Incredulidad por el discurso de Sáenz de Santamaría sobre Cataluña y el Diplocat (17 DIC 2017)

Incredulidad por el discurso de Sáenz de Santamaría sobre Cataluña. Críticas a la vicepresidenta por alardear de haber "descabezado" a ERC y Junts per Catalunya. Huffington Post, 17 DEC 2017.

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The three phases of democratic conflicts, and the Spain-Catalonia clash

Translated by M. Strubell into English from "Les tres fases dels conflictes democràtics i el xoc Espanya-Catalunya".

http://in.directe.cat/josep-pinyol/blog/les-tres-fases-dels-conflictes-democratics-i-el-xoc-espanya-catalunya

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Montserrat Vallribera's letter to the Germans

Tell any German you may find the following: imagine that the German Constitution that you have today had been a pact between the Nazis and those who wanted to recover democracy, and that there had been no Nuremberg trials, and that the first Chancellor of the newly democratized Germany had been the last general secretary of the Nazi party, and that in the squares of Germany there were still be statues of Hitler, and that near Berlin there was a great memorial / monumental complex conceived by Hitler himself to honour his memory, owned by the German government, and dedicated to the Fallen in Defence of the Third Reich and with the tomb of Hitler buried with all honours, and that there was an Adolf Hitler Foundation honouring the work of the Führer and receiving public grants, and that Poland was part of Germany and Germany was an official language there, but Polish members were banned from using Polish in the German parliament, and that 80% of Poles would like a referendum to be held to know how many Poles are in favor of the independence of Poland and the German government did not let them, and that the Polish independence parties had twice won the majority in the Polish parliament and they were trying to organize this referendum to consult the Poles, and the German police tried to seize voting papers and ballot boxes and ended up injuring a thousand people with batons and rubber bullets to prevent the Polish voting on the referendum day, and that the German government put Polish politicians and activists in jail for having organized this referendum. And, finally, that the party that ruled Germany today was the party that the Nazis founded when democracy was restored in Germany, and that its electoral alternative today was the Party of German Citizenship, which has never condemned Nazism and agrees with all that we have just explained. This Germany would be Spain today.

Montserrat Vallribera, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, April 2018

Original: https://estudiscatalans.com/2018/04/16/Vallribera.html

Carta oberta de Montserrat Vallribera als alemanys

A qualsevol alemany que us trobeu li dieu: Imagina't que la Constitució Alemanya que teniu avui hagués sigut un pacte entre els nazis i els que volien recuperar la democràcia, i que no hi hagués hagut judicis de Nuremberg, i que el primer Canceller de la nova Alemanya ja democratitzada hagués estat l'últim secretari general del Partit Nazi, i que a les places d'Alemanya hi poguéssiu trobar encara estàtues de Hitler, i que a prop de Berlín hi hagués un gran memorial / conjunt monumental concebut pel propi Hitler per honorar la seva memòria,  propietat del govern alemany, i dedicat als Caiguts en Defensa del Tercer Reich i amb la tomba de Hitler enterrat amb tots els honors, i que hi hagués una Fundació Adolf Hitler honorant l'obra del Führer i rebent subvencions públiques, i que Polònia formés part d'Alemanya i l'alemany hi fos llengua oficial, però els representants polonesos tinguessin prohibit fer servir el polonès al parlament alemany, i que el 80% dels polonesos volgués fer un referèndum per saber quants polonesos estan a favor de la independència de Polònia i el govern alemany no els deixés, i que els partits independentistes polonesos haguessin aconseguit dues vegades la majoria al parlament polonès, i que intentessin organitzar aquest referèndum per consultar els polonesos, i la policia alemanya intentés requisar les urnes i les paperetes i acabés ferint mil persones amb porres i bales de goma per evitar que els polonesos votessin el dia del referèndum, i que el govern alemany posés polítics i activistes polonesos a la presó per haver organitzat aquest referèndum. I, finalment, que el partit que governés Alemanya avui fos el partit que van fundar els Nazis quan es va restablir la democràcia a Alemanya, i que la seva alternativa electoral avui fos el Partit de la Ciutadania Alemanya, que no ha condemnat mai el Nazisme i està d'acord amb tot això que acabem d'explicar. Aquesta Alemanya seria l'Espanya d'avui.

Montserrat Vallribera, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, abril de 2018

Versió en anglès:
https://estudiscatalans.com/2018/04/16/Vallribera-EN.html

Doble Agente

Los mossos aseguran que un miembro de la seguridad del PP negoció la entrega de armas al separatismo para criminalizarlo

https://www.elespanol.com/espana/tribunales/20180307/aseguran-seguridad-pp-negocio-entrega-separatismo-criminalizarlo/289972168_0.html

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Double Agent (English)

"The mossos assure that a member of the Popular Party's security services negotiated the delivery of arms to the separatist movement to criminalize it".

From El Español newspaper (translation by M. Strubell) .

https://www.elespanol.com/espana/tribunales/20180307/aseguran-seguridad-pp-negocio-entrega-separatismo-criminalizarlo/289972168_0.html

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'Better to have a corrupt [Spain] than a broken one'; and RAUCIP conference, Madrid.

 Update (January 2017):  The final document of "RAUCIP 2017: Recent Advances in Undermining Catalonia's Independence Process. 1st International Conference" (Madrid Dec 28, 2016 - Jan 7, 2017) (website) is now available in PDF format, p. 5–30. 


English transation of an article, "Antes corrupta que rota", by Ferran Sáez Mateu, published in Ara on June 28 2016, at 19:28. 


Let me start with a worn cliché: life is strange. Very strange. When the daily newspaper Público began to explain an alleged conspiracy between the [Spanish interior] minister Fernández Díaz and the director of the Anti-fraud Office to discredit Catalan politicians with false data, many thought, "The PP are going to take a hammering!". It turns out, however, that on those same dates, 48 ​​hours before the Spanish elections, the prospects for the PP began to improve. Everyone attributed it to Brexit. In fact, on Sunday night I heard this strange theory a dozen times but the truth is that none of those that held to it were able to credibly explain that relationship, probably because it does not exist. I mean, it is rather unlikely that a man in Carrión de los Condes or a woman in La Almunia de Doña Godina who intended to vote Pablo Iglesias suddenly chose to vote for Rajoy as a result of something that happened in the UK. 

However, other things - more important to most Spaniards - happened before Sunday. Two patriots, Sr. Fernández Díaz and Sr. Daniel Alfonso, had risked their careers and - and, depending on how things eventually work out, other things as well - to defend the indissoluble unity of Spain. "I am Spanish above all", said Alfonso. The first part of the sentence is very respectable; note, however, the addition: "above all". Does that "above all" refer to the existing laws? Sr. Carrión de los Condes or Sra. La Almunia de Doña Godina, on hearing this, realized clearly that the only way to erect a barrier to hold back Catalan independence was to once again vote for the testicular PP, with the stink of a sol y sombra liquor mix and a toothpick behind one's ear. Even those who had moved over to vote for Ciudadanos thought better, which is why the number of votes gained by the PP and lost by Rivera's party are almost exactly, even grotesquely, the same. Iglesias [Podemos] lost steam for the same reason: even after having clarified the issue of the [Catalan] referendum, his potential voters changed their minds.  

For the time being Spain is a country that pats the back of people that claim to have destroyed the Catalan public health system 

The big loser was Pablo Iglesias, despite having retained his MPs. The PSOE's results [Socialists] also fit in with the explanation that we have given: voting for them meant risking Podemos being allowed into the government, or even to lead it. The cases of Andalusia and Extremadura, which are the communities that would be most affected by the independence of Catalonia, are especially significant. Despite the leftist singsong of their leaders, especially Susana Díaz, southern Spain has voted for the moth-eaten, rotten right (in the case of Extremadura, with 40% of votes). 'Better to have a corrupt [Spain] than a broken one...' 

The direct conclusion is as follows: in the present circumstances, Spain cannot be reformed. Maybe in a generation or two, this might be possible, but for the time being Spain is a country that pats the back of people that claim to have destroyed the Catalan public health system. But there is one other conclusion. It is an indirect or secondary one, but it is not banal: as long as Spain fails to resolve its territorial issue, each and every one of its policy initiatives will de conditioned. Without the Catalan question on the table, Spain on Sunday would not have voted for the PP. It would have made no sense, for a host of reasons. As long as the whole of the political agenda is engrossed in this subject no long-term project is conceivable.  

Without the Catalan question on the table, Spain on Sunday would not have voted for the PP. It would have made no sense, for a host of reasons 

There can be no future without first deciding who it is going to affect, and who not. Whether wrongly or not, the Scots took a decision with the approval of the rest of the British, and the British have just taken another very risky - and surely incorrect - path, but in any case it stems from a legitimate collective decision. In Spain such things not even considered, usually on account of temerous inertia related to the absence of a true democratic tradition. 

The PP and the other groups have taken this all in. The message is tough: the best way of solving problems is to prevent political dialogue and to play possum; the exhaustion of the adversary does the rest. From a Catalan perspective, the message is even tougher, for this leaves no other option than expeditious, unilateral decisions. I say it is tougher because, when all is said and done, this would have consequences that, in all probability, not everyone is willing to face. Moreover, things are clear in Spain, while here we continue to fuss over (especially anti-systemic) aesthetics.

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