The Catalan question
unilaterally. Since then, some pardons have been granted in 2024 by Pedro Sanchez to stop 372 cases. 19 In 2024, a tax collection agreement was initially reached between the Spanish socialist party and the pro- independence Catalan party. This would grant Catalonia the right to collect, settle, and inspect its taxes. 20 Culturally, in 2023, the Spanish Congress also granted official parliamentary status to Catalan and other regional MPs, allowing them to address the Congress in their regional languages. Although these breakthroughs may have calmed tensions for the time being, the interests of the Catalans at heart still lie in independence, and Spain will never allow this. To conclude, while Spain has tried to appease the Catalans in recent years with reforms and fiscal concessions, these attempts reveal the problems with reconciling national sovereignty and regional self- determination. Catalonia serves as a microcosm of the wider tensions worldwide between identity, pluralism, sovereignty, and integration, highlighting how there will always be competing visions of belonging. Short-term agreements may be made between both parties, but as things currently stand, it is difficult to see a mutually beneficial agreement.
19 Amnesty for the Catalan Independence Movement , UK in a Changing Europe (May 1, 2024), accessed [September 1, 2025], https://ukandeu.ac.uk/amnesty-for-the-catalan-independence-movement/ 20 ‘Understanding Spain’s Controversial Push To Give Catalonia Control of Its Taxes,’ Stratfor Worldview , July 31, 2024,
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