Spain takes charge of Catalan government after declaration of independence

Billions?

Catalan parliament votes to declare independence from Spain, just as Madrid looks set to impose direct rule.

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What do you make of this? Are you surprised? Do you think there will be repercussion for the Catalans from the Spanish government?

I’m Spanish and all I can say is that Spain won’t be the same without Catalonia. Barcelona was the city bringing most of the money to the table due to tourism, so in theory the economy was going well thanks to Barcelona despite the economic crisis in Spain. I think Catalonia thought that they could fund their own economy instead of giving control of most of their finances to the central government in Madrid, hence why they want to go. What they don’t realise is that they will be insignificant once they start being independent. They’ll be out of the EU and with that, Europeans will not even think about stepping Catalonia because of the complexity of obtaining visas to visit the city and more. Note that I’m only talking about one of the factors that could affect Catalonia badly.

This looks like it could go bad. Gonna be some dank political memes for the next couple of days tho.
Could they make it so Europeans don't need a visa? In theory?

Probably, but it’s unlikely because they expect money instead of giving out “free passes”

How so? It'd be up to the Catalan government to set the requirements. They could continue granting visa-free access from day one if they wanted to.

Why would they be dumb enough to "expect money" when tourism is a huge part of their economy?

Because if they become independent they wouldn’t have any economic aid from the EU or Spain so they would of course take as much money as possible to sustain their economy don’t you think?

sooooo they'd want to keep the tourism going well then.

cool.

only 43% of the population voted in the referendum,

so the declaration of independence is illegal.

Waiting for Germany to start trying out their new tanks and planes in the upcoming civil war.

only 43% of the population voted in the referendum,

so the declaration of independence is illegal.