Everywhere there’s trouble and, like unruly Gaul, a small municipality in Catalonia has decided to take its own path towards independence by asking to leave the region of which it is part.
This small pro-independence process is taking place in Olost, a municipality in the Lluçanès region that has asked to leave this region only one year after this region has been created.
This decision has been taken by means of a popular consultation held last weekend, in which nearly 51% of the 1,100 residents over 16 years of age participated. With 297 votes in favor of leaving, 249 against and 8 null, the decision was taken with only 50 votes of difference that have served to tip the balance.
A complex region
The situation of the area is particular. The Lluçanès region was created last year to group a number of municipalities around a common sense of belonging, giving voice to a historical claim. Olost, which had already voted in favor of being part of Lluçanès in a previous consultation held in 2015, was one of the municipalities of the new comarca.
But now, just one year later, the municipality of Olost has organized to leave the newly created comarca. Supporters of this decision defend that it is not a question of a feeling of belonging, but, they claim to the news platform 324, “the ways in which this project has been done” that currently includes only 8 of the 13 municipalities originally planned. “We don’t want to be forced into a Regional Council that is possibly very burdensome, with a relatively similar dimension to the Osona Regional Council, which has 150,000 inhabitants,” they explain in the same report.
Now the municipality faces a complex future. The separation process will not be immediate, and Olost will have to wait at least until the next municipal elections in 2027, when the Lluçanès county council will be created. If the departure of Olost finally takes place, the county would be made up of only 7 of the 13 municipalities initially planned.
Everything remains to be seen. The case highlights the complexities of territorial organization in Catalonia, and could set a precedent for other municipalities wishing to reconsider their membership of certain counties in the future.