2

Next new state in europe

Toni Strubell

What Catalans Want

photographer Lluís Brunet

Introduction

What Catalans Want

What Catalans Want is a book that takes a concerned look at Catalonia at a time when – although manypeople are not yet fully conscious of the fact – the country’s political future as a Spanish autonomousregion is for the first time being questioned since it came into being in 1980. It does so by talking tosome of the country’s most representative personalities in various areas of public life and also to a smallbut select group of foreigners living in Catalonia. The book’s aim is not so much to conduct a poll asto discover what fuels the issues involved by asking what it is that is making many inhabitants of thissmall western European country feel as uncomfortable about forming part of Spain as they are comfortableabout being in the European Union. A wide cross-section of Catalan men and women have thus beenasked just what it is that is causing unrest and why things have come to a head so rapidly. Could theCatalan question be welling up into a political issue of the same order as Scotland’s or Flanders’?Mercifully, there appears to be no danger that it will generate any form of violence. But one wonderswhether democratic Europe can afford to overlook what is going on in Catalonia as it has done withconflicts affecting other areas of the continent.

The people interviewed in this book have been picked for the interest what they have to say will doubtlesshave readers. They include the President of Catalonia, Sr. José Montilla, ex-President Jordi Pujol, Sr.Joan Laporta (ex-President of FC Barcelona) and Dr. Moisès Broggi (the 102-year-old surgeon whoworked with the International Brigades in 1937). Are interviewed are leading businessmen, experts inseveral different fields and academics working in Catalan, European and American universities. Theissues they were asked about embrace, amongst others, the recent “disaffection” that president Montillahas admitted many Catalans feel with regard to Spain and questions concerning the language, the economy,business, religion, sport, immigration, culture, transport, bullfighting, the historical memory, newtechnologies, infrastructures and the mass media.

Although it is often hard for journalists and international observers to put their finger on those pointson the globe where apparently innocuous events may one day become newsworthy, there is good reasonto believe that Catalonia could be a sound bet. This may come as a surprise to those who see the country

What Catalans Want

4

limit Catalonia’s rights. The reaction of the Madrid press to the editorial was simply hysterical. Inaddition, in the period 2006-2010, three massive demonstrations were held in the Catalan capital infavour of the country’s “right to decide”.3 To top all this, on 8 June 2010, the Catalan Parliament resolvedto set up the process whereby a privately presented Popular Legislative Initiative would be debated toconsider holding a nationwide referendum on Catalan independence in the foreseeable future. Who couldhave imagined such a development just a short while back?

One may ask why all this turmoil is occurring just now. One of the major reasons is undoubtedly theopposition shown by a significant portion of Spanish officialdom to Catalonia’s new Statute of Autonomy.In 2006 the Catalan Parliament exerted its right to renew the Statute that had originally been introducedin 1979 - four years after Franco’s death - with a view to updating it and introducing new rights for thehome-rule of the Catalan people. The new Statute was approved by almost 90% of the members of theCatalan Parliament. It granted the Catalan government new powers aimed at normalising the Catalanlanguage4 and restoring legal and financial instruments that it had controlled in the past. It also definedthe country as a “Nation,” in line with its historical tradition. Despite some pruning and the consequentloss of some Catalan support for the text – one ex-vice president of Spain had spoken of the need to“plane the text down beyond recognition” – the Statute was then passed by the Spanish Parliament, thusbecoming a State Law. However, appeals were lodged against it before the Constitutional Court, andthat led to a situation in which, although already in force, the new Catalan Statute was being challengedon various fronts on the grounds of alleged unconstitutionality.

The parties involved in making those allegations ranged from the Conservative Partido Popular to theState Ombudsman and some of the other autonomous communities, which are clearly reluctant to allowCatalan self-government to grow. Parallel to this, a wave of fiercely anti-Catalan hostility became apparentin many of the Spanish media, and a boycott was organised against the sale of Catalan products.Meanwhile, the Partido Popular took to the streets and collected over four million signatures againstwhat it termed the “split up” of Spain being caused by the Catalans. Even the Conference of SpanishBishops took sides in the issue, drawing up a document that specifically blessed “Spanish unity,” a stepthat many Catalans regard as tantamount to condemning in the name of God current Catalan demandsfor greater home-rule.

as peace-loving, pro-European and relatively prosperous – which, of course, it is – and who tend toassociate developments of this nature with ex-Communist or Third World countries. However, no-onefollowing the media closely over the last three or four years can fail to have noticed clear signs thatsomething jars in the relationship between Catalonia and Spain. Although it may cause worry - evendismay - to many who feel this kind of dispute is something Europe should have left behind, there is avery real sense among Catalans of all conditions that the arrangements made to acknowledge Catalanrights after Franco’s death have not been respected by Constitutional Spain.

Indeed, in the new Millennium there have been signs that this corner of the western Mediterranean couldbe beginning to question its status as an “autonomous region” of Spain. Indeed, some recent events inthis respect have made international headlines. Admittedly, European and American tourists pouringinto lusty “Loret de Ma”, cosmopolitan Barcelona or sunny “Star Tit”1 will have almost certainly remainedoblivious to all of these developments, even as they were happening. But weren’t visitors to OlympicSarajevo completely unaware that something was afoot there in 1984? The following are just a few ofthe events that have occurred in Catalonia of late. Since September 2009, almost half of Catalonia’scities, towns and villages have held unofficial polls to ask citizens if they want their country to becomea new, independent State within the European Union. Well over 90% of those voting said they did.Parallel to that, a significant number of intellectuals, hitherto uncommitted to Catalan nationalism havemade a point of demonstrating their support for those polls. The highly respected federalist notary JuanJosé López-Burniol, a long-time contributor to El País and La Vanguardia newspapers, stated in January2010 that the relations between Catalonia and Spain had gone “beyond the point of no return.” Even thewell-known pro-Socialist journalist, Josep Ramoneda, publically admitted that, if given the chance, hewould vote in favour of independence. Ex-President Pujol, too, has shown his support for the campaign,as have the country’s major trades unions and literally thousands of popular clubs and associations,including Pakistani residents’ associations and Andalusian Flamenco clubs.

The international press gave front page coverage to the polls held in September and December 2009.Parallel to this, under the explicit title of “The dignity of Catalonia,” on 26 November that year, twelveCatalan newspapers2 published a joint editorial denouncing the possibility that Spain’s High Court might

What Catalans WantToni Strubell

1 Lloret de Mar and l’Estartit – two of English tourists’ favourite locations on the Costa Brava.

2 El Periódico, La Vanguardia, Avui, El Punt, Segre, La Mañana, Diari de Tarragona, Diari de Girona, Regió 7, El Nou 9,Diari de Terrassa i Diari de Sabadell.

3 18.2.2006, 1.12.2007 and 12.6.2010. Ex-Presidents Jordi Pujol (1980-2003) and Pasqual Maragall (2003-2006) took partin the 2007 rally. 4 By giving it the same status as Spanish in the territories it is co-official.

3

6

Another factor that upsets many Catalans is the inability – or is it distaste? – that Spain has shown forhealing old wounds from the Civil War. Surprising though it may seem, the death penalties carried outagainst the Catalan President Lluís Companys i Jover, and tens of thousands of other Republicans, havenot been legally annulled, even though, in 2004, the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero had promised theywould be. Although few Catalans still seek the legal prosecution of Franco’s crimes, the fact that SpanishHigh Court judge Baltasar Garzón should have been suspended from office for suggesting that thequestion be raised is particularly offensive to those who demand higher democratic standards than present-day Spain seems able and willing to allow. In addition, the fact that King Juan Carlos has failed to showany degree of commitment to Catalan feeling on these and other issues in recent times is another featurethat cannot be overlooked and which possibly accounts for the significant drop in his popularity amongCatalans.6 This book aspires to answering “What Catalans Want” by asking thirty locals and five foreignresidents about these and other fascinating changes occurring in Catalonia right under the glazed gazeof Europe.

To make matters worse, the Constitutional Court that was to decide over the legitimacy of the textdegenerated into a battleground between “progressive” and “conservative” judges, with the result that,four whole years after it began its deliberations, no sentence had yet been passed. Besides that, whatdiscerning Catalans perceived as the arbitrary disqualification of some of the Court’s less anti-Catalanmembers coincided with the grossly extended terms conceded to some of their opponents, whose termsof office had expired. All this added up to a situation of heightened tension, in which mistrust and thediscredit of the Spanish High Court, as seen from Catalonia, rivalled in intensity with the support thata rumoured harsh sentence against the Statute was receiving from the mainstream media in Madrid. Therift between Catalonia and Spain had never been greater in living memory.

The result of this whole process was that many Catalans became increasingly convinced that their countryhad no real place in present-day Spain - not if any degree of dignity were to be preserved. It was thereforenot surprising that a survey published in Barcelona’s conservative La Vanguardia newspaper, in May2010, was to show that over 37% of Catalans support independence, a figure just 4 points behind thoseopposed to it. The same survey even gave 51% support for the celebration of the independence pollsamong Socialist voters. When compared with surveys held even five years earlier, the growth of supportfor independence was spectacular despite the large presence of Catalan residents from non-Catalan familybackgrounds.

Apart from the Statute issue, several other factors have also contributed to the growing rift betweenSpaniards and Catalans. Perhaps the next most important one is the financial spoliation that many Catalansfeel themselves to be the victims of.5 It is now common knowledge that Catalonia contributes as muchas 10% of its GDP in unreturned taxes to Spain, an index that has even led some economists to wonderhow the Catalan economy survives at all. To add insult to injury, the public confirmation of this degreeof spoliation contrasts with firmly entrenched attitudes, in many parts of Spain, where Catalans are, asever, portrayed as selfish subsidy-hoggers. It is a cliché that the figures would have been made mincemeatof in other latitudes, but one which sadly lives on unscathed in Spain.

What Catalans WantToni Strubell

5 If Zapatero’s government had not been pressured into publishing the interregional fiscal balances in 2008 –which wereofficially secret until then, it would no doubt have been easier for Madrid governments to continue concealing the alarmingscale of this spoliation.

6 As instanced at the Cup Final match between FC Barcelona and Athletic de Bilbao, in May 2009, when the King’s arrivalat the stadium was met with a huge protests by both sides’ supporters.

5

8What Catalans WantToni Strubell7