EU Jussi Halla-aho Uncategorized

Jussi Halla-aho in the Financial Times: “The question is whether a nation has the right to choose independence.”…….


In a response to Wolfgang Münchau, Finns Party MEP Jussi Halla-aho cuts to the chase surrounding the debate over the Catalonian state potentially declaring its independence from Spain. 

 

The question is whether a nation has the right to choose independence.” That is the key issue here, and something that the ruling elites are dogged about quashing at all costs. Now, they’re big on making states out of nothing, like Brussels upon which the EU was modeled. When it’s something that’s seen to serve their best interests, they’ll make a state up, they won’t even bat an eye doing it, but if it’s seen to be rattling their cage, they’re dead set against it.

 

The reason why they’re against Catalonian independence in what Baron Bodissey describes as “a communism-loving “migrants welcome” sort of place and holds the EU in high esteem.”, is because it goes against their anti-nationalism/self determination agenda. We’re supposed to be already living in an utopian ”we’re all the same” single minded state, no need for that messy nation-state stuff here anymore. That’s why they’re distancing themselves from the very pro-EU Catalonian government. The very (totalitarian) governing element that the Catalonian government wants to embrace with a big wet kiss, is shoving a rock hard fist into its face.

 

From Jussi Halla-aho MEP, Helsinki, Finland

Sir, Wolfgang Münchau, in “A Catalan breakaway would make Brexit look like a cake walk” (October 9), says there are many arguments against an independent Catalonia, the most important being that it would be expelled from the EU, the euro and the Schengen. The flaw of this argument is that such consequences do not result from independence itself but depend on the choices of those who are opposed to it. Punishing a country with a blockade for no crime other than being independent would not only be unjustified but would also make zero sense from anybody’s point of view.

 

Whether or not Catalonia should be independent is not the point. The question is whether a nation has the right to choose independence. If not, why did my country (or any other existing country) have that right? Can it be the case that the right to self-determination did exist earlier but does not any more?

 

Some argue that the Catalan referendum violated the Spanish constitution and was thus illegal. That may be so but sometimes universal legitimacy may be more relevant than local legality. If independence as such is a legitimate goal (as it must be), but there is no legal way to pursue it (as is the case here), it must be legitimate to declare it unilaterally as long as the decision is made democratically.

 

One must bear in mind that most of the independent states of today were born in an “illegal” manner, against the laws of the entity from which they separated. This applies to my own country, to the US, Algeria, Mozambique and many others. Is their independence therefore illegal? Can it really be that you need to fight a brutal war to make your independence “legal” and acceptable? Empirically, unfortunately, that seems to be the principle.

Jussi Halla-aho MEP
Chairman, Finns Party,
Helsinki, Finland

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