Wednesday 5 December 2012

Independant Catalonia

The Spanish region of Catalonia has recently been in the news for it's parliament's call for an independence referendum.
Now I am not interested in Spanish politics, neither am I for or against Catalonian independence but I am a neutral observer, and I thought what would the flags associated with an independent Catalonia be? I know the Spanish government said it would not hold a referendum but what if they did and the region became a sovereign state?
I know this happened last month but I have been fairly busy and I am really only getting round to it now.

Firstly I don't think the national flag would be any different from what the regional flag is now. Four horizontal red bars on a yellow/gold field.
This flag is sort of a banner of the Catalonia coat of arms. I say sort of because the bars on the coat of arms are vertical! This could also be the civil and merchant ensign.

The State Flag could be the "L'Estelada Blava" (The Blue Starred Flag).
 The flag dates from the early 20th century, most probably designed in 1918 by Vicenç Albert Ballester i Camps.It was born from the fusion of the four traditional red stripes of the Senyera with a triangle containing a star, inspired by the flag of Cuba. Today it and various versions of it are used by nationalists. Because of its history I think it would make a good state flag and state ensign.

The Naval ensign is similar but with a blue design at the fly. To distinguish the vessel wearing it as a naval vessel and with military and law enforcement powers i.e boarding. 

The ensign used on pleasure craft like yachts have a separate ensign. This is a flag divided into quarters. The first and fourth quarter has the Catalonia flag. The second and third are blue, and the third has a white star of state on it. The second quarter might have a logo or badge of a yacht club on it. 

The civil jack is simply a banner of the Catalonia coat of arms (with vertical bars) with a white boarder.

The Naval and State jack is the national flag with the star of state in a blue diamond in the middle, and in each corner are the province badges.
The top left badge is the province of Barcelona, Top right Province of Girona, bottom left Province of Lleida and bottom right is the Province of Tarragona.


Next are the flags of the nations leaders.
If Catalonia keeps the monarch as the constitutional head of state, in a similar way Canada and Australia have done with the British Monarch, then the monarch should have a separate Royal Standard.
Based on the Spanish Royal Standard it has the Coat of Arms of Catalonia (which also appears on the current Spanish flag and Coat of Arms) topped with the crown. A star is in each corner which represent the four provinces.

The flag of the president is similar except there is no crown and the white star on a blue triangle is present.
If the monarchy is got rid of then this flag would be the one of the head of state.

The Vice President's flag is almost the same as the King's flag except it has no crown.



All these designs are of my own design except the top two, which came from Wikipedia. In writing this I am not expressing any political opinion but rather designing flags for fun. All comments Welcome  




2 comments:

  1. I liked the designs, but I think the naval ensign should be the same of state ensign.

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    Replies
    1. I thought about that to begin with but not all state vessels would be naval. I am however not happy with the design, and am looking at ways to improve it.

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