constitutional Court ruled last month that a region like Catalonia could not "unilaterally" call a referendum on its sovereignty.
But the Catalan government argues that a 2006 Catalan autonomy statute that was passed by Spain's parliament granted the region the power to hold referendums.
Catalonia's regional head of government, Artur Mas, has always vowed to remain within the law and he stressed after the vote that Tuesday's rejection was not final.
"From this painful 'no', the Catalan institutions will seek to build legal frameworks, and there are several, allowing for this November 9 ballot to take place," he said.
Mas has also threatened to call snap regional elections as a form of plebiscite on the struggle for independence.
'Question of dignity'
Last year on September 11, Catalonia's national day, hundreds of thousands of people formed a human chain across the region to demand independence in a rally organised by the group.
"It is not just a question of money, it has become a question of dignity," said 72-year-old pensioner Xavier Vivanco as he sat in a square in the city of Vic, in the heart of the most pro-independence province of Catalonia.
Proud of their distinct language and culture, a growing number of Catalonia's 7.5 million citizens resent the redistribution of their taxes to other regions and believe the region would be better off on its own.The 2008 real estate crash that triggered a five-year economic downturn across Spain has added to the pressure for secession over the past two years.
The European Union and NATO have warned that Catalonia – which has more people than Denmark and an economy rivalling Portugal's in size – would be excluded from both alliances if it broke away from Spain.