Tabarnia

The Tabarnia movement assumes that the sovereign subject is not the total of Catalans, but the total of Spaniards (as stated in the Spanish Constitution), so it proposes satirically a gerrymandering[12][13] strategy to mirror another case of alleged gerrymandering by Catalan independentists, that propose breaking the sovereignty of Spain to decide if Catalonia should become a separate state,[14] allowing people to vote only where secessionism could have chances to win.

[34][35] Proponents of Tabarnia wish to distance themselves from the Catalan separatist movement and reclaim the right of a number of territories near the area of Barcelona and Tarragona to constitute themselves as an autonomous community within Spain.

In the 2015 and 2017 Catalan regional elections, parties opposed to secession (mainly Citizens, PSC and PP) received a majority of votes and seats in Tabarnia as a whole (as opposed to much fewer votes across the entirety of Catalonia) and in a small number of coastal comarques (Tarragonès, Baix Penedès and Baix Llobregat) including the city of Tarragona.

[37] The movement uses as a legal basis the Canadian Clarity Act, according to which regions opposed to Quebecois separatism are to remain within Canada in case of a secession, as well as Articles 143 and 144 of the Spanish constitution, which allows the formation of autonomous communities.

[38] An ongoing online petition is taking place at Change.org in order to be sent to the Spanish Congress of Deputies to consider the creation of this new autonomous region.

The protest was also criticized by some separatists which claim that Tabarnia trivializes their movement, which according to them is based on a distinct cultural identity and a long history of tension with Madrid.

[49] The same way Catalan separatist have used an interpretation of economic data to argue they have an unfavourable finance balance towards the rest of Spain, Tabarnians argue Tarragona and Barcelona underrepresentation in the Catalan Parliament has resulted in unfavourable finance balance towards their region, also backed by similar interpretation of economic data.

[58] By using their same arguments for independence,[5] it forces Catalan separatists to contradict themselves by using "unionist" counter-arguments in order to discredit the Tabarnia movement.

According to Manuel Muñiz, the dean of the school of international relations at IE University in Madrid, it sparked a debate over "who is to vote and when" in a democracy and he questioned whether regions should be the ones entitled to decide on their independence or if cities would also qualify?

[52] According to Salvador Garcia Ruiz, the chief executive of Ara, Tabarnia is nothing more than a sour response to the results of the 2017 Catalan regional election in which the independentists did not lose their majority over the parliament.