Encarnación

1
http://fortune.com/2016/01/11/spain-catalonia-secession/
New Government in Catalonia Looks to Speed up Secession From Spain 
by  Ian Mount

@ianmount

JANUARY 11, 2016, 4:58 AM EST 

The pressure is now on the national politicians to form a government in Madrid. 

On Sunday night, after more than two months of failed negotiations, bitter public recriminations, and a supposed do-or-die vote that ended in a 1,515-1,515 tie, the two secessionist parties in the parliament in the Spanish region of Catalonia managed what seemed impossible only days before: they agreed on a new prime minister and, just two hours before hitting the midnight deadline that would have forced new elections, formed a government. 

“The [independence] process is saved. The Parliament will begin to function immediately,” Artur Mas, the outgoing Catalan Prime Minister, said when the preliminary agreement was reached on Saturday evening. 

And with that, the already unstable Spanish political situation got even more complicated.

In Sept. 27 regional elections, the two pro-independence groups—the anti-capitalist leftist party Candidatura d’Unitat Popular (CUP), and Junts pel Sí (Together for the Yes, or JxSí), a coalition of center-right, center-left, and civil society groups—won a majority of 72 out of 135 parliamentary seats with about 48% of the vote. 

But the two quickly deadlocked over who would be prime minister, as the CUP refused to support another term for Artur Mas, who pushed austerity policies during Spain’s economic crisis and who heads a political party (Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya, or CDC) that is the focus of multiple corruption investigations. Mas, in turn, refused to back down.

On Saturday afternoon, however, the groups reached an agreement: Mas, 59, would step aside and be replaced by Carles Puigdemont, 53, the mayor of the Catalan city of Girona. In return, the CUP agreed to vote for Puigdemont and declared that it would not vote against JxSí in any situation where parliamentary “stability” was at stake. 

“Next stop, Independence!” Oriol Junqueras, the leader of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Catalan Left) party, which forms part of JxSí, tweeted minutes later. 

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2

http://fortune.com/2016/01/15/spain-catalonia-secession-forgetting/

Spain's Catalonia Secession Drama Is About to Get a Lot Worse

COMMENTARY by  Ian Mount

@ianmount  

JANUARY 15, 2016, 2:40 AM EST

It didn’t have to be this way.

After the 1975 death of dictator General Francisco Franco, the birth of Spain’s democracy was midwifed by the Pacto del olvido—the Pact of Forgetting.

In what Omar Encarnación, the director of the political studies program at Bard College, calls “Democracy Without Justice,” political leaders both left and right informally agreed to move forward by ignoring the atrocities committed during and after Spain’s Civil War. A comprehensive amnesty law was passed; there would be no truth and reconciliation committees, no wrestling with the past.

This willing refusal to look in the rearview had gone a long way to help Spain build a vibrant democracy and modern society in the ensuing 40 years. But it has also saddled Spain’s political class with an unfortunate unwillingness to address problems directly.

The challenges of this willful ignorance became clear when two secessionist parties in the wealthy region of Catalonia formed a government over the weekend, just hours before a deadline would have sent the region to new elections. Immediately, pressure heightened on lawmakers in Madrid—who have been bickering since December elections left the country without a ruling party or coalition—to form a national government and deal with Catalonia.

Until the two opposing Catalan pro-independence parties came to their unlikely eleventh-hour agreement, it seemed like the national parties might be able to again join in a pacto del olvido. The odds had been that Catalonia would go to new elections and that support for the secessionist parties would recede.

If that happened, the thinking went, the future would be clear. Afraid to face new elections amid his own declining support, Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the center-left PSOE party—the second group in parliament with 90 of the 350 seats—would feel obliged to tragarse el sapo (make a painful decision; literally, “swallow the frog”) and allow the re-election of current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the arch-rival center-right Partido Popular (PP), which controls 123 seats. And Spain would return to its regular programming.

The deal in Catalonia has killed that potential scenario.

Now, the independence movement in Catalonia does not have majority support. In September regional elections, the two secessionist groups received just short of 48% of the vote (or, viewed more broadly, the support of 36% of the electorate). That’s not enough to claim a mandate for secession. But because of election rules, the parties received 72 of the 135 seats in Catalonia’s parliament. With seats in hand and no government in Madrid, the opportunity was too good to let percentages stand in the way. And so, on Sunday evening, new Catalan Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont declared that his government was embarking on an 18-month roadmap to a Catalan republic.

It didn’t have to be this way.

Tensions have risen in recent years in part because Prime Minister Rajoy and the PP have exhibited a mix of antipathy towards the regional government and an almost pathological inability to address the Catalan issue openly. When the region negotiated an autonomy statute with the government of Prime Minister Zapatero in 2006, Rajoy and his party responded by appealing—successfully—to have Spain’s Constitutional Court strike down large parts of it. He did the same when the Catalan government tried to hold a regional referendum-opinion poll on independence in 2014.

These moves made Rajoy’s later suggestion that the Catalan government should stop complaining and seek more autonomy through constitutional reform—which would have required support from the PP—seem disingenuous, to put it mildly.

Rajoy’s strategy has inflamed tensions. While, by all measurements, most Catalans do not support secession, a clear majority wants more regional autonomy and the right to be heard. As a Catalan friend — who is no fan of secession — asked me recently, “Why are they so afraid of a referendum?”

Faced with the increasing possibility of a political train wreck, Spanish intellectuals have floated solutions. Political scientist Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, a professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University, has pushed for a two-step process of constitutional reform, then referendum.

First, Spain’s Parliament would negotiate a constitutional reform that would give more powers to the nation’s regions, and Spanish voters as a whole would vote on it. If the reform passed nationally and in Catalonia, the issue would be considered closed. But if the reform failed, or if it passed nationally but a majority of Catalans voted against it, Catalonia would go to the polls and vote on a binding referendum with a clear question (in or out), a high threshold (half the electorate, as a proxy for a true majority), and limited repeatability (no sooner than 10 years).

While this may seem logical, it does not benefit those who are currently in power. The PP appeals to its core conservative supporters as a defender of national sovereignty. And the best, albeit small, chance that Catalan secession parties have for independence lies not in negotiation but in taking provocative steps—by creating an independent tax authority, for example—that could inspire the central government to respond with heavy-handed measures, such as eliminating the region’s self-government powers, that might move the international community to get involved.

There are obstacles beyond the political. Constitutional reform requires an ample majority in both the Parliament and the Senate, which means that the PP would have to be somehow convinced, however grudgingly, to let it pass. But it is worth the effort. While another 18 months of inflexible standoff probably won’t lead to independence for Catalonia, it will almost certainly lead to more bitterness, recrimination, and pain.

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3.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/spain/2016-01-28/farewell-catalonia 

Farewell to Catalonia? Spain Confronts a Rebellious[1] Region 

Omar G. Encarnación 

In mid-January, Catalonia inaugurated a new government that promised to bring independence to this fiercely [2] separatist region of 7.5 million people sandwiched between Spain and France. Perhaps only the Basque Country, where separatist politics are intermingled with violence, terrorism, and even racism (Basque nationalism is rooted in the idea that the Basques are a separate race[3]), matches Catalonia’s desire for nationhood among the regions of Spain, and maybe in all of Europe[4]. Ironically, although the Basque independence struggle is the one that usually captures international headlines, the Catalans have the stronger historical claim for statehood. Catalan nationalism [5] dates to the Middle Ages, when the region existed as the Principality of Catalonia, before it was engulfed [6] into the Kingdom of Aragon and later into the Kingdom of Spain, when the crowns of Aragon and Castile were united [7] in the fifteenth century. Basque separatism, by contrast, dates only to the late nineteenth century, when the Basque nationalist movement was founded, although Basque nationalists tend to dispute this view by tying the contemporary Basque nationalist movement to the fueros, rights and privileges granted by the Spanish monarch to the Basque people going back to feudal times.

For Catalonia’s newly inaugurated government, the stakes could not be higher. It is likely now or never for the proponents of Catalan independence. For the first time since Spain became a democracy in 1978, after four decades of dictatorship under the regime of Generalissimo Francisco Franco (a regime so profoundly antiregional[8] that it banned all symbols of Catalan culture, such as the Catalan language and flag), a political movement laser-focused on independence has won the majority of seats in the Catalan parliament. Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes), a coalition of Catalan parties supportive of independence, won last September’s Catalan regional elections. Upon assuming power, Catalonia’s new premier, Carles Puigdemont, announced plans for the creation of the Republic of Catalonia within 18 months. To underscore the seriousness of his intentions, Puigdemont, in open defiance of tradition and the law[9], did not pledge loyalty to the Spanish constitution or the Spanish crown. Adding insult to injury, the portrait of King Felipe, which hangs in the chamber where Puigdemont’s swearing-in took place, was covered with a veil during the ceremony[10].

For the central administration in Madrid, the standoff with Catalonia, which accounts for 20 percent of Spain’s economic activity and represents about the same percentage of the Spanish population[11], could not have come at a worse time. Spain is politically deadlocked after the inconclusive results of the December 20 national elections, which generated a fragmented parliament. Neither of the two parties that have ruled Spain for decades won a sufficient number of parliamentary seats to form a government without needing alliances with other political parties. Led by incumbent Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the conservative Popular Party (PP) won 28.7 percent of the vote to emerge as the winner, and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) won 22 percent of the vote, enough to become[12] the second most important party in the new parliament. Together, two new upstarts, the left-wing Podemos (We Can) and the center-right Cuidadanos (Citizens), got a third of the vote, a testament to the dissatisfaction of the electorate with the traditional parties. The PP and PSOE’s share of the electorate fell from 80 percent in 2011 to 50 percent in 2015.

Two options for a coalition government in Spain — which would be the first government of this kind for the country since the tumultuous Second Republic, the interwar regime that ushered in the Spanish Civil War — are generating the most buzz. The first one is a grand right-left coalition between traditional opponents PP and PSOE. It would be modeled on Germany’s current government, which incorporates former rivals Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. The second option is a leftist “coalition of the losers”, similar to the one currently in power in Portugal, encompassing the PSOE, Podemos, and Izquierda Unida (United Left), an assortment of left-wing parties including the once mighty[13] Spanish Communist Party and the Verdes (Greens). If neither option materializes, Rajoy will be forced to call new elections. Polls suggest that the majority of Spaniards want the parties to agree to a coalition rather than to holding a new election.

PROTECTING THE HOMELAND

As might be expected, all the talk of independence in Catalonia brings to mind last year’s epic struggle for independence in Scotland. Despite the heartbreaking outcome for Scottish ationalists, Scotland’s independence referendum is the source of inspiration for the Catalans[14]. Yet there are many compelling reasons to believe that the Catalans face a considerably steeper struggle for independence than the Scots ever did. For one thing, a legally binding referendum, the main vehicle to potential independence for Scotland, is not a realistic option for Catalonia. Madrid has at its disposal a large arsenal of tools to block any referendum on Catalan independence, including, most notably, the Spanish constitution, which explicitly forbids any region in Spain from exercising self-determination. 

Indeed, last fall, the Constitutional Tribunal, Spain’s highest court, ruled that any unilateral move by Catalonia toward independence would be unconstitutional. In making this determination, the tribunal relied on section two of the constitution, which asserts that the Spanish national territory is “indivisible” while acknowledging the right to regional self-governance. Since the transition to democracy, this concession has opened the way for the growth of regional home rule, especially in the so-called historic regions — Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia — which had secured an autonomy arrangement (or were in the process of securing one, as in the case of Galicia) from the central government in Madrid during the Second Republic. Franco abrogated these agreements at the end of the Civil War in 1939[15].

Madrid can also block an independence vote in Catalonia by working through the national parliament[16], which would have to approve any referendum on independence in Catalonia or any other region. There is a history[17] of Spanish political administrations, from both the left and the right, using the parliament to block separatist movements. During the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, the socialist administration of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero used a series of parliamentary votes to derail a drive for independence[18] in the Basque Country. Last fall, the Rajoy administration secured a vote in the parliament declaring any Catalan referendum illegal and nonbinding[19]. That vote enjoyed the support of all the political parties represented in the parliament, save for the Basque and Catalan nationalist ones.

Additionally, the central government in Madrid could always force Catalonia into abandoning its independence ambitions. It could financially starve the regional government by, among other things, moving state resources[20] outside of Catalonia. It could move the national military into the region to intimidate the local government and secure pledges from foreign nations and the European Union not to recognize an independent Catalonia. If all else fails, Madrid could pick the nuclear option: canceling outright Catalonia’s regional self-governance charter, something permitted under the constitution[21]. Of course[22], no one in Spain expects the present standoff to come to any of this, but Rajoy has made it clear that he will use any means necessary to protect the integrity of the nation. “I will not allow anything that could harm the unity and sovereignty of Spain,” said Rajoy as the Catalans were about to vote in a new separatist leader.

A BYZANTINE[23] WORLD 

A bigger obstacle to Catalan independence rests within the byzantine world of Catalan politics. The recent bitter fight for political control of the region, which nearly derailed the current effort for independence, broadly illustrates the point. In the Catalan 2015 regional elections, the separatist alliance, which comprises four different parties from both the right[24] and the left, fell short of a handful of parliamentary seats to form a government[25], forcing it into a pact with the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), a small, far-left party whose platform is so out of the political mainstream that it calls for Spain’s withdrawal from NATO and the European Union. The CUP is also at odds with the separatists’ mostly conservative economic program[26]. 

To entice support from the CUP, the separatists embraced some of the party’s economic program, such as assistance to those struggling to pay their mortgages. But even that did not do the trick. What the CUP wanted most was the resignation of Artur Mas as Catalonia’s top chief executive. Mas had led Catalonia since 2010 and had been expected to lead the independence struggle beyond 2015, but the CUP viewed him as corrupt, untrustworthy, and too cozy with the local and external actors that brought Spain to the brink of economic ruin in 2011. To prevent the CUP from walking away from the coalition, which would have triggered new elections, at the eleventh hour, the separatist alliance unceremoniously dumped Mas[27]. They[28] replaced him with Puigdemont, at the time the mayor of Girona, a city north of Barcelona that is generally regarded[29] as the most separatist of Catalan cities, who had no experience in dealing with Madrid[30]. 

The drama over the leadership of the Catalan government reveals broader instability within the coalition, since its various members often[31] work at cross-purposes. Indeed, the alliance hangs together by a thread[32]. In the vote that brought Puigdemont to power, 70 were in favor, 63 were against, and two abstained. Moreover, Puigdemont is an independence hard-liner, quite in contrast with the pragmatist Mas. This might do more harm than good since it is not a foregone conclusion that the majority of Catalans favor independence. Polls show that the majority of Catalans wish to remain part of Spain, although they favor greater autonomy[33]. So, as the separatists are the first to admit, any successful effort toward independence hinges on persuading those currently sitting on the fence[34]. Puigdemont’s tactics, such as the disrespect shown for the crown at his swearing-in ceremony, could well serve to undermine that effort[35]. 

Podemos and Ciudadanos, the new stars in the Spanish political firmament, add another layer of complexity and unpredictability to Catalan politics. These parties channel the anticorruption movement that has rocked Spain’s political establishment, including the Catalan nationalist movement, since the financial crisis. Jordi Pujol, the father of Catalan nationalism in the post-Franco era (he and his Convergence and Union coalition ruled Catalonia from 1980 to 2003 and often worked with the national parties in Madrid to expand regional autonomy), recently admitted to hiding millions of euros in offshore accounts after prior denials that such accounts existed[36]. Both newcomers are power players in Catalan politics: Podemos controls[37] electorally rich Barcelona, Catalonia’s glittering capital city, and Ciudadanos is the second political force in the Catalan parliament (after the separatists), where it controls 25 seats. Neither party is an advocate of Catalan independence. 

The Madrid-based Podemos is committed only to supporting a referendum on Catalan independence, not to independence itself. This support will likely be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency should Podemos join the PSOE to form a new government in Madrid. Ciudadanos, which is based in Barcelona, actually opposes independence for Catalonia. This stance, alongside the party’s center-right political profile, makes it an ideal force to join in a government led by either the PP or the PSOE. Ciudadanos’ potential for playing the role of power broker on the national political stage was demonstrated at the reopening of the Spanish parliament on January 11. The party joined the PSOE in a pact to elect Patxi López, an old socialist hand who served as the president of the Basque Country from 2009 to 2012, as the next Speaker. The PP abstained from putting forth its own candidate, implicitly supporting the PSOE-Ciudadanos Speaker’s pact. This is the first time since democracy was restored that the Speaker is not from the party in possession of the majority of parliamentary seats. 

AN ASYMMETRICAL UNION 

Finally, Catalan independence seems unlikely because separatist battles in Spain have historically been driven less by the desire for independence than by the more realistic goal[38] of expanded autonomy — especially in Catalonia. During Pujol’s long reign at the helm of the Catalan government, Catalan politics was all about keeping the separatists at bay and securing the best autonomy deal from Madrid. Even though the current impasse between Madrid and Catalonia can be traced to the enactment in 2006 of the Nou Estatut, or New Statute, a revamping of the Catalan autonomy charter that referred to Catalonia as “a nation,”[39] it was the reluctance[40] of the Rajoy administration to accommodate the Catalans’ request for greater control over their finances that brought the current crisis to a boiling point[41]. 

If anything, the constant drive for autonomy is fed by the imperfections and shortcomings of Spain’s existing system of autonomous governments. When the system was set up, following Franco’s death, the country struck an exquisitely[42] ambiguous constitutional compromise between the regions demanding autonomy, led by the Basque Country and Catalonia, and a central administration that, still imbued with Francoist visions of a culturally homogenous Spain, was fiercely opposed to federalism. At the heart of the compromise was that Spain would retain its traditional structure of a unitary state (the 1978 constitution studiously avoids the term “federalism”) but that the regions would be entitled to individually petition autonomy from the central government, a process concluded in 1981 with the creation of a system of 17 autonomous regions[43]. Cementing the compromise was a long history of failed attempts to decentralize Spain. In the nineteenth century and during the Second Republic, this effort led to civil wars. After Franco, a similar outcome seemed likely[44]. The granting of autonomy to the Catalans and the Basques triggered an aborted military coup in February 1981, the most serious threat to Spanish democracy since Franco’s passing. 

Spain’s piecemeal decentralization has resulted in a process that is dictated more by politics than by logic, with each region having its own autonomy charter with the central government and its own range of regional powers. Thus, certain regions, especially the Basque Country, enjoy an extraordinary level of autonomy, which they have secured over the years by coercing and even bribing the central government[45]. For instance, alone among the regions, the Basques are allowed to collect and administer their own taxes. The majority, including Andalusia, Spain’s most populous region, have limited autonomy and are administered by Madrid like colonial possessions[46]. This asymmetry in autonomy among the various regions encourages constant bargaining with the state for greater autonomy as well as confrontational stances between regional leaders and Madrid, with regional leaders often acting as victims of an oppressive central government. From this perspective, the recent eruption[47] of separatist demands in Catalonia is hardly unexpected. In fact, it is what Spaniards have come to expect. 

TIME FOR FEDERALISM[48] 

A full jump to federalism, which would allow each region in Spain significant administrative responsibilities and the same level of autonomy[49] from the central government, makes the most sense for the country, especially now that the ghosts of civil war and the Franco dictatorship have been fully exorcised. But major obstacles stand in the way. For one thing, the constitution will need to be amended[50] before a federal structure can be imposed. Since 1978, this has happened only twice: to allow EU citizens the right to participate in local elections and to introduce a cap on the public deficit. Moreover, there is a dearth of political will by the major political parties to pursue federalism. The PP, which barely tolerates the current system of regional autonomies, will do everything in its power to stop any attempt at federalization, which it views as one step closer to the disintegration of Spain. Although a historic advocate of federalism, the PSOE has taken no steps to push for it in the many years it has ruled the country in the post-Franco years. 

Oddly enough, in the topsy-turvy world of Spanish separatist politics, the biggest obstacles to federalism are the regions themselves. In 1982, when the socialist administration of Felipe González Márquez[51] tried to even out the differences in autonomy among the regions, with the Law on the Harmonization of the Autonomy Process, the Catalan and the Basque governments took the central government to court, arguing that equality in autonomy among the regions would violate their constitutional status as “historic” regions. They reasoned that if every region in Spain had the same level of autonomy, their uniqueness would be rendered unrecognizable. The Constitutional Tribunal apparently agreed with this reasoning, allowing unequal autonomy to persist and actually increase in subsequent years[52]. 

But the time has come for Spanish regional and national leaders to rethink their aversion to federalism, since it is clear that the current system of regional autonomies, although a useful arrangement for getting the nation out of the Franco dictatorship and through the post-transition years, no longer serves the regions or the central state. In fact, as the current standoff in Catalonia suggests, it undermines both. 


See also

JAN 27, 2016

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/27/how-catalonia-is-the-key-to-spains-current-political-deadlock/

How Catalonia is the key to Spain's current political deadlock, by Adrià Alsina and Krystyna Schreiber 

SEP 11, 2014
The View from Catalonia: The Ins and Outs of the Independence Movement
Carles Boix and J.C. Major

Rahola

In defence of Carles Rahola and Carles Puigdemont
Ignasi Aragay
01/11/2016

I was moved on re-reading, at a single sitting, "Carles Rahola, afusellat" (Carles Rahola, executed), a book by Josep Benet, published in 1999.

I was saddened and angered at Franco's unjust decision, on 15 March 1939, to have that good man shot, and at the ignominious use that some media and some politicians have now made of his memory. How dare they? Do they really know who Carles Rahola was, what he thought, what he did? Democracy cannot be defended with lies and forgetfulness. Democracy cannot be defended by distorting the figure of a peaceful, democratic and deeply human civic example of tolerance, as many letting figues have left testimony, from Tomàs Garcés to Josep Pla, or as corroborated by the failed efforts by conspicuous Franco supporter who tried to prevent his supposedly legal murder, such as historian Fernando Valls Taberner and soldier Antonio Correa Véglison (at that moment civil governor of Girona), Miquel Mateu i Pla (mayor of Barcelona at the time) or bishop Josep Cartañà.
To no avail: the Caudillo signed the order.  In a farcical court martial, with no legal guarantee, the fact that Carles Rahola had helped save priests during the war years was ignored. He was sentenced to death for something he was not: a "separatist". One of the pieces of the incriminating evidence was an article that has now been used to brutally attack the new president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, a man who loves Girona and Catalonia, just like Rahola.

He was a leftist, Republican catalanist, a profoundly believer, a man of letters and a family man who never belonged to any party, and above all an excellent person . Even the president of the military court, in an unusual gesture for that time, he disagreed with the conviction, with a dissenting vote.

He was a member of the Royal Academy of History in Madrid and the Royal Academy of Literature in Barcelona, overwhelmed by the revolution and war, in those years of war Rahola had virtually stopped writing in the press. He had been buried himself in his work, his files, in his home. Given his spirit of concord and peace, everything had been shaken up. He only published a few texts of historical dissemination, with just two exceptions.  
When in 1938 Franco's aviation, consisting mainly of Italian and German pilots, intensified their bombing he broke his silence to write against these barbaric acts. On 8 February 1938 he published in "L'Autònom", a Girona newspaper run by his brother Darius, the article "Shelters and gardens" in which he decried the renovar of a garden for children to make an air raid shelter. And on August 6 of the same year he wrote "Heroism", in which he used the prologue written years earliest for the translation of the homonymous work by Maeterlinck and in which, as explained by Josep Benet, he spoke of the heroic behaviour of the Belgian people in the face of the invasion of their country by the German armies during the First World War. The article ended with a brief reference to the peoples suffering from the war in Spain.
It read: "Using the same methods, the Germans, along with the Italians, are today engaged in the methodical, scientific and systematic destruction of Catalonia and other sister lands. And today, as yesterday, our hope is firm and fervent. The invaders will be expelled from Catalonia, as they were from the peaceful Belgium, and our land will, under the Republic, once again, in work in peace, bé master of its freedom and its destiny." Puigdemont has now been reproached for the last sentence of this quote, taken quite out of context. Is any comment required? The two articles were the main pieces of evidence used to get Rahola executed.

In 1934 Rahola had published a historical monograph on the death penalty in Girona in the 18th and 19th centuries . It ended as follows: "It is to be hoped, on the grounds of humanity and with a Christian spirit [...] , that the gallows will never again be erected in the august space of the noble and beloved Girona." Two years later there were executions once again (three soldiers accused of having taken part in the Franco uprising). During the war the Republicans executed 15 more. At the beginning of the dictatorship executions soared. They peaked at 69 in a single day.

Hours before his execution, on death row, Rahola, 58, wrote to his family: "My dearest Rosa, my beloved children, Ferran, Maria and Carolina: I take leave of you for eternity. You all know how pure and bright my life has been; you all know how honestly I have lived; how I have worked with faith; how intensely I have loved you. I go towards the afterlife, quietly and serenely. [...] I do not leave any enemy in this land, in the beatiful Catalonia that I loved, in my beloved Girona, nor outside it."
Let us show respect for this great man.

Ens és igual

"Ens neguem a reduir el debat a quina mena de president investirem, és a dir, ens sembla absolutament ridícul i ens sembla absolutament esperpèntic que alguns vulguin reduir el moment polític històric d'aquest país a qui serà el proper president.

El proper president que necessita aquest país és el president que vulgui declarar la independència.

Ens és igual com es digui."

"The Case of Catalonia". ONU, 1945.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon can hardly be blamed for not being aware of this anguished Appeal.

*** Click below on "Més informació" to open the rest of the post ***

Au lendemain de la mise en examen du président de la Generalitat de Catalogne, Artur Mas, par la Cour supérieure de justice de Catalogne, Gabriel Rufián, membre de l'association Súmate (Joins-t'y)¹ a publié cet article dans la section Feuille de route [du processus d'indépendance de la Catalogne] du quotidien catalan El Punt Avui (http://www.elpuntavui.cat/opinio/article/8-articles/900727-un-estat.html) qui défend le président catalan et critique la réaction espagnole en la qualifiant de légaliste mais d'antidémocratique.

 

Un état

El Punt Avui  30/09/15 02h00 

Gabriel Rufián 

FULL DE RUTA «Un estat»

Un état protégeant Martín Villa bien qu'ayant signé des condamnations à mort² et qui met en examen Artur Mas après avoir convoqué un référendum est un état méprisable. Un état qui poursuit les présidents élus qui ont mis des urnes en carton devant les personnes et qui protège les hiérarques franquistes qui ont mis des armes devant les personnes est un état misérable. Un état qui s'indigne face à des files de gens devant les urnes et qui se tait face à des files de gens devant des cantines sociales est un état canaille. Un état qui oblige un président catalan à déclarer pour s'être opposé à une décision antidémocratique - justement le jour du 75^ème anniversaire de l'exécution d'un autre président qui s'était opposé à une dictature fasciste -³ est un état monstrueux. Un état qui use de tribunaux et de juges partiaux face à une aspiration politique est un état tricheur. Un état qui menace de prison des politiciens éloignés idéologiquement et qui libère des politiciens corrompus mais amis est un état injuste. Un état qui qualifie de « défi » ou de « menace » un mandat populaire exprimé dans les urnes est un état antidémocratique. Un état qui mobilise la plus grande campagne de la peur et de mensonges lors d'élections est un état vil. Un état qui ignore la clameur d'un peuple venant de la rue et qui respecte les yeux fermés les chantages venus de quelques bureaux est un état infâme. Un état qui invoque l'article 155 de la Constitution face aux urnes et qui ignore l'article 47 devant une éviction est un état indigne. Un état qui donne des réponses judiciaires à des questions politiques est un état sourd. Un état qui identifie les aspirations de liberté de centaines de milliers de citoyens à un seul parti ou un seul homme politique est un état aveugle. Un état où la gauche s'aligne sur la droite⁴ dans la menace contre des aspirations absolument démocratiques est un état dramatique. Un état qui 80 ans après⁵ est incapable de reconnaître et de respecter les différentes identités et cultures vivant ensemble sur son territoire est un état qui ne les mérite tout simplement pas. Un état qui au surlendemain de la victoire incontestable de l'indépendantisme lors des élections avec 2 000 000 de voix (soit 48%, sans compter l’ambiguïté de CSQEP)⁶ assigne à comparaître un de ses leaders est un état dont il faut s'autodéterminer. Et dans un état ainsi, croyez-moi, ce n'est pas l'indépendantisme qui a un problème.

Introduction, traduction et notes par Miquel-Àngel Sànchez i Fèrriz masferriz@masf.cat

ETIQUETES : mise en examen du président de Catalogne, légalité étatique contre légitimité démocratique

1 Note du Traducteur : Association de citoyens et d'organisations civiques et sociales hispanophones dont l'objectif est d'élargir le débat social et politique ouvert en Catalogne sur son avenir en tant que peuple et dont la devise est « Ce qui compte ce n'est pas l'origine mais la destination ».

2 NdT : Rodolfo Martín Villa a été ministre, notamment d'intérieur, sous Franco et après Franco.

3 NdT : le président Lluís Companys, élu démocratiquement, à été fusillé suite à son arrestation par la police allemande dans la France occupée puis sa remise aux autorités franquistes. L'Allemagne a demandé des excuses. La France aussi. Quant à l'Espagne, les Cortes ont promulgué une « loi de l'oubli » qui n'a pas condamné l'insurrection de Franco ni son régime et n'en a pas aboli les lois.

4 NdT : Allusion aux deux partis majoritaires au pouvoir : respectivement PSOE et PP.

5 NdT : Allusion à l'époque de la deuxième République espagnole à la veille de l'insurrection militaire contre le gouvernement légitime en place.

6 NdT : "Catalunya sí que es pot" (Catalogne c'est possible) coalition politique de gauche sociale qui a concouru aux élections catalanes du 27 septembre.

Terrorisme d'état

Au lendemain de l'entrée en vigueur de la dernière loi¹ adoptée par le gouvernement du Partido Popular avec l'objectif mal dissimulé de permettre la déchéance du président de la Catalogne afin de le priver d'exercer ses fonctions² –– il est utile de rappeler cet article d'un lecteur du quotidien El Punt Avui (http://www.elpuntavui.cat/article/7-vista/23-lectorescriu/886387-terrorisme-destat.html) pour mettre en relief la politique de l'état espagnol à l'égard de la Catalogne.³

Terrorisme d'état

El Punt Avui  18/08/15 02h00 

Pere Manuel Giralt 

El Prat /Sant Just Desvern (Baix Llobregat 

«Terrorisme d'estat»

Il y a beaucoup de sortes de terrorisme, autant que l'impossibilité de pouvoir les compter et les imaginer en même temps. La Catalogne subit aussi un terrorisme dissimulé, inimaginable et effronté par un état qui se protégeant derrière le mot démocratie est en train de laminer petit à petit les libertés d'un peuple qui essaye seulement de sauvegarder ce qui lui revient historiquement. Nous sommes en train de vivre une dictature avalisée par une majorité qui, en interprétant de façon intéressée la grande charte qu'ils n'avaient même pas votée,⁴ essayent ce que l'Espagne n'a pas réussi même au bout de trois siècles : l'holocauste de l'étouffement d'un peuple moyennant des lois, des décrets et des jugements en vue d’éradiquer notre langue, notre culture et nos libertés. Le processus de transition nationale est légitime, nécessaire et bien intelligible.⁵ Régénération nationale pour sauvegarder celle sociale. Sauvegarder la langue, la culture et tout ce qui concerne les traditions. Pouvoir administrer ce qui nous appartient et accélérer la si malmenée économie catalane.

Commentaire, traduction et notes par Miquel-Àngel Sànchez i Fèrriz masferriz@masf.cat

MOTS-CLÉ : déchéance du président de Catalogne, légalité étatique contre légitimité démocratique, terrorisme d'état

1 Note du Traducteur : Loi modifiant la loi de la Cour constitutionnelle espagnole en vue de l'exécution de ses résolutions en tant que garantie de l'état de droit (sic).

2 NdT : Pour mémoire, il faut rappeler que le président de la Generalitat de Catalogne, M. Artur Mas, a déjà été mis en examen par la Cour supérieure de justice de Catalogne suite à la plainte criminelle présentée par le représentant en Catalogne du procureur du roi sous le chef qu'il aurait permis un processus de participation citoyenne en vue de connaître l'opinion des Catalans sur le futur politique de leur pays.

3 NdT : Quant au pays Basque espagnol il suffit de rappeler que Arnaldo Otegi reste emprisonné malgré l'arrêt contraire de la Cour européenne des droits humains.

4 NdT : Lors du référendum sur la Constitution espagnole de 1978, le parti Alianza Popular - précédent du PP actuel - avait fait campagne contre et en effet y avait voté contre.

5 NdT : Tout le monde a pu suivre à la télé les grandes manifestations qui ont réuni des centaines de milliers de personnes d'abord en appui du Statut de Catalogne, puis du droit à décider des Catalans enfin carrément de l'indépendance : 10 juillet 2010 (un million et demi de personnes manifestent à Barcelone contre l’arrêt de la Cour constitutionnelle sur le Statut d'autonomie), 11 septembre 2012 (deux millions de personnes manifestent à Barcelone pour le droit à décider), 11 septembre 2013 (une chaîne humaine unit le nord des Pyrénées et le nord du Pays valencien), 11 septembre 2014 (un grand V [de voie, victoire, volonté de voter...] rassemble à Barcelone un million et demi de personnes) et 11 septembre 2015 (de nouveau quelque deux millions de personnes manifestent à Barcelone pour l'indépendance).    

Multes als seguidors del Barça, del Joventut...

Fa anys que les autoritats reaccionen en esdeveniments esportius amb equips #catalans (i a fora dels estadis també). Les estelades, les pancartes i les xiulades han estat objecte de confiscacions i multes. Al final, més enllaços!
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wieland

Dear Herr Frankenberger (Frankfurter Allgemeine):

I have just read a translation of the article "Die Schwaben Spanien pokern hoch" published in  your newspaper by Leo Wieland, Katalonien: Die Schwaben Spaniens pokern hoch.

				Katalonien: Die Schwaben Spaniens pokern hoch Die nationale Souveränität könnte Katalonien Milliarden kosten, doch der Bruch mit Spanien scheint nach der Regionalwahl vom Wochenende programmiert. Wäre ei...
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I am deeply dismayed by the impression that the readers of your newspaper will have obtained after reading the contents of the article, which to me seems to have been written by the propaganda department of the Spanish government. The bias is total, all opinions are one-sided, the information is partial. The reference to the financial situation of the pension system makes me laugh. And the superficial treatment of the future position of Catalonia inside Europe ignores the enormous pressure on Spain to sit down and negotiate in good faith. This pressure comes, of course, mainly from the Spanish governbment's vast sovereign debt, very little if any of which is attributable to public overspending in Catalonia.

Those who are planning Catalonia's passage to a fully sovereign state which can take its own political decisions and invest in its own future have designed the transition to the last detail. Only a small proportion of Catalonia's trade with Spain is in the form of consumer products that might be subjected to a boycott in some Spanish nationalist circles. No Catalan wants Catalonia to be anything other than Spain's best neighbour. Many of the statements quoted in Herr Wieland's article formed part of the campaign of fear organised by Madrid. Not a single response is mentioned. Not a single reason is given to explain the reason for the extraordinary fact: virtually half the population wants to leave a country which is fully respected in international circles.

I honestly believe your readers deserve a balanced picture of the news in Catalonia.

I humbly apologize for not being able to write this letter in your language.

La dignité de la Catalogne

À la veille des élections qui se tiendront en Catalogne le prochain dimanche 27, il n'est pas sans intérêt de rappeler l'éditorial commun qui a été publié -rédigé par consensus- par les douze quotidiens catalans avec siège en Catalogne, sauf El País, aussi bien en catalan [1] qu'en castillan [2] il y aura bientôt six ans le 26 novembre 2009. L'éditorial mettait en lumière que le Statut d'Autonomie de Catalogne, approuvé par le Parlement de Catalogne en 2006, était le seul à avoir été attaqué par le Partido Popular (PP) qui en avait saisi la Cour constitutionnelle espagnole, où il était en suspens depuis plus de trois ans sans qu'aucun arrêt n'eût été prononcé à son égard...[3] De notre perspective actuelle, on dirait que la Cour constitutionnelle a pris cet éditorial comme une menace et en conséquence a prononcé l'arrêt qui s'est avéré le déclencheur du processus en cours. Affaire à suivre...

26/11/09 00:00 -  
ÉDITORIAL

Après quasiment trois ans de lente délibération et de manœuvres tactiques sans cesse qui ont malmené sa cohésion et ont érodé son prestige, la Cour constitutionnelle peut être sur le point d’émettre un arrêt sur le Statut de Catalogne, promulgué le 20 juillet 2006 par le chef de l’État, le roi Juan Carlos, dont voici l'avant-propos : « Sachez : que les Cortes Generales [4] ont approuvé, les citoyens de Catalogne ont ratifié en référendum et moi je viens sanctionner la loi fondamentale suivante ». Ce sera la première fois depuis la restauration démocratique de 1977 que la haute cour se prononce sur une loi fondamentale ratifiée par les électeurs. L’attente est élevée.

L’attente est élevée et l'inquiétude n'est pas faible devant l’évidence que la Cour constitutionnelle a été poussée par les événements à agir en tant que quatrième chambre, confrontée avec le Parlement de Catalogne, les Cortes Generales et la volonté citoyenne librement exprimée dans les urnes.

Rappelons-le, il s'agit d’une situation inédite en démocratie. Il y a, cependant, davantage de motifs de souci. Des douze magistrats que composent la cour, seuls dix pourront émette l'arrêt car un (Pablo Pérez Tremps) a été récusé suite à une trouble manœuvre clairement orientée à modifier les équilibres du débat, et un autre (Roberto García-Calvo) est mort. Des dix juges avec droit de vote, quatre restent en poste même si leur mandat est venu à échéance, suite au sordide désaccord entre le gouvernement central et l’opposition sur le renouvellement d’un organisme récemment défini par José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero comme le « cœur de la démocratie ». Un cœur avec les valves obturées, car seuls la moitié de ses membres sont aujourd’hui libres d'empêchements ou de reconduction. Voilà la cour de cassation qui se trouve sur le point de statuer sur le Statut de Catalogne. Par respect pour la cour –un respect sans doute supérieur à celui qu'elle s'est montré elle-même à plusieurs reprises– nous ne ferons plus d'allusion aux causes du retard dans l'arrêt.

La définition de la Catalogne en tant que nation dans le préambule du Statut, avec l'émanation résultante des « symboles nationaux » (par hasard la Constitution ne reconnaît-elle, dans son article 2, une Espagne composée de régions et de nationalités ?); le droit et le devoir de connaître la langue catalane ; l’articulation du Pouvoir judiciaire en Catalogne, et les relations entre l’État et la Generalitat [5], entre autres, voilà les points de friction les plus évidents du débat, d'après leurs versions respectives, puisqu'une partie significative de la Cour semble opter pour des positions irréductibles. Il en est des magistrats qui songent encore une fois à des chirurgies de fer coupant court ainsi à la complexité espagnole. Celle-ci pourrait se révéler, malheureusement, la pierre d'achoppement de l'arrêt. 

 

1 http://www.elpuntavui.cat/article/7-vista/8-articles/277640--la-dignitat-de-catalunya-.html

2 http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20091126/53831123016/la-dignidad-de-catalunya.html

3 L’arrêt (http://www.tribunalconstitucional.es/es/jurisprudencia/Paginas/Sentencia.aspx?cod=16119) est intervenu au bout de sept mois plus tard.

4 Les Cortes Generales sont l'assemblée nationale espagnole.

5 La Generalitat est l'institution de gouvernement autonome de la Catalogne.