The Catalan regional Parliament voted to declare independence from Spain on Friday taking the nation’s worst political crisis in four decades to a new level.
This has resulted in investors selling stocks and government bonds after Madrid’s financial market was hit with the news.
The Government in Madrid has refused to recognise Catalonia’s declaration and warned direct rule would be immediately imposed – by force if necessary.
Following the news, the Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy announced he fired the entire Catalan government, including the region’s president Carles Puigdemont.
Now Jonathan Davis, an economist with Jonathan Davis Wealth Management, has warned that the situation in Catalonia may pave the way for other EU nations to do the same.
Mr Davis said: “The reason why Catalonia wants to leave Spain is exactly the reason why in Britain we’ve voted for Brexit, why the Americans voted for Trump, because the people are fed up with what governments and socialists are doing to us.”
He told Sputnik: “Hopefully Catalonia will be the foundation for what will happen right across the EU, governments will see that they’ve got to amend their ways.”
But Mr Davis revealed that despite the UK being the first nation to break from the EU, he did not believe Brexit inspired Catalonia to leave the bloc.
He added: “If anything was going to happen in terms of separatism, it’s been brewing for decades, I wouldn’t say specifically that Brexit is the cause, but if it’s helped, then power to it.”
Spain has tightened its grip on Catalonia, with Mr Rajoy announcing new elections will take place in the region on December 21 with central government ministries directly assuming the powers of the Catalan administration until then.
Mr Davis said: “Rajoy is intervening because he can’t stand the idea of his country breaking up under his watch, especially given that he reports to Brussels and let’s remember, Brussels are unelected bureaucrats, and where has the EU been in all of this?
“The EU which spouts human rights and treating the people fairly, well we all saw the videos of how the police and the army attacked the people of Catalonia during the referendum, so no there has been no treating the people fairly.
“The EU has kept its mouth shut, they are entirely hypocritical as usual, so as I say I know they’ve declared independence, it’s a bit like Brexit, we’ve declared that we are going to leave, we haven’t left yet and let’s see whether or not Catalonia actually leaves Spain. I certainly hope that it does, and good luck to it if it does.”
The economists comes as the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has admitted there were now “more cracks” appearing in the union after Catalonia declared itself independent of Spain
He added: “I do not want a situation where, tomorrow, the European Union is made up of 95 different states.
“We need to avoid splits because we already have enough splits and fractures and we do not need anymore.”
The Spanish Prime Minister said Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont had the opportunity on Thursday to “return to legality” but had failed to take it.
Mr Rajoy said: “It’s only the objective to return it to normality as soon as possible. A normality starts by the law. By recovering the institutional legitimacy and to return the voice to the Catalan people.”
Despite the political crisis, Mr Davis remains hopeful that Catalonia and Spain’s economies will continue as normal.
He said: “Business will still continue whatever business it is.”