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CIDOB • Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. September 2012 ------

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The Barcelona Centre for International Brief Affairs for Centre Barcelona The focus

t is said that the late Don Juan, Count of Barcelona and father of King Juan as (so crown the abdicated he day the advice of piece a son his gave I, Carlos Franco): by reinstated Monarchy Spanish the on legitimacy dynastic confer to

political actors involved. And apart from their engrained tendency to shy away from difficult and contentious matters, there is nothing waters. than unchartered politicians more that unsettles Spanish Although Catalan grievances against the Spanish state are a well-known political well-known a are state Spanish the against grievances Catalan Although fact (at least since political Catalanism became the expression century), 20th of early the in Catalonia long-standing in discontent political and economic cultural, both including everyone, to surprise a as came demonstration the of size huge the ignited demonstration the case, any In governments. Spanish the and Catalan the the all for territory unknown is purposes, practical for which, process a of fuse the dent, Mr. Artur Mas, who waited until the aftermath of the historical event to tell dent, Mr. in the an country, institutional address from the government palace, that he had and multiple used since has He own. his was it and people, the of voice the heard creative expressions to define what that voice said/meant the --full sovereignty, right to decide, national plenitude, state structures- and to embrace the cause of avoiding the powerful word. independence while carefully for the cause of independence since at least 2009, holding informal polls in most for a had been preparing Catalonia. These groups towns and villages throughout and in the light of big demonstration for months, and only as D-day approached, the momentum it was gathering, did the mainstream media (national radio TV, newspapers) stations, decided pro-government to fully back it. Most ministers of –the Catalonia of Government the (families with small children, senior citizens, young people) arrived, a substantial a arrived, people) young citizens, senior children, small with (families number of them in rented coaches, from all over Catalonia. They marched carry ing flags and shouting “ nia, the next state in Europe”. Never before had the case for an Catalan in if independ as celebrating, chanting, mood, party-like a in people many so rallied ence Barcelo in ever demonstration largest the perhaps was It parade. American-style mobilising been have -which groups grass-root and civic by convened initially na, make sure the Catalans feel comfortable, because you cannot run Spain without among the many thingsthirty-five the cri years current later, the Catalans. Now, of the Catalans ranks high on the list. sis is erasing in Spain, the comfort level On September 11 (Catalonia’s National Day), a massive pro-independence rally collapsed central Barcelona for many hours. Citizens of all ages and conditions Francesc Badia and Oleguer Sarsanedas Francesc I Spain’s territorial tensions: tensions: territorial Spain’s A turning point? in 2012 03 OCTOBER CIDOB • Barcelona Centre Affairs. forSeptember 2012 International Since September 11, 2012, the unfolding of the Catalan/Spanish drama has be- come a recurring front-page feature in the news (regional, national and interna- tional). More importantly, it has radically shaken the political landscape in Spain --and, especially, in Catalonia—in a number of ways.

First, the Catalan government --led by Convergència i Unió (CiU), a coalition of two nationalist parties which had never before publicly shown any breakaway tendencies-- is maneuvering to position itself at the forefront of the popular move- ment that has burst onto the political scene. Artur Mas has called for early elec- tions on 25 November, hoping to cash in with an increased parliamentary majority for the stand it has taken demanding “state structures” for Catalonia (CiU now holds a relative majority in parliament, where its minority government has sur- vived mainly thanks to Popular Party (PP) propping). After takin g notice of a straight denial in Madrid to his flagship project –a renewed fiscal system similar to the one the Basque Country and Navarre are enjoying– the call for early elec- tions was seen inevitable. To his critics, this is all just a sovereigntist veil to con- veniently pull over President Mas’s contested record in government since 2010 (under increasingly difficult financial circumstances, CiU has been taking heavy austerity measures that, as elsewhere, have been challenged through protests in the streets by those directly affected, and saw the streets of Barcelona repeatedly taken by angry protesters, a minority of which went extremely violent during a general strike that took place earlier this year, smashing shop windows and burn- ing up to 300 waste containers in the city center).

The impact of the September 11 rally, logically, has also shaken the rest of the Catalan political spectrum. Parties to the left of CiU are positioning themselves in favour of a popular vote on self-determination –with the exception of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), which advocates a hazy “federalist” solution that the Span- ish Socialist Party (PSOE), its counterpart in Madrid, does not entirely share. To the right of CiU, the PP is positioning itself as a bulwark against “separatism”. It should be noted that before its dissolution prior to the November elections, the Catalan Parliament passed a resolution (with a two-thirds majority and the ab- stention of the Socialists) requesting that the next government call for a popular vote on Catalan statehood.

Predictably, the September 11 rally in Barcelona has prompted bad-tempered and extremely defensive reactions on the part of the Spanish government, which bran- dishes the Constitution as proof of the unlawfulness of the Catalan initiative. Some months ago, the Financial Times expressed suspicion of the PP government’s at- tempt to shift the blame for the Spanish deficit onto the supposedly spendthrift regional governments, while omitting the fact that regional governments are re- sponsible for public services such as education and health, which take up most of the public expenditure, and that their financing –with the exception of the Basque Country and Navarre-- depends on the Spanish government. The PP administra- tion is heir to the Spanish Right’s French-style centralized and unitary conception of the nation-state. It therefore “intensely dislikes” (as the Financial Times puts it) the present State-of-the-Autonomies territorial model defined in the 1978 Consti- tution. Comments on the “Catalan question” by government and party officials, and by numerous unofficial agencies and opinion-makers in the media (some of them arguing for re-centralization of essential services, a few openly calling for the suppression –manu militari, if need be-- of self-government), with their unmis- takable Ancien Régime flavor, have the effect of firing up pro-independence spirit even further.

The fact is that Spanish President Mariano Rajoy is receiving messages, both from Brussels and from the Catalan/Spanish business community, to the effect that a no-nonsense, rational, ideology-free settlement of the situation would be appreci- ated, sooner rather than later. These messages go on to suggest that such a set-

2 in focus CIDOB 03 . OCTOBER 2012 CIDOB • Barcelona Centre Affairs. forSeptember 2012 International tlement should seriously address the present political and fiscal realities, that it would be a serious mistake to jeopardize further one of Spain’s main contributors to economic growth, and that a solution should be found, once and for all, for the Spanish territorial structure –which, quite obviously, is not working--, even if this means amending the current Constitution.

The Constitution establishes a territorial organization, based on devolution, and known in Spain as the “State of the Autonomies”. Autonomous Communities (which are the highest level administrative division in the country) were to be formed by adjacent provinces with common historical, cultural, and economic traits. The basic institutional law of each Autonomous Community -there are 17 of them, based on a confusing mixture of traditional regional and former provin- cial distribution, out of which 6 are former provinces like Madrid, Murcia or la Rioja, plus 2 autonomous cities (Ceuta and Melilla)- is known as a “Statute of Autonomy”. Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, which rightly identified themselves as “historic nationalities”, were granted self-government through an accelerated process. Andalusia went through its own complex process –calling for a referendum in its 8 provinces-, while the rest of the regions followed a second track procedure as stipulated in the Constitution, in a “coffee-for-everyone” spree (the expression was coined, at the time, by opponents of this equalization).

The Spanish Autonomous Communities have wide legislative and executive au- tonomy, their own parliaments and governments. The distribution of powers, as laid out in their Statutes of Autonomy, is different for each community, as devolu- tion was originally intended to be asymmetrical. More powers devolved to the “historic” nationalities (the three that have their own language and had enjoyed an autonomous status prior to the Franco dictatorship –the Basque Country, Cata- lonia, and Galicia—, plus Andalusia –whose autonomist movement had been gathering strength in the last years of the Francoist regime) than to the rest of the communities. However, subsequent amendments to existing Statutes of Autono- my and the promulgation of entirely new Statutes altogether, have reduced the asymmetry between the powers originally granted to the “historic nationalities” and the rest of the regions. Except for the Basques and the Navarrese, the Autono- mous Communities bear the burden of expenditure in basic social services, but they do not control income.

The recurrent problems related to the financing of the Autonomous Communities lead some analysts to say that, useful as it may have been in the past, this is now a failed model, and that it is up to the politicians to amend the Constitution. It would only require political will –admittedly, a rare commodity in Spain today-- to accommodate a social/territorial reality that requires a better instrument. Oth- ers --like the FAES Foundation, a think-tank led by former conservative president José María Aznar--, would change it too, but in exactly the opposite direction, towards a revamped, recentralized, state.

Today Mariano Rajoy is facing not only the social backlash of the stern measures dictated by the EU and the IMF and plummeting popularity among voters, but also an important revival of the traditional Spanish territorial tensions, plus early elections in all three “historic” Autonomous Communities –where the PP is ex- pected to do poorly. Rajoy’s party is now and in all likelihood will stay in the op- position in the Basque Country and Catalonia, but if it loses Galicia (which seems unlikely, but where it governs with a majority of one) –, it would be out of power in all the Big Four (the three “historicals” plus Andalusia, where the Socialists managed to stay in power after the December 2011 elections).

Although the PP seems culturally ill-equipped to take this step, Spanish main- stream analysts agree that the logical evolution of Spain’s territorial model is to be found in a workable federal system (an agreement, though, that is received

in focus CIDOB 03 . OCTOBER 2012 3 CIDOB • Barcelona Centre Affairs. forSeptember 2012 International by most analysts in Catalonia with deep skepticism as they would argue that, in any case, it comes far too late). And while in Spain most agree that the territorial problem is basically a political problem, to be solved politically, some argue that the best hope for action would possibly come from a Monti-like government sup- ported by the EU, resulting from early 2013 elections called after a full bailout of the country, who would approach the question “technically”, free of cumbersome ideologies.

The Catalan crisis, however, has added an institutional and political facet to the existing economic and social predicament, infusing uncertainty into the system. Whether the Pandora’s box of Spanish territorial disintegration has been opened or not remains to be seen. Be that as it may, the results of the upcoming elections in the three autonomous communities that correspond to the “historical nation- alities” will surely leave their mark on the next chapter of this political drama which, whatever direction it takes, must be presided over by nothing other than democratic legitimacy.

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