While Catalonia continues to pursue complete autonomy from Spain, some in South Tyrol are aiming to return to their cultural roots in Austria. The Austrian chancellor wants to remain in the European Union. What do each of these developments have in common? In this article, we’ll examine each situation and then tie them together. We begin with Catalonia.

[Catalonia image]

Catalonia

We have been covering the Catalan independence movement in previous articles10 11 12 13. To recap, Catalonia is one of 17 autonomous regions recognized by the Spanish national government. It has deep roots in the 12th century Principality of Catalonia.14 With the ratification of the 1978 Spanish Constitution,15 Catalonia became a political entity of Spain. Now the wealthiest region of Spain,16 its people have decided to restore their sovereignty.

On October 1 the Catalonians held a referendum on the question of independence, in which 92% voted in favor. On October 26 Catalonia president Carles Puigdemont ruled out a “snap election” proposed by Madrid. (A “snap election” is an off-cycle election held in order to constitute a new government.) The Madrid motive was likely to stack the Catalan Parliament with pro-unity members. The following day, October 27, the Catalonia Parliament voted to leave Spain and become an independent nation. In response, the Spanish Senate voted to invoke Article 155 of the Constitution, which reads in part:

If a Self-governing Community does not fulfil the obligations imposed upon it by the Constitution or other laws, … the Government, after having lodged a complaint with the President of the Self-governing Community and failed to receive satisfaction therefore, may, following approval granted by the overall majority of the Senate, take all measures necessary to compel the Community to meet said obligations, …

The “obligation” of the “Community” of Catalonia, as interpreted by the Spanish Senate, is found in Article 2 of the Constitution:

The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; …

The supreme law of Spain is like the line in the Eagles song “Hotel California:” “You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!” On October 28 Puigdemont was removed from office by Madrid. He fled to Brussels to avoid arrest by Spanish authorities. Madrid scheduled an election for December 21 to elect a new Catalonian president and parliament. This should be interesting because the pro-independence parties and candidates will be on the ballot. Now let’s consider South Tyrol.

[“Flag of South Tyrol.png” or a South Tyrol valley scene]

South Tyrol

South Tyrol—also known by its Italian translation “Alto Adige”—is the northernmost region of Italy. It became part of the Austrian Empire in 1814.1 By 1866 Italian irredentism blossomed, a movement to reunify all territory on the Italian peninsula. The 1919 Treaty of St. Germain gave South Tyrol and Trentino to Italy.19 When Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922, a move to “Italianize” the penisula grew. By World War II, Italy and Germany cooperated in the Italianization of South Tyrol by resettling nearly 90% of its German- speaking citizens into German territory. After the war most of these people later returned to South Tyrol. By 1945, at the conclusion of World War II, Italy restored dual language use and restored most of the rights of local governance. The 1972 Autonomy Statute granted South Tyrol the status of an autonomous area.17 Finally, in 1992 South Tyrol became a self-governing province.

Not surprisingly, after faltering steps over decades to gain greater autonomy, today South Tyrol continues to have a pro-independence party, Suedtiroler Freiheit (South-Tyrolean Freedom Party).18 20 However, rather than aiming for complete autonomy, the party wants to leave Italy to re-join Austria. Yet, most Tyroleans are happy with the current power sharing arrangement with Italy. It remains to be seen whether or not the trend toward peaceful co-existence will continue. We now turn our attention to Austria itself.

[Sebastian Kurz.jpg]

Austria

Austria recently elected Europe’s youngest national leader, 31-year old Sebastian Kurz.6 Although Kurz’s party, the Austrian People’s Party (OVP), took a plurality of the votes, the election results were almost evenly split between three parties:

• Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) : 31.6%
• Freedom Party (FPÖ) : 26.9%
• Social Democrat Party (SPÖ) : 26.3%

The ÖVP must form a coalition with one (or more) of the other parties in order to gain a majority to rule. They invited the FPÖ to form that coalition. Some have mistakenly interpreted Kurz’s offer to govern with the FPÖ as an indication that he favors leaving the EU. Not so. Although the FPÖ wants to leave the European Union, Kurz has repeatedly stated they must contain their “Aus-EXIT” leanings in their coalition. In a recent article,7 “The Guardian” wrote:

The 31-year-old [Kurz], who is poised to become Europe’s youngest leader, warned that a coalition with the far right was only an option as long as Austria’s “pro-European direction” was retrained [sic], citing the country’s upcoming presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2018.

Kurz had repeatedly criticised the FPÖ in the run-up the elections for its links to Eurosceptic parties such as France’s Front National or Italy’s Northern League.

Whether “The Guardian” intended to write “retrained” or “restrained” above, in either case Sebastian Kurz wants to preserve Austria’s opportunity to hold the office of president of the Council of the EU. What can we learn from these three political movements?

Political Destiny

As we’ve seen, a majority or near-majority of the people of Catalonia desire complete autonomy from Spain. Their right to self determination is hindered by article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, as well as the inability to defend themselves again Spanish force. Similarly, the South-Tyrolean Freedom Party of South Tyrol wants to sever their relationship with Italy to re-join their Austrian cultural brethren. Yet, in contrast, new Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his party, the ÖVP, want to preserve their membership in the EU while forming a coalition government with the Freedom Party.

In each region a majority of the people are exercising their right to choose their political destiny, as our Declaration of Independence so eloquently states: “… Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …” Texans also ought to be able to exercise their right to choose their political destiny. That begins with a referendum on Texas independence. Join us, the Texas Nationalist Movement9, in demanding that referendum8. Your future, and that of your children and grandchildren, depend upon it!

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1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tyrolean_secessionist_movement

2 Holly Ellyatt, “If Catalonia Goes Independent, These Places Could Be Next,” “CNBC.com,” 10/6/17, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/06/if-catalonia-goes-independent-these-places-could-be-next.html

3 European Free Alliance, “What’s EFA and History,” www.e-f-a.org, 10/31/17, http://www.e-f-a.org/about-us/whats-efa-and-history/

4 Creede, Newton, “No End To Standoff as Catalan Leader Rules Out Election,”
“Al Jazeera,” 10/26/17, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/catalonia-dark-puigdemont-calls-address-171026140115332.html

5 Aritz Parra, “Hundreds of Thousands Rally in Barcelona For Spanish Unity,”
“Chicago Tribute,” 10/29/17, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-spain-catalonia-20171028-story.html

6 “News You May Have Missed,” “American Free Press,” Oct. 23/30, 2017

7 Philip Oltermann, “Austria’s Far-Right Freedom Party Invited To Enter
Coalition Talks,” “The Guardian,” 10/24/17, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/24/austrias-far-right-freedom-party-invited-to-enter-coalition-talks-sebastian-kurz-ovp-fpo-europe

8https://texasnationalist.com/vote

9https://texasnationalist.com/

10 Ryan Thorson, “Basque Turns Out For Catalonian Independence,”
TexianPartisan.com, 8/16/17, https://texianpartisan.com/basque-turns-catalonian-independence/

11 Andrew Piziali, “Catalonia Referendum Lessons,” TexianPartisan.com,
10/9/17, https://texianpartisan.com/catalonia-referendum-lessons/

12 Jeff Thomason, “Stossel: Let People Go Their Own Way,” TexianPartisan.com,
10/24/17, https://texianpartisan.com/stossel-let-people-go-way/

13 Ryan Thorson, “Catalan and Texas Independence,” TexianPartisan.com,
10/31/17, https://texianpartisan.com/3052-2/

14 “Principality of Catalonia,” Wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Catalonia

15 “Constitution of Spain,” Constitute, 2011, https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Spain_2011?lang=en

16 Frank Jacobs, “What an Independent Catalonia Would Do to the Map of
Spain,” BigThink.com, 10/4/17, http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/what-an-independent-catalonia-will-do-to-the-map-of-spain

17 Stephen J. Larin and Marc Roggla, “South Tyrol is a Success Story at a
Difficult Time For Majority-Minority Relations,” Open Democracy, 10/14/17, https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/stephen-j-larin-marc-r-ggla/south-tyrol-is-success-story-at-difficult-time-for-ma

18 Bethany Bell, “Why an Italian Row Over Place Names Is Dredging Up Memories
of Fascism,” BBC News, 5/1/17, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39641760

19 Leonid Bershidsky, “Italy Knows How to Solve Catalonia’s Problem,”
Bloomberg, 10/12/17, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-12/italy-knows-how-to-solve-catalonia-s-problem

20 South-Tyrolean Freedom Movement, http://www.suedtiroler-freiheit.com/south-tyrolean-freedom-movement/