Comment Re:Well that is one way of ensuring a loss (Score 1) 363
You contradict yourself, the legitimacy has everything to do with what the Spanish government thinks.
Indirectly, not directly. What the Spanish government thinks doesn't matter per se. What matters is that a good third or so of Catalans think it does, and won't vote in the referendum for that reason.
then it's impossible to have a legitimate vote that's unsupported by the Spanish government.
That may very well be the case (unless the vote is so far towards the "yes" side that low "no" participation becomes immaterial). That's the thing here: the Catalan government is trying to pass the referendum as legitimate when, under the current framework, it just isn't. They're passing this attempt as true democracy when it isn't. Now, that may very well be because the central government is opposed to it, but that doesn't change the outcome: that the vote, as it is intended to be conducted, won't be representative of the actual desires of the Catalan people.
I'm not saying this is a pretty situation. I'm not saying I have a magical solution. I'm just saying that a "yes" outcome won't actually mean the majority of Catalans want independence. And the Catalan government knows this but is pretending not to.