''If today’s decision in the Catalan parliament really does give birth to a
new Republic, history will record that half the midwives were missing
at the crucial moment. None of the non-nationalist opposition parties
was present when the vote was taken. Walking away from an argument is
seldom a good political choice but the open eyes of the opposition
groups could see no other way. Senior lawyers to the parliament advised
that this vote was illegal. In judicial terms it is meaningless. The
Catalan parliament has no more right to declare unilateral independence
than it does to criminalize smoking on the streets of Rome. It is not
difficult to understand why opposition groups refused to be caught up in
this reckless, legislative farce. Constitutional law is the foundation
of all democratic states. Those who, like Catalan regional premier
Carles Puidgemont, seek to ride roughshod over the rules do so at their
peril..''
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