AS I SEE IT, CATALAN FOR INDEPENDENCE MIGHT BE PULLING BACK FROM THE BRINK! PART 2.

As leader of the central government, Mariano Rajoy needs to demonstrate inspirational leadership, which it is not clear that he can or will do. 

If his tough and uncompromising approach so far is anything to go by. 

Of course he needs to be tough and pragmatic, since he does not want to see Catalonia sets a precedent for other regions of Spain to follow. 

And this is where he needs to be inspirational; and shows his metal, as it were. 

It is not about him being like Franco, and trying to ruthlessly squash the aspirations of those Catalans who wants independence, by 'taking over and occupying Catalan.' 

A sort of 'direct rule' option.' That would not work; it would be an affront to the Catalan people, probably of all political viewpoints. And simply help to create and intensify the circumstances for Spain to sink into a period of further instability. 

Indeed, it could give rise to armed insurrection, and probably drive more Catalans to support the independence movement

The central and regional governments of Spain, has to find a way of appropriately resolving the Catalan crisis, which does not lose the goodwill of those Spanish Catalans who wants to maintain their Catalan and Spanish identities.

So, just as how the Iran nuclear crisis needed to be and was resolved - notwithstanding Trump's attempts to unravel it - through tough negotiations.  

And just as how the crises  in the Korean Peninsula, and in Iraq's Kurdish region, need to be resolved by negotiations, so does the Catalan independence referendum.

It is difficult to see the Spanish State, and the people of Spain agreeing to Catalonia being 'given' or allowed to secede from the rest of Spain. 

So, what is likely to be on the table for discussion and negotiation is increased autonomy for Catalonia, and the issue of how to make Catalonia more integrated into Spain. 

How Catalan, and, indeed, other regions of Spain, can have the best of both worlds; that of maintaining their own regional identities, as well as their composite Spanish identity.

To be continued