What Catalans Want

Introduction What Catalans Want What Catalans Want is a book that takes a concerned look at Catalonia at a time when – although many people are not yet fully conscious of the fact – the country’s political future as a Spanish autonomous region is for the first time being questioned since it came into being in 1980. It does so by talking to some of the country’s most representative personalities in various areas of public life and also to a small What Catalans Want but select group of foreigners living in Catalonia. The book’s aim is not so much to conduct a poll as Next new state in europe to discover what fuels the issues involved by asking what it is that is making many inhabitants of this small western European country feel as uncomfortable about forming part of Spain as they are comfortable about being in the European Union. A wide cross-section of Catalan men and women have thus been asked just what it is that is causing unrest and why things have come to a head so rapidly. Could the Catalan question be welling up into a political issue of the same order as Scotland’s or Flanders’? Toni Strubell Mercifully, there appears to be no danger that it will generate any form of violence. But one wonders whether democratic Europe can afford to overlook what is going on in Catalonia as it has done with conflicts affecting other areas of the continent. The people interviewed in this book have been picked for the interest what they have to say will doubtless have readers. They include the President of Catalonia, Sr. José Montilla, ex-President Jordi Pujol, Sr. Joan Laporta (ex-President of FC Barcelona) and Dr. Moisès Broggi (the 102-year-old surgeon who worked with the International Brigades in 1937). Are interviewed are leading businessmen, experts in several different fields and academics working in Catalan, European and American universities. The issues they were asked about embrace, amongst others, the recent “disaffection” that president Montilla has admitted many Catalans feel with regard to Spain and questions concerning the language, the economy, business, religion, sport, immigration, culture, transport, bullfighting, the historical memory, new technologies, infrastructures and the mass media. Although it is often hard for journalists and international observers to put their finger on those points on the globe where apparently innocuous events may one day become newsworthy, there is good reason to believe that Catalonia could be a sound bet. This may come as a surprise to those who see the country photographer Lluís Brunet What Catalans Want 2 as peace-loving, pro-European and relatively prosperous – which, of course, it is – and who tend to limit Catalonia’s rights. The reaction of the Madrid press to the editorial was simply hysterical. In associate developments of this nature with ex-Communist or Third World countries. However, no-one addition, in the period 2006-2010, three massive demonstrations were held in the Catalan capital in following the media closely over the last three or four years can fail to have noticed clear signs that favour of the country’s “right to decide”.3 To top all this, on 8 June 2010, the Catalan Parliament resolved something jars in the relationship between Catalonia and Spain. Although it may cause worry - even to set up the process whereby a privately presented Popular Legislative Initiative would be debated to dismay - to many who feel this kind of dispute is something Europe should have left behind, there is a consider holding a nationwide referendum on Catalan independence in the foreseeable future. Who could very real sense among Catalans of all conditions that the arrangements made to acknowledge Catalan have imagined such a development just a short while back? rights after Franco’s death have not been respected by Constitutional Spain. One may ask why all this turmoil is occurring just now. One of the major reasons is undoubtedly the Indeed, in the new Millennium there have been signs that this corner of the western Mediterranean could opposition shown by a significant portion of Spanish officialdom to Catalonia’s new Statute of Autonomy. be beginning to question its status as an “autonomous region” of Spain. Indeed, some recent events in In 2006 the Catalan Parliament exerted its right to renew the Statute that had originally been introduced this respect have made international headlines. Admittedly, European and American tourists pouring in 1979 - four years after Franco’s death - with a view to updating it and introducing new rights for the into lusty “Loret de Ma”, cosmopolitan Barcelona or sunny “Star Tit”1 will have almost certainly remained home-rule of the Catalan people. The new Statute was approved by almost 90% of the members of the oblivious to all of these developments, even as they were happening. But weren’t visitors to Olympic Catalan Parliament. It granted the Catalan government new powers aimed at normalising the Catalan Sarajevo completely unaware that something was afoot there in 1984? The following are just a few of language4 and restoring legal and financial instruments that it had controlled in the past. It also defined the events that have occurred in Catalonia of late. Since September 2009, almost half of Catalonia’s the country as a “Nation,” in line with its historical tradition. Despite some pruning and the consequent cities, towns and villages have held unofficial polls to ask citizens if they want their country to become loss of some Catalan support for the text – one ex-vice president of Spain had spoken of the need to a new, independent State within the European Union. Well over 90% of those voting said they did. “plane the text down beyond recognition” – the Statute was then passed by the Spanish Parliament, thus Parallel to that, a significant number of intellectuals, hitherto uncommitted to Catalan nationalism have becoming a State Law. However, appeals were lodged against it before the Constitutional Court, and made a point of demonstrating their support for those polls. The highly respected federalist notary Juan that led to a situation in which, although already in force, the new Catalan Statute was being challenged José López-Burniol, a long-time contributor to El País and La Vanguardia newspapers, stated in January on various fronts on the grounds of alleged unconstitutionality. 2010 that the relations between Catalonia and Spain had gone “beyond the point of no return.” Even the well-known pro-Socialist journalist, Josep Ramoneda, publically admitted that, if given the chance, he The parties involved in making those allegations ranged from the Conservative Partido Popular to the would vote in favour of independence. Ex-President Pujol, too, has shown his support for the campaign, State Ombudsman and some of the other autonomous communities, which are clearly reluctant to allow as have the country’s major trades unions and literally thousands of popular clubs and associations, Catalan self-government to grow. Parallel to this, a wave of fiercely anti-Catalan hostility became apparent including Pakistani residents’ associations and Andalusian Flamenco clubs. in many of the Spanish media, and a boycott was organised against the sale of Catalan products. Meanwhile, the Partido Popular took to the streets and collected over four million signatures against The international press gave front page coverage to the polls held in September and December 2009. what it termed the “split up” of Spain being caused by the Catalans. Even the Conference of Spanish Parallel to this, under the explicit title of “The dignity of Catalonia,” on 26 November that year, twelve Bishops took sides in the issue, drawing up a document that specifically blessed “Spanish unity,” a step Catalan newspapers2 published a joint editorial denouncing the possibility that Spain’s High Court might that many Catalans regard as tantamount to condemning in the name of God current Catalan demands for greater home-rule. 1 Lloret de Mar and l’Estartit – two of English tourists’ favourite locations on the Costa Brava. 3 18.2.2006, 1.12.2007 and 12.6.2010. Ex-Presidents Jordi Pujol (1980-2003) and Pasqual Maragall (2003-2006) took part in the 2007 rally. 2 El Periódico, La Vanguardia, Avui, El Punt, Segre, La Mañana, Diari de Tarragona, Diari de Girona, Regió 7, El Nou 9, Diari de Terrassa i Diari de Sabadell. 4 By giving it the same status as Spanish in the territories it is co-official. 3 Toni Strubell What Catalans Want 4 To make matters worse, the Constitutional Court that was to decide over the legitimacy of the text Another factor that upsets many Catalans is the inability – or is it distaste? – that Spain has shown for degenerated into a battleground between “progressive” and “conservative” judges, with the result that, healing old wounds from the Civil War. Surprising though it may seem, the death penalties carried out four whole years after it began its deliberations, no sentence had yet been passed. Besides that, what against the Catalan President Lluís Companys i Jover, and tens of thousands of other Republicans, have discerning Catalans perceived as the arbitrary disqualification of some of the Court’s less anti-Catalan not been legally annulled, even though, in 2004, the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero had promised they members coincided with the grossly extended terms conceded to some of their opponents, whose terms would be. Although few Catalans still seek the legal prosecution of Franco’s crimes, the fact that Spanish of office had expired. All this added up to a situation of heightened tension, in which mistrust and the High Court judge Baltasar Garzón should have been suspended from office for suggesting that the discredit of the Spanish High Court, as seen from Catalonia, rivalled in intensity with the support that question be raised is particularly offensive to those who demand higher democratic standards than present- a rumoured harsh sentence against the Statute was receiving from the mainstream media in Madrid.

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