A Catalonian's view on Brexit

“I’m not particularly keen on the European Union as a political project,” said Dr Ignasi Torrent Oliva as he expressed his support for Brexit.

The 32-year-old from Catalonia first came to the UK in late 2017 for a short stay and later settled down with a pre-settled status in October 2018.

“I moved to the UK because my country, in terms of career, cannot offer me what the UK can,” the economic emigrant confessed. Staying in London, he felt, gave him exposure to international politics and opened up a whole set of cultural opportunities.

With Brexit, there have been uncertainties regarding career opportunities in the UK for EU citizens and vice versa.

The politics lecturer, however, asserted that it was improbable for his work to be affected by Brexit because the UK’s workforce depended upon external labour.

Being born in Emporda in the northeast region of Catalonia and lived most of his life there, the EU citizen said he would not apply for British citizenship if Brexit affected his work.

“Emporda is where my family and friends are,” the lecturer from the University of Hertfordshire conveyed.

With Brexit and Catalonia’s plea for independence from Spain, there have been indicators of barriers in the form of regulations, tariffs, judicial systems limiting freedom and choices. Approximately half of the exports of the UK and Catalonia are sold to the rest of the EU and Spain respectively. However, Dr Torrent emphasised that if Brexit were to be disadvantageous, it would not be just the UK suffering from the aftermath.

“An economic detriment for the UK outside the EU will directly result in an economic detriment of the EU,” highlighted the Catalan.

Though there is a majority of support for the EU in his country, the 32-year-old disagrees with the ideologies embedded in it. He stresses on the over-bureaucracy and mismanagement of public resources found in the EU.

“Protectionist policies of the EU like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have resulted in almost economically devastating the agriculture sector for the global south,” the politics lecturer indicated.

On October 14^th, the Supreme Court of Madrid sentenced nine Catalan politicians who organised 2017’s independence referendum to 13 years imprisonment. Dr Torrent feels concerned about his country, where the citizens are resisting the authoritarian Spanish state which is unwilling to authorise a referendum.

The UK parliament, on the other hand, had given its approval to referendums such as the Scotland independence referendum (2014) and Brexit referendum (2016). However, the Brexit predicament has spanned over almost three and a half years and still not reached a deal.

“I think the vote on the referendum was non-partisan,” the politics lecturer emphasised. According to him, even if the people wanted the UK to leave the EU, most of them didn’t want to leave it on conservative terms.

The UK Government spent approximately £100 million on the 'Get Ready for Brexit' advertising campaign before the previous Brexit deadline. There have been allegations of overspending, data breaches and foreign government involvements in the Brexit turnout.

The 32-year-old, however, disagrees with the notion of a second referendum previously proposed by many politicians to break the deadlock in Parliament. He points out that saying there should be a second referendum is like undermining the voter’s rationale.

“I think Brexit should happen,” said Dr Ignasi, “ because that is what the people voted for.”