Un vote inéluctable

Introduction de présentation
Quiconque aurait pu penser que les 2 348 350 personnes ayant voté en Catalogne le 9-N 2014 n'avait que des motivations économiques insolidaires pour exprimer leur vote lors de cette consultation citoyenne ferait bien de lire cet article publié le 13 mai à El Punt Avui par Toni Brosa. L’article montre l'attitude persécutrice de l'état espagnol, dans le style « Quieto todo el mundo ! », qui reflète ses tics toujours inquisitoriels vis-à-vis de la Catalogne. À ce sujet je veux bien penser qu'Albert Camus aurait évoqué encore une fois ce qu'il avait dit sur la résistance à l'oppression...

Un vote inéluctable 

El Punt Avui
13/05/17 02h00
Toni Brosa: «Un vot ineludible»(1)

Dans le plus pur style « Quieto todo el mundo ! »(2) l'état continue de répondre, à chaque mouvement du souverainisme, en lançant des plaintes et des jugements afin de relier le statu quo pactisé pendant la Transition avec les élites du franquisme.(3) Ils en disent légalité, état de droit ou démocratie, mais la réalité reste que le gouvernement catalan est poursuivi pour le fait d'acheter des urnes ou de tenir ses promesses électorales, que la présidente et le bureau du Parlement sont poursuivis pour avoir permis un débat et une mise au vote politiques, et que les membres du gouvernement précédent sont poursuivis pour avoir demandé l'opinion des citoyens... Mais il y a davantage de persécutions, de toutes les sortes : celle des missions officielles à l'étranger, aussi bien diplomatiques que commerciales ; celle des drapeaux étoilés dans l'espace public(4) ; celle des accords et des déclarations dans les séances plénières municipales ; celle des actions symboliques telles qu'ouvrir la mairie le 12 octobre(5) ; celle des discours métaphoriques sur des œufs et des omelettes(6) … et ainsi de suite ; l’immobilisme de l’état est frénétiquement multiplié afin d’immobiliser la société, bien sûr la catalane. Et c’est justement à cause de cela que la Catalogne a besoin de faire un référendum : pour briser cette dynamique de la répression, de la contrainte et de la menace en tant que formule de cohabitation ; pour ne pas avoir à se rendre auprès d’aucune cour pour défendre la légitimité des institutions catalanes. Et pour bien d’autres choses. Les Catalans ont besoin du référendum pour bâtir une démocratie authentique où l’opinion des citoyens ait un poids pour de bon ; pour pouvoir faire une constitution plus participative, plus croyable, et libre des hypothèques des militaires franquistes ou des pouvoirs de fait ; ou pour blinder la séparation des pouvoirs, le meilleur outil contre des despotes et des corrompus. La Catalogne a besoin du référendum pour récupérer une souveraineté jamais cédée ni négociée, mais arrachée par la force et enterrée sous un tas de lois, traditions et principes imposés ; elle en a besoin pour pouvoir choisir entre l’anachronisme des Bourbons et la République des gens ; et en a aussi besoin pour épargner à la langue, à la culture, aux entreprises, aux ports et aux aéroports, aux travailleurs indépendants ou pour compte d’autrui, aux usagers du train… bref, aux Catalans en général, les bâtons dans les roues et les attaques d’un état toujours étranger et d’une catalanophobie qu’il ne peut pas arrêter.

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

MOTS-CLÉ : catalanophobie étatique répressive, persécution judiciaire étatique, référendum en tant que résistance à l’oppression. 

(1) Note du Traducteur : http://www.elpuntavui.cat/opinio/article/8-articles/1140031-un-vot-ineludible.html

(2)  NdT : « Tout le monde se calme ! », avait dit Antonio Tejero, colonel de la Guardia Civil, en brandissant son pistolet lorsqu'il a monté sur la tribune du Congrès des députés espagnols réuni à Madrid.

(3) NdT : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_d%C3%A9mocratique_espagnole et https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transici%C3%B3_democr%C3%A0tica_espanyola. 

(4) NdT : Au moins un tiers des municipalités catalanes ont eté pursuivies par la Délégation du gouvernement espagnol en Catalogne pour l’exhbition du drapeau étoilé ( http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/mes-dun-terc-dels-municipis-catalans-ja-estan-amenacats-per-la-justicia-espanyola/ )

(5) NdT : férié, car jour de la fête nationale espagnole.

(6) NdT : le procureur de la Cour nationale centralisée à Madrid voulait à tout prix faire dire à Joan Coma, conseiller municipal de Vic conduit menotté à Madrid, qu'il avait prôné la violence car il avait dit que pour faire une omelette il faut casser les œufs.

Lawyers' manifesto upholding the right of the citizens of Catalonia to hold a referendum to decide the political future of Catalonia

Original text: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-d6U96ftQVaWDQyNTZ4dldQcEk/view

1. More than two thirds of the CITIZENS of Catalonia have for a long time been calling for a REFERENDUM to decide their future as a country. Likewise, a large majority of the REPRESENTATIVES of the people of Catalonia clearly defend this option and have put the issue repeatedly and in various ways, but always without success, to the institutions of the Spanish state. The undersigned, serving lawyers in various sectors, believe that the LAW, as an instrument of conflict resolution, has to FACILITATE THE RESOLUTION of this situation through a democratic procedure. The LAW is the precise instrument that has over history channeled the development of all societies, observing them and listening to them.

2. In a DEMOCRATIC LAWFUL STATE, such as Spain, it is the INTERNAL CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK that allows the citizens to propose substantial changes in the political and territorial organization, and that provides instruments to channel this democratic aspiration . This has been recognized in Canada and the United Kingdom, where Scotland and Quebec have held, within the respective constitutional frameworks, referenda on secession.

3. The Spanish Constitution recognizes the DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLE as a principle that structures the political and legal system, which allows limits to be imposed to the decision-making powers of the majority on dissident minority. The democratic principle makes it possible for the exercise of rights not to depend on majorities, as it is the way for minorities to be permanently protected; it thus provides a democratic opportunity to groups that for demographic reasons cannot become majority. The current constitutional system does not exclude from legality individuals or groups who have an idea of the law or of social or territorial organization that differs from or is contradictory to that of the Constitution.

4. Consequently, WE AFFIRM that inside the constitutional framework and thanks to the democratic principle, a right is recognized - which we call the "right to decide" - which grants its holders the authority to openly DISAGREE with the established constitutional order and  also with territorial unity, to PROPOSE ALTERNATIVES expressed through a democratic process - usually a referendum, in the countries in our part of the world- and to CARRY OUT the result obtained, through negotiations with representatives of the State.

5. The position of the undersigned, therefore, in this debate on the process, is to give full support to the holding of a referendum on the future of Catalonia as a political community. We - as well as others - hold that this referendum fits within the Spanish constitutional framework because, given that it is a lawful and democratic state, it provides sufficient instruments to channel this conflict. We also consider that a CONTINUOUS REFUSAL of the State would legitimize OTHER AVENUES for the citizens of Catalonia to sayd how they want to decide their future.

6. We declare that the holding of this referendum is not only LEGITIMATE, because it is called for by a vast majority of the citizens of Catalonia, but also LEGAL, because the RIGHT TO DECIDE of the citizens of Catalonia is based on the Spanish Constitution and on the weighting of its structural principles: the rule of law and democracy, alongside the unity and sovereignty of the Spanish people. For this reason, the referendum can also be LEGALLY DEMANDED of the State.

7. Finally, we believe that the LAW can never be a blocking mechanism for a society; on the contrary, it has to be the TOOL capable of coping with the concerns, the developments and transformations of the entire community, providing answers that can facilitate progress and peaceful coexistence.

Translation: M. Strubell

More info:

• https://twitter.com/JanneRiitakorpi/status/859526782046924802
• http://www.naciodigital.cat/noticia/129053/manifest/dels/juristes/favor/referendum/ja/supera/600/signants

BBC-1947

"The founding of the Anglo-Catalan Society in 1954 and, a year later, the constitution of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, with Gonzalez Llubera elected as its first president, underscored the broadness of this church. Indeed, an anecdote from the same early post-war period illustrates nicely the local antipathy to the familiar anti-democratic sentiments behind the dominant unificatory instinct in Hispanisrn elsewhere.

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Ruiz

"Yo lo llevaba fijo en mi mente el día 26 [de enero de 1939] cuando con las tropas de Juan Bautista me metía en el Tibidabo, en Pedralbes. No quería hacerme ilusiones. Están vencidos y soportarán, porque son gente despierta, su derrota y nuestro triunfo; pero...¿convencidos?...ah! eso ya es más difícil . Quizás imposible. Barcelona seguirá siendo el garbanzo negro de la olla nacional. Por lo menos durante un par de generaciones. Al enjuiciar así el problema catalán del presente y el porvenir, no era ciertamente de los más pesimistas. Yo he oído a más de una persona de claro juicio y temple sereno propugnar la conveniencia de un castigo bíblico (Sodoma, Gomorra) para purificar la ciudad roja, la sede del anarquismo y separatismo, y como único remedio para extirpar esos dos cánceres, señalar el termocauterio destructor implacable".

El Tebib Arrumi. Heraldo de Aragón. 4 de febrero de 1939.

Pseudònim de Victor Ruiz Albeniz, avi de Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, ex-ministre de Justícia (PP) i ex-alcalde de Madrid (PP)

Copiat de http://www.burbuja.info/inmobiliaria/nacionalismos/568452-alguien-sabria-explicar-cataluna-sera-independiente-9.html

Westminster

Westminster, April 20 2017

My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’ve been asked to explain what the present state of affairs is as regards the claim of a very large part of the Catalan people to the full sovereignty of their country.

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MIDAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING - English

SATURDAY, 22 APRIL 2017

Hotel AYRE Caspe, Casp 103

9.45 Presentation by Miquel Strubell, sociolinguist

http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/04/midas-general-assembly-meeting-english.html

Catalan version: http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/04/midas.html

Ladies and gentleman,

First of all, thanks to the organizers to make it possible for you to hear, those of you that want to, interventions made in the language that for a thousand years has characterized the Catalan people. It is a practical gesture of recognition of the value you associate to linguistic diversity and its conservation. As those of you that know me know, English is my mother tongue (I should say, “father tongue!") and it would not have been a problem for me to give this address in English. On behalf of the many people that defend these values, thanks again!

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MIDAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING - Catalan

SATURDAY, 22 APRIL 2017

Hotel AYRE Caspe, 
carrer de Casp 103

Barcelona
9.45 Presentation by Miquel Strubell, sociolinguist
http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/04/midas.html

English version: http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/04/midas-general-assembly-meeting-english.html

Senyores i senyors,

Primer de tot, gràcies als organitzadors de fer possible que sentiu, els que vulgueu, intervencions fetes en la llengua que des de fa mil anys ha caracteritzat el poble català. És un gest de reconeixement pràctic del valor que associeu a la diversitat lingüística i a la seva conservació. Com els que em coneixeu sabeu prou bé, l’anglès és la meva llengua materna (hauria de dir, paterna”!) i no m’hauria presentat cap problema adreçar-vos aquestes paraules en anglès. En nom dels molts que defensem aquests valors, gràcies de nou!

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"Carn Crua", text de Jaume Sastre de 1990

Font: S’Arenal de Mallorca, número 186, 1 de gener de 1990, pp. 3-6

http://ibdigital.uib.cat/greenstone/collect/premsaForanaMallorca/index/assoc/Arenal_d/e_Mallor/ca_1990_.dir/Arenal_de_Mallorca_1990_mes01_n0186.pdf

Els forasters estan mal acostumats. Avesats a tallar i a cosir, a manar i a imposar els seus criteris als indígenes, sempre s'han comportat com si fossin els amos de les ametles i dels ametlerars. Llegim a La Roqueta l'any 1887: "una cateyfa de forastés, des qui mos tractan de gent per conquistà, y a sa nostra roqueta la ténen per un corral de bous" (1). Ara, però, quan comproven que els negrets recuperen el sentit de la dignitat, l'autoestima i l'esperit de col·lectivitat, se desfan amb grans escarafalls, s'esqueixen els colls de la camisa i gisquen com una porcelleta tendra a qui han trepitjat la coa. La proposició no de llei aprovada dia 13 de desembre de 1989 pel Parlament de Catalunya i signada pels partits polítics CiU, CDS, IC i ERC, ha fet esclatar un talabastaix aborronador com poques vegades hem vist i que, és de preveure, a partir d'ara s'anirà repetint i accentuant. L'esmentada proposició deia el següent:

The current limitations of machine translators can be visualised in this text...

The current limitations of machine translators can be visualised in this text, which Esther Vives Oriol, "Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Antropología, Graduate Student" has uploaded onto the www.academia.edu data base.

Unfortunately the - presumably highly documented - Bibliographic references section is missing at the end of the text (maybe because it did not have to be translated?!).

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Constitucional pregunta al Consell d’Europa sobre la validesa d’incidents d’execució a Catalunya

L'enllaç ja no funciona.
http://www.segre.com/detall-de-la-noticia/article/constitucional-pregunta-al-consell-deuropa-sobre-la-validesa-dincidents-dexecucio-a-catalu/

És el màxim òrgan de defensa dels drets humans en el vell continent i d’ell depèn el Tribunal de Drets Humans d’Estrasburg

Critical analysis of amendments to Spain’s Constitutional Court: Venice Commission

Full opinion to be made available on Monday 13 March

Press communiqué
11/3/2017

"In an opinion that has been adopted on Friday, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission concludes that Spain should improve certain amendments to the Organic Law on its Constitutional Court, which attribute to the Court the task to execute its own judgments, although it also notes that these amendments do not contradict European standards. The new powers attributed to the Court include the suspension of officials refusing to implement judgments.

The Venice Commission adopted its opinion on the Act of 16 October 2015 amending the Organic Law no. 2/1979 on the Constitutional Court of Spain at its 110th plenary session held in Venice from 10 to 11 March. The opinion was issued upon request by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly Monitoring Committee.

As a starting point, the Venice Commission recalled that judgments of Constitutional Courts have a final and binding character and that they have to be respected by all public bodies and individuals. Disregarding such a judgment is equivalent to disregarding the Constitution and the Constituent Power. When a public official refuses to execute a judgment of the Constitutional Court, he or she violates the principles the rule of law, the separation of powers and loyal cooperation of state organs. Measures to enforce these judgments are therefore legitimate. The opinion examines to which extent the amendments are an appropriate means to achieve this legitimate objective.

On the basis of a comparative overview, the Commission finds that the responsibility for the Constitutional Court to contribute to the execution of its own decisions is the exception and this task is usually attributed to other state powers.  Attributing the overall and direct responsibility for the execution of the Constitutional Court’s decision to the Court itself should be reconsidered in order to promote the perception of the Court as a neutral arbiter, as judge of the laws. For all measures of execution, the Court should not act on its own motion but only upon request by the parties.

While some of the measures examined do not raise problems (e.g. requesting the national government to ensure the execution or requesting the prosecution of the offender in the ordinary courts), questions may be raised with respect to heavy repetitive, coercive penalty payments applied to individuals and the suspension from office of officials. The Venice Commission is concerned that the Constitutional Court would have to take measures of execution in a situation where it is already facing a refusal to execute its judgments. A refusal to follow also the execution measures could challenge the authority of the Constitutional Court and, in turn, that of the Constitution itself.

In such a case, other state bodies should step in, in order to defend the Constitution and the Constitutional Court. The attribution of the power of execution of its decisions to the Constitutional Court may seem as an increase of power at first sight. However, the division of competences of adjudicating on the one hand, and of executing its results, strengthens the system of checks and balances as a whole, and in the end, also the independence of the Constitutional Court.

While the Venice Commission does not recommend attributing such powers to the Constitutional Court, it concludes that in the light of the absence of common European standards in this field, the introduction of such powers does not contradict such standards."

Source: http://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/critical-analysis-of-amendments-to-spain-s-constitutional-court-venice-commission
and
VilaWeb,  March 11, 2017
http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/la-comissio-venecia-del-consell-deuropa-reclama-a-espanya-que-reconsideri-les-mesures-excepcionals-que-ha-atribuit-al-constitucional/

Spain's case (September 2016): https://t.co/xgkvwKrFol

Amendments to draft Opinion (10 March 2017):

Source: Vilaweb (13/3/2017) http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/exclusiva-el-document-que-demostra-les-pressions-de-lestat-espanyol-per-rebaixar-les-critiques-de-la-comissio-venecia/

See also http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/03/venice.html. From the wording of the text, it does not seem to refer to the request by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly Monitoring Committee, though the timing overlaps completely.

See also Catalan Ombudsman's testimony in Catalan Parliament:  http://www.directe.cat/noticia/614560/video-l-encarregat-de-redactar-l-informe-de-la-comissio-de-venecia-mai-havia-rebut-tantes-

REPORT

Report on the political situation and the violation of fundamental rights in Catalonia
http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/p/report2017.html

Informe sobre la situació política i la vulneració de drets fonamentals a Catalunya

http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/p/informe2017.html

Forcadell On Trial

Catalan News Monitor, December 12, 2016.
http://catalanmonitor.com/2016/12/12/forcadell-on-trial/

On December 6th fifteen Members of the UK Parliament put to the House of Commons an early day motion deploring the way Spain is treating the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, the Rt. Hon. Carme Forcadell. In October 2016 the public prosecutor was advised by the Constitutional Court "to take the necessary criminal action, as they see fit", on grounds of contempt of court, for defying its ban on the outcome of an ad hoc committee being debated by the House. The chief prosecutor, Consuelo Madrigal, was looking forward to this: she had already stated in September that she was ready to prosecute Forcadell.

The history of Spain, from the earliest ages of which we have any authentic records, to the return of Ferdinand VII in 1814.

By Frances Thurtle (1890)
https://books.google.es/books?id=-GAUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA349&lpg=PA349&dq=duke+of+popoli&source=bl&ots=GkOfN-y7Rg&sig=97EGwqVT_CQ1MigHrhXVyCongoc&hl=ca&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiX7tWm7pbPAhWC1xQKHdxIB0MQ6AEIUzAI#v=onepage&q=Catalans&f=false 

Book 5, p. 355
The emperor, who had rejected these overtures for a general peace; and Philip, who had refused to sign the treaty from the absurd wish of erecting a principality for the princess Ursino, were, at length, willing to contribute to a general pacification, and of the 6th of March, A.D. 1714, the former consented to sign the Treaty of Rastadt, and the latter, much about the same time, agreed to ratify the articles of the treaty of Utrecht.

References to the Catalans in "The History of England. Volume 4". By Rev. N. Tindal. 1745

https://books.google.es/books?id=jX9cAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA380&lpg=PA380&dq=That+the+General+Amnesty+relating+intirely&source=bl&ots=9jBVitgCHB&sig=QS8knAj0eHux-E0vLjrM13tfbuY&hl=ca&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3wrXAjYfPAhVIxRQKHRDvDB0Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=That%20the%20General%20Amnesty%20relating%20intirely&f=false

p. 380

...are likewise ordered to use their endeavours to induce the Catalans to join with them in their undertakings; and, to animate that people to prosecute their liberty with more vigour, they are impowered to assure them of the Queen's support, and to promise them, in the Queen's name, that she will ….

Report to the Committee of Secrecy Papers concerning the Catalans. R. Walpole

A REPORT,

from the Committee of Secrecy,

Appointed by Order of the House of Commons

to examine Several Books and Papers laid before the House, relating to the late Negotiations of Peace and Commerce, & c.

Reported on the Ninth of June, 1715

By the RIGHT HONOURABLE

ROBERT WALPOLE, Esq.;

CHAIRMAN of the Said COMMITTEE

"Catalanofòbia a la comissaria de la policia a Vic: ‘Estàs obligada a parlar en espanyol!’

"Catalanofòbia a la comissaria de la policia a Vic: ‘Estàs obligada a parlar en espanyol!’

"Montserrat Puig Cotado denuncia a VilaWeb el mal tracte rebut a la comissaria de la policia espanyola quan ha anat a renovar-se el passaport"

"LO 4/2015
Artículo 37. Infracciones leves.
Son infracciones leves...
4. Las faltas de respeto y consideración cuyo destinatario sea un miembro de las Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad en el ejercicio de sus funciones de protección de la seguridad, cuando estas conductas no sean constitutivas de infracción penal."

https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2015-3442

Resulta, doncs, que si et negues a obeir un policia quan es nega a reconèixer un dret fonamental recollit a l'article 3.2 de la CE, perquè li surt dels pebrots, et poden denunciar? Oi més quan aquell policia no està "protegint la seguretat" sinó atenent el públic que sol·licita un simple passaport! A quants ciutadans obliga aquest funcionari, cada dia, a renunciar als seus drets?

Oi més quan la llei empara el ciutadà en l'ús de totes les llengües, allà on són oficials. Si no, que vol dir "oficial"?

Tal com s'explica a l'article, això és un nou exemple de pura vexació, humiliació, xuleria, abús de poder. Un motiu més per considerar-nos separats.

http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/catalanofobia-a-la-comissaria-de-la-policia-a-vic-estas-obligada-a-parlar-en-espanyol/

Discurs de Narcís Roca i Farreras

La Vanguardia. Edición del lunes, 26 julio 1886, página 4

http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1886/07/26/pagina-4/34706525/pdf.html?search=roca

Crónica

   Una hora antes de la anunciada para dar comienzo, en el teatro de Novedades, al anunciado meeting, se veían todas las localidades y galerías del teatro llenas por completo por el público, entre el que dominaba el elemento obrero.

   Los señores Arús, Carbó, Guimerà, Giró, Llopis y Ruiz, que se presentaron en el escenario a las diez y cuarto, ocuparon la mesa presidencial. 

   El señor Arús dió comienzo al acto explicando la causa que había motivado la convocatorio, diciendo además, que confiaba en que los allí reunidos aplaudirían la conducta obsrvada por el "Centre Català", que opinaba que los diputados y senadores catalanes, no habían cumplido con su deber no retirándose de la Cámara.

    Usaron luego de la palabra los señores Guasch, jefe de los federales de Reus, el señor Roca y Galés, el señor Blanch, que leyó una carta del señor Fiter en la cual éste excusaba su alta de asistencia, y el señor director de Las Circunstancias de Reus.

   Después, el señor Blanch procedió á la lectura de un trabajo del señor Narciso Roca, quien por falta de salud y de voz, se vé imposibilitado de verificarlo. Dicho escrito resalta por sus ideas separatistas. Dice que solo dentro de la autonomía regional puede haber derechos y libertad. Pide libertad y trabajo porque pobres y esclavos no puede ser. Considera como salvadora para España la política regional, contra la autoridad tiránica del Estado; que si Gibraltar es de los ingleses, Cataluña sea de los catalanes.

   Al llegar aquí, los bravos y palmadas sofocan la voz del lector y del presidente. Se inicia una discusión en una parte del público, originándose un tumulto y confusión indescriptibles, subiendo de punto al levantarse el delegado del Gobernador civil á conferenciar con el presidente, señor Arús. Muchos concurrentes se ponen de pié, algunos toman la puerta; varios señores del escenario tratan de dominar el tumulto, resultando inútiles los exfuerzos en este sentido.  

   Por último, el señor delegado consiente en que continúe la lectura final del discurso y renace la calma....

  

Altres dies:

1 d'agost de 1886, p. 10:
http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1881/06/10/pagina-10/34669587/pdf.html?search=separatismo
Nosotros que antes que catalanes somos españoles, no podemos sin verdade- ro disgusto, oir los descabellados planes de esos regeneradores que de seguro no se han tomado el trabajo de meditar hasta dónde podría conducirnos ese torpe separatismo tan decantado...

3 d'agost de 1886, p. 6:
http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1881/06/10/pagina-6/34669607/pdf.html?search=separatismo
... Porque de otro modo no se explica que el Correo Catalán se disguste porque se desentierren cuentos viejos, cuando nuestro hermano en Cristo solo encuentra buenas las antiguallas. Las inconveniencias de esos cuatro soñadores que quieren llevarnos á un separatismo estúpido...
 
19 de setembre de 1886, p. 8:


http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1881/06/10/pagina-8/34686839/pdf.html?search=separatismo
... el apoyo de los demás, van á dividirse pronto, ya que la procesión anda por dentro. Se quedarán sin el santo y sin la limosna. Con razón exclama La Publicidad:«—¿Qué es el separatismo? —Una verdadera olla de grillos.


12 de novembre de 1886, p. 7 
http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1881/06/10/pagina-7/34706546/pdf.html?search=separatismo
Estos tales, que odian a España por carácter y temperamento, son los que nos traen todas las cuestiones con las demás provincias. ¡Qué español puede impasible oir decir á un pelagatos, abrogándose la representación de la región más poblada y trabajadora de España, que es preciso conservar buenas relaciones diplomáticas con los españoles y con los franceses!...
 
5 de desembre de 1886, p. 4:
http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1881/06/10/pagina-4/34674763/pdf.html?search=separatismo 
...para comprender que el separatismo sería la ruina de las regiones, por- que no es lo mismo pedir descentralización y moralidad administrativa que las gollerías que piden los irlandeses del «Centre». Y continúa diciendo: «Nuestro regionalismo catalanista no obedece...

The (painful) birth of a nation

The Catalans' independence process is in an anguishing quandary. The ruling proindy coalition has its road map, but since the crisis caused by the decision of the radical proindy coalition CUP (perhaps unwittingly: not all factions are versed in parliamentary procedures) to block the budget bill, it is nuclear whether the road map is still valid.

In September president Carles Puigdemont will put a motion of confidence to the chamber to see whether the proindy camp still consists of the 72/135 outright majority it won at the 27 September election, which just failed in its attempt to show the world that over half of the electorate regarded it as a plebiscite and opted for independence.

The CUP will have to do some hard thinking before then. It needs to realise that most of the voters of its ten MPs (up from their previous three) feel disgusted by their behaviour since the elections. They were enthusiastically voted in by voters who were and are proindy (yet neither Marxists nor Anarchists) to ensure the independence process would not be stalled or dragged out by the more moderate coalition now in power. That dream began to crumble when the seemingly endless talks to reach a stable post-27S parliamentary agreement only came to fruition at the last minute thanks to the decision of president Mas to step aside. And the fream was finally shattered when the CUP voted alongside the Unionist (or Federalist) opposition to oust the 2016 budget bill (and in the process drastically cutting any hope of being able to draw on new resources to increase social spending).

Should the CUP not support the president in September, it would probably have to face a new election at which it could well be wiped off the parliamentary map. Can it put its ideological considerations to one side, at least until Catalonia has become an independent state? Like others have admitted having to do at recent elections, it will need to block its nose with a clothes peg. 

In the meantime there is a passionate grasdroots debate on the whys and wherefores of the steps to be made up to independence: the road map. Given the utter and complete refusal of the main Spanish parties to regard the Catalans as a people, and therefore to contemplate their right of self-determination, the next steps will have to be unilateral. Every single step up to now has been challenged by central government. Even a poll organised (9 November 2014) in the framework of a Catalan law which specifically excludes referendums, and could therefore not be binding (and which the Constitutional Court rushed to rule contrary to the Constitution!), had to be held without access to the electoral roll (which was refused) and has led to four Catalan politicians being taken to court! 

So it is clear that a (binding) referendum cannot be called until after Catalonia becomes independent. It is also clear that Spain will not allow this step, so an institutional collision is inevitable and massive (guided) disobedience essential for this aim to be achieved. 

This means that a formal parliamentary declaration of independence is the only viable option.

At this time there is frenzied activity in delegations of the Catalan national assembly  across the country. Are members to ratify the secretariat's proposal that the ANC should push for a change in the Government's road map, given the fragility of the relationship between the three pareties seeking independence.

Scathing criticisms of the way the Partido Popular has tried to manage the Catalaan "problem" over the past ten or fifteen years (such as this one, in a non-Catalan newspaper) help explain its decline in electoral support in Catalonia.

A referendum campaign would lead us into the repetition of a bunch of fearmongering claims (similar to those that Scotland went through), and dire threats (punishing civil servants for using the census; or recentralisation, for instance), though some are bubbles that have already been burst: that Catalans would "automatically" lose their EU citizenship, that Catalans would lose their pensions, that there would be a massive GDP collapse because of a Spanish boycott of Catalan products... 

The international front is crucial for the success of the Catalan enterprise, in terms not so much of actual (explicit or implicit) support for the process as such, but rather of the endorsement of the declaration (or proclamation, which the White Paper states will occur separately) of independence and, therefore, of the recognition of Catalonia as a sovereign State like Slovakia, Latvia or  Montenegro. This is why the extremely poor status of Spain in Europe (as poignantly highlighted in articles by Molina - in English - and Mangas, for instance) is such a significant factor right now. 


Further reading:

"After bottoming out: a new European policy for Spain". Ignacio Molina. ARI 8/2013 (Translated from Spanish) - 29/4/2013.

http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/spanishforeignpolicy/ari8-2013-molina-politica-europea-spain

"España en la UE: luces y sombras". Araceli Mangas Martín. El País, 8 June 2015. http://www.elmundo.es/opinion/2015/06/08/5574714922601dc7448b4575.html

"Los catalanes hacen cosas" y otras históricas ocurrencias del PP de Rajoy. Luz Sanchis / Fátima Caballero. El Diario, 29 August 2015. http://www.eldiario.es/politica/esquizofrenia-PP-Cataluna_0_424858072.html