Categoria: Opinions

A critical eye on the path to Catalonia’s independence

Barcelona votes on Catalonia’s independence

albert 3 Comments

The last round of the popular referendums for Catalonia’s independence took place yesterday in Barcelona. The city honoured its place as the capital of Catalonia with a high turnout 21.37% (89.7% ‘yes’, 8.8% ‘no’). More than 257.000 people cast their vote in more than 300 voting schools. Everything was organized by a team of several hundred volunteers using a computer-based networked system to prevent duplicate votes. The total cost of the operation was 200.000 euros, all private donations, plus the loads of time invested by the volunteers.

Compare that, for instance, to last year’s consultation about Diagonal Avenue, with a cost of 4 million euros, all public funds, and a turnout of 12%. This ridicules even more the attemps of Barcelona’s mayor Hereu, from the Catalan branch of the Spanish nationalist PSOE, to boycott yesterday’s referendum. Looks like Hereu will lose Barcelona, one of PSOE’s strongholds, on May 22nd, after 30 years and is another symptom of the decline of this party in Catalonia after their worst results ever on the Catalan elections last November.

Noone knows exactly the extent of the impact of these referendums but it will likely be big, for instance it has forced all politicians to position themselves with regards to independence, either by voting or ignoring it. No more excuses and no more ambiguity. No more saying you are catalanist but not acting consequently.

For instance, on wednesday the Catalan Parliament will debate a law proposal for a declaration of independence. Now that CiU’s deputies and members of the Government, including the Catalan President, Mas, have voted Yes on this referendum they’ll have to give many explanations for any non affirmative vote on wednesday.

In any case these referendums have shown that Catalan society is a few steps ahead of its politicians in the independence issue. Also, after yesterday politicians will no longer be able to claim that independence doesn’t interest people and anyone acting towards independence can feel backed by the results.

The question now is when will a full scale referendum organised by the Catalan Government take place and whether or not it should take place before or after a declaration of independence.

The Spanish nationalist politicians have chosen not to participate and avoid democracy shielding behind the status quo and saying these were not official referendums. But the empty arguments they have presented, claiming that there are more important issues to deal with than independence, have left Catalan independentism as the only side with arguments in the discussion.

Personally I was lucky enough to be in Barcelona yesterday so I was thrilled to give the organisers a hand by making video documentaries in my area and even though it was exhausting it felt great. You can check those videos below.

About Catalonia’s debt and the Financial Times

albert 1 Comment

The Financial Times published an article 3 days ago about the 11.000 million euros the Generalitat (the Catalan Government) will soon need to raise for this year’s funding needs. Apparently the financial situation the new Catalan government has inherited from their predecessors is worse than initially expected. The Generalitat already issued around 3.000 million euros worth of bonds to the general public back in November and finding almost 4 times that amount is not going to be easy, maybe even needing to offer a higher interest rate than in the first round.

Now the Spanish, in an exercise of political surrealism, have launched a strategy based on blaming Catalonia for the Spanish crisis and with quite some success so far. Catalan Government’s debt is around the 40 thousand million euros mark, which compared to Spain’s total public debt, more than 500 thousand millions, is only a small portion.

To my despair (and to the despair of many well informed Catalans) what the new Catalan government fails to explain is that Catalonia suffers a fiscal plundering of 10% of its GDP every year, which amounts to more than 22000 million euros. Meaning not only that if Catalonia controlled its own finances its finances would be pristine but public services and infrastructures would be a lot better than they currently are.

To illustrate the enormity of Catalonia’s fiscal plundering I’ll use a parallel case. Bavaria, one of Germany’s richest länder (states) which a GDP that doubles Catalonia’s, had last year a fiscal deficit of 3.491 million euros with poorer german länder and the Bavarians are already taking action to limit this amount because they find it unsustainable. The difference is that Germany is an actual federal state, as opposed to Spain where its Autonomous Communities are a mere local decentralisation and in the case of Catalonia, severely underfunded.

Compare Bavaria’s case with Catalonia’s and with a government incapable of denouncing the situation and you can imagine our despair. Especially when the Spanish even go all the way as to blame Catalonia (and not the Spanish growth model based on speculation of the last 2 decades) for their crisis as a preparation of another assault to attack Catalonia’s precarious self-government.

So please Mr Mallet, from Financial Times, please next time you talk about Catalonia’s debt issues, which I’m sure will happen sooner rather than later, please consider that in spite of our government’s terrible communication policies all truth must be told.

Former Catalan President Pujol finally considers independence

albert 2 Comments

As I write these lines I’m still shocked by the news and I know that for Catalonia this is a historical day.

Jordi Pujol, who was the 126th Catalan President of the Generalitat (list of all Catalan Presidents) during the crucial post Franco period from 1980 until 2003 has finally realised that Catalonia has only one option to avoid disappearance: independence. He explains it in an article published a couple of hours ago in his blog.

Pujol, who never until today publicly considered Catalan independence but instead dreamed that Spain would one day become a federal entity were all the nations within it had equal rights. Pujol, who was awarded by Spanish newspaper ABC “Spanish person of the year” in 1986. Pujol, who undoubtedly didn’t have an easy job to do in his precarious position but who decisively contributed to the political and financial stability and progress of Spain for more than two decades, practically always at Catalonia’s expense. Certainly a controversial personality.

Today is a historical day because Pujol, taking any other considerations about him aside, still is the ideological leader of mainstream Catalanism.

Obviously that he says this precisely now is not a coincidence, there are deep implications in what is going on in Catalonia and Spain at the moment. This week Spain has just started the process of dismantling the Catalan “Caixes” (savings banks) system and if they succeed all Catalan financial autonomy that has enabled Catalan economy to flourish in the last century might soon be in the hands of Madrid and then that’s it, kaput Catalonia. That’d also mean the end of the Catalan establishment’s (particularly the political parties’) source of financing, hence Pujol’s reaction.

This also confirms that the situation is just as desperate as we thought it was. The reaction from mainstream Catalanism should have started about 4 or 5 years ago but I guess it’s better late than never. And this also shows that CiU had to embrace independentism sooner rather than later to avoid losing its central position in Catalan politics since they were quickly running out of excuses not to do so.

But I can’t help feeling a bit skeptical about this and I hope this doesn’t turn against us now and CiU genuinely start working for the independence instead of playing against the emerging independentist movement, as they always have. A regeneration of Catalan politics that CiU’s downfall would have brought would have been very healthy but the advantage of not having the establishment against us at last can’t be denied, even if it’s because their own existence is at stake.

I’m speechless.

All I can say is: Welcome President Pujol, we’ve been waiting for you. Benvingut President, l’estàvem esperant.

Photo by Thundershead

Artur Mas: Best start ever

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I still haven’t recovered from Mas’ amazing first moves as the brand new President of the Generalitat. I’m still rolling on the floor, laughing. He has made Pilar Fernández i Bozal, a Spanish State Attorney, Consellera de Justícia (so that you understand it, if Catalonia was independent a Conseller would be a Minister, so maybe we can call the current ones mockMinisters, they pretend they are Ministers but in reality are a (bad) joke). Bozal was the one who directed the Spanish State strategy against the popular referendums of independence. Great move Mr Mas, she’s taken her out of circulation and since now she’s a mockMinister she’s deactivated! High five!

Secondly, the Conseller d’Economia (Finance mockMinister), Mr Mas-Colell, even though he’s a prestigious economist has managed already to pull out a great starting move. Shortly after he was appointed mockMinister he said that the Generalitat is very indebted, which the readers of this blog knew already, and went on saying that the problem is that the Catalan health care system is inefficient and spends too much. That’s it. He’s cunningly not said a word about the 22000 million euros the poor Spanish reluctantly accept every year from us because they need them to fulfill their basic needs such as high speed trains going to worldwide financial centres such as Valladolid or Segovia. Obviously, I see Mr Mas-Colell’s point of view, high speed trains to Valladolid come before some Catalan person’s knee operation or some Catalan worker’s right to a decent train system! Or the fact that the Catalan health care system processes 10 million unique patients every year when Catalonia has a population of 7.5 million. But not saying these things is part of the strategy.

I believe with a President like Mas (I won’t call him the mockPresident because he’s the rightful president of (a joke called) the Generalitat) we are well on our way to independence. His cunning starting move by stealing Bozal from the Spanish to deactivate the legal opposition to the Popular Referendums of Independence will clear the way so that the Barcelona referendum in April is a great success that will be on newspapers all over the world and with Mas-Colell doing dramatic cuts to the Catalan health care (when it becomes so bad that nobody from outside will try to use it and therefore will stop leaking money) and keeping quiet about about the fiscal plundering so that the Generalitat will eventually default and need bailing out by who? yeah you’re right: the Spanish! How awesome will that be? Now I see what his campaign slogan about the Catalan people’s “right to decide” was all about.

Mr Mas, please let me go grab some more popcorn before you go on with the show.

The Spanish abolish Catalan language immersion in schools

albert 7 Comments

Many of you live in countries all over the world, whether you are Catalan or not, can you imagine a foreign country pulling out a sentence that makes teaching in schools in your country’s own language illegal and that you will now have to also teach a foreign language? How would you call this situation? Colonisation. This is exactly what is happening right now in Catalonia, thanks to last summer’s sentence from the Spanish Constitutional Court about the Catalan Statute of Autonomy the first political consequences are arising.

As it was already predicted, and conveniently right after the Autonomous Catalan elections, so as not to stir the Catalan cocktail, the Spanish Supreme Court has passed a sentence that says that the Catalan immersion system that currently exists and that has so successfully contributed to keep the Catalan language alive has to be substituted for a mixed one with Spanish. The claim for schooling in Spanish is not even a minority one, it’s a residual one. The lawsuits against the immersion system represent a total of 3 families for the whole of Catalonia.

This is how the Spanish use their democracy to their advantage, political decisions enforced through the legal system, no debate, no physical violence, they are sophisticating their ways to achieve the same means.

The newly formed Catalan government (CiU), instead of the logical reaction that any real government would have against such an attack towards its country’s culture has just evaded the question and claimed that the Spanish Supreme Court cannot change laws, which is true, but that won’t change the fact that any minute now the Spanish Parliament could potentially pull a new law that will override the Catalan education law and enforce a new system. Will the Catalan government react firmly and refuse to obey?

The sad truth is that while Catalonia remains part of Spain as an Autonomous Community they can use their system to do this and much more. Catalans, after almost 300 years of occupation and two dictatorships in the last century aimed against them are demoralised and meek but the situation is grave. Slowly facts are exposing us to the reality, without a state there’s no way we’ll have the same rights as any other nation. And in the meantime the Spanish keep doing their centuries long work.

Analysing the Catalan elections

albert 9 Comments

On sunday the catalan elections took place and the question, more than who was going to win since it was clear it was going to be CiU, was how much support the government parties were going to lose and whether any new parties were getting in the Parliament. For a start we have that Artur Mas will soon be the 129th president of the Generalitat.

Looking at the results, in the case of the Catalan branch of PSOE, they’ve gotten their worst results. Less than 30 deputies and losing in their usual stronghold, the Barcelona metropolitan area, to CiU. Esquerra, the left wing catalan “independentists” have also been severely punished by their lack of coherence of being in the government with a spanish nationalist party while calling themselves independentists. Their strategy to become the left wing reference party in Catalonia has proven wrong and insisting on holding to the government has made them lose more than half their deputies.

As for the new parties, the only new party that has made it has been Laporta’s Solidaritat which has managed to scrape just enough votes to make it in the Parliament. Even though the party is only a few months old their strategy of grabbing some of Reagrupament’s ideas (the Unilateral Declaration of Independence) added to the popularity of its leader as former president of the most successful FC Barcelona managed to convince some independentists to give him their support. However, both Solidaritat and Reagrupament have failed to bring new voters to independentist positions since most of the voters of both have come from former voters of Esquerra upset with its lack of commitment with independentism. In fact, adding up the votes of Esquerra, Solidaritat and Reagrupament there’s less voters than Esquerra alone got in the previous Catalan elections, all in all a very bad result for independentism.

Reagrupament, even though making a colossal effort resulting in a very competitive campaign couldn’t get their message through to the voters by not being able to overcome the obstacles, fighting against Laporta’s popularity and the media ban (I’ll write an article about it at some point but new parties are banned from appearing on public media in Catalonia during election period, incredible but true) so the association will have to start a process of redefinition of its strategy since its 3500 associates and its program of political regeneration are valuable assets that must continue to contribute. On a positive side Reagrupament’s success has been to define a new path towards independence that is now partly in Laporta’s hands. We’ll keep an eye on the progress. In any case Catalan independentism must analyse the mistakes made as to why when popular support for independence is higher than ever it has failed to translate this to representation in the Parliament.

On the other side of the national spectrum the Spanish nationalists PP have gained some votes, probably former Spanish nationalist PSOE voters disillusioned with Montilla’s government.

It is worth mentioning that the PxC, a racist party, got almost 80000 votes, on the verge of sitting in the Parliament. Catalan politicians and the society will have to work on integration and immigration policies (however little decision power Catalonia currently may have on these issues) and make an effort to tackle this problem before it gets out of hand.

On the meantime CiU will have a very tough job to do since the Generalitat is in a dire financial situation (40.000 million euros of public debt at the end of the year) and Spain’s finances are starting to be in the spotlight after the Eurozone bailing out Ireland’s economy.

I’m curious (and very skeptical) to see how will CiU maneuver with Spain to stick to their promise of achieving the “concert econòmic” (so that Catalonia manages its own taxes) to stop the financial plundering in a moment when Spain’s economy is also badly hurt and in need of every euro to sustain its colossal and inefficient structure. On the practical side they seem to have forgotten about it already since Felip Puig, one of CiU’s spokespeople, before even starting any negotiation and only two days after the elections, has already declared that having the same tax treatment as Euskadi and Navarra is not viable, I guess he meant that it would not be viable for Spain, because for Catalonia to stay viable it needs, at least, to control its taxes as soon as possible. If this is how they are going to defend the interests of Catalonia then I foresee that we’re up for some very interesting years ahead.

Per què votaré Reagrupament

albert 1 Comment

Catalunya es troba en aquests moments en una situació molt delicada. La Generalitat, mancada de llibertat per a aplicar polítiques econòmiques pròpies per a sortir de la crisi es troba en una situació de fallida tècnica i acaba de fer una emissió pública de bons a un preu molt més alt que el mercat ja que li resulta impossible col·locar el seu deute als mercats internacionals. Amb tot això la Generalitat es col·locarà a final d’any amb un dèficit d’aproximadament 40.000 milions d’euros. Aquesta situació és insostenible i és previsible que en un termini curt la Generalitat quedi intervinguda per les autoritats europees o espanyoles. Paradoxalment Catalunya genera prous recursos per a no trobar-se en aquesta situació però sense estat propi mai en podrem disposar.

Crec que gairebé tothom ja ho sap però és bo repetir-ho. Patim un dèficit fiscal insostenible del 10% del nostre PIB cada any, que és d’aproximadament uns 22000 milions d’euros, no hi ha cap altre país del món civilitzat a on doni una situació similar. Per no parlar del fet que la sentència del tribunal constitucional ha oficialitzat que la cultura catalana a dins l’estat espanyol sempre tindrà un caràcter de segona categoria en tots els aspectes.

El model autonòmic espanyol ha quedat per tant tancat amb la sentència del tribunal constitucional. Espanya ens ha dit clarament que no està disposada a modificar el seu model d’estat i davant això els catalans ens trobem a una cruïlla. Hem d’escollir si volem ser una regió d’Espanya o un estat lliure a la Unió Europea. En aquesta situació l’única opció que garanteix la supervivència de Catalunya com a nació i el benestar econòmic dels habitants de Catalunya és disposar d’un estat propi per a poder aplicar les polítiques més adients tant econòmiques, de gestió del govern, culturals i per a guanyar visibilitat en un món cada vegada més globalitzat a on disposar d’una personalitat pròpia i diferenciada fa guanyar punts i per a contribuïr a enfortir Europa i tenir veu pròpia al concert de les nacions.

Analitzant les diverses propostes amb què es presenten els partits catalans ens trobem que l’única proposta seriosa per a Catalunya aquestes eleccions és la de Reagrupament. El federalisme és una utopia ja que no existeix la possibilitat de federar-se si dos no volen i per tant aquesta opció queda descartada a una Espanya que ha marcat l’estatut com el sostre màxim d’autogovern per a Catalunya i queda condemnada a ser una comunitat de règim comú més. El concert econòmic també es impossible ja que, com Rajoy ha declarat més d’una vegada recentment, l’estat espanyol és inviable sense l’espoliació fiscal catalana. Per tant, mai aconseguirem rebaixar aquesta espoliació a un nivel suportable per a la nostra economia ja que requereix la voluntat política dels partits espanyols. Finalment, aquells que proposen un referèndum d’independència també ens estan enganyant. Algú es pot imaginar el govern espanyol signant l’autorització per a un referèndum d’independència a Catalunya? És impossible.

Per tant Reagrupament ofereix l’única opció realista que és assolir un estat propi mitjançant la declaració unilateral d’independència. Procediment avalat aquest mateix estiu per la Cort Internacional de Justícia que diu que una declaració d’independència s’ajusta completament a la legalitat internacional. Reagrupament va ser la primera formació que va defensar aquesta via i el temps ha donat la raó en que aquesta és l’única solució que ens queda i l’única que només depèn de nosaltres.

La via de Reagrupament passa per utilitzar el Parlament per a fer un acte de sobirania i per tant traslladar la majoria social favorable a la independència i trauïr-la en una majoria parlamentària que dugui a terme aquesta tasca. El president Montilla ens ha explicat recentment que “no cal un referèndum per la independència ja que els catalans ens autodeterminem cada quatre anys a les eleccions al Parlament”. Per tant, fem-li cas i convertim les eleccions autonòmiques en un plebiscit per a l’autodeterminació. Només necessitem 68 diputats que a les passades eleccions es van aconseguir amb menys d’un milió i mig de vots.

Per altra banda, no ens servirà de massa disposar d’un estat propi si no disposem d’una democràcia de qualitat. De nou, Reagrupament és l’única opció que ha demostrat la seva seriositat en apostar per la regeneració democràtica. Ara mateix, inclús sense necessitat d’assolir la independència podem aconseguir una millor qualitat democràtica amb les lleis proposades per Reagrupament. Primer, una llei electoral pròpia amb districtes petits, on cada diputat representi un districte i els votants escullin directament aquests diputats i per tant no representin els interessos dels partits sinó defensin els interessos dels seus votants. Segon, una llei de transparència per a saber a on van a parar absolutament tots els diners que gestionen les administracions públiques. Tercer, una llei d’incompatibilitats per a que ningú pugui beneficiar-se d’ocupar més d’un càrrec públic i que en sortir d’aquest càrrec no es pugui beneficiar dels contactes aconseguits durant el pas per la política. Quart, limitació de mandats, màxim de dos mandats consecutius. La idea és que dedicar-se a la política s’entengui com un servei a la societat i que passat aquest temps els nostres representants tornin a la seva professió prèvia al pas per la política.

El programa de Reagrupament es va elaborar tenint en ment la futura Catalunya independent, no com una comunitat autònoma de règim comú i el vam elaborar més de 600 associats. Podeu consultar-ne un resum a l’adreça http://www.futurlliure.cat.

La primera llei que els diputats de Reagrupament presentaran al Parlament serà aquest projecte de Constitució de Catalunya. Per a governar-se les nacions fan servir una Constitució, no un estatut.

Necessitem que totes aquestes propostes de Reagrupament se sentin des del 29 de Novembre al Parlament, la situació ho requereix. Per tot això jo votaré Reagrupament.

The Catalan Government’s dire finances

albert 2 Comments

These last few weeks if you live in Catalonia you might have seen everywhere around you posters reminding you that the Catalan Generalitat (Government) has issued around 2000 million euros worth of bonds which will yield 4.75% and that Catalans will be able to buy in chunks of 1000 euros, making an excellent opportunity for those with some savings to make a nice profit.

In reality, this shows the dire situation of the finances of the Generalitat. The Generalitat has been sending messages to the population that issuing these bonds is completely normal and that the Generalitat’s solvency is guaranteed, forgetting to mention that the Generalitat has a debt rating similar to Perú (link in Spanish), the worst of all the Spanish “Autonomous Communities”, and much worse than the Spanish one. Only then we realise how issuing the bonds to the general public just a few weeks before the Catalan elections and at such a high interest rate is a desperate move to guarantee the Generalitat’s immediate cash flow.

This happens just a few months after the Conseller Castells and President Montilla assured the Catalan opinion that the new financing agreement reached with Spain is the Generalitat’s best ever financing, forgetting to mention three facts:

  1. that the best financing we ever had was when we were independent until 1714, before the Spanish invasion and we managed all of our finances and taxes
  2. that Catalonia suffers a fiscal plundering of approximately 10% of its GDP, publicly recognised by the Spanish Government, which has published data up to 2005 (link in Catalan) and that there’s no other country in the world that suffers a comparable plundering. This plundering has currently been estimated to amount to 22000 million euros in 2009 and equates to approximately 3000 euros for each Catalan citizen.
  3. that Mariano Rajoy, the leader of Spain’s Partido Popular, the main opposition party, declared on tuesday that Spain will never allow Catalonia to manage their own taxes (and hence reduce the plundering to a bearable level) since Spain would instantly become non-viable (link in Catalan). Therefore implying that Spain’s viability depends on the sustained plundering of Catalonia’s resources.

So, to summarize. The Generalitat is forced to issue those bonds to get 2000 million euros while Catalonia is being plundered 22000 million euros every year by Spain and that the simplest solution to this would be to stop the fiscal plundering that Spain inflicts upon us by achieving independence. On the other hand, we know for a fact that while Catalonia remains in Spain this situation of fiscal plundering of 10% of our GDP is never going to be solved (or mitigated) and that the Generalitat acts purely as a colonial Government hiding the fact that the Generalitat’s finances are in a dire state (and hiding the easy solution to this).

And with the elections coming up in only a few weeks the voting alternatives to achieve independence drastically reduce our voting choices.

Photo: PS – Partit Socialdemòcrata d’Andorra

No fem bogeries, votem independència.

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25A the next round of referendums

Albert Einstein va dir: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” (La definició de la bogeria és fer el mateix una vegada rere altra esperant resultats diferents)

Des de fa unes setmanes he sentint a gent dient que si Reagrupament i SCI no s’uneixen votaran a CiU. Aquesta proposta sembla una campanya dissenyada des de les ments més afilades del dependentisme. Des d’aquestes línies vaig defensar inicialment un pacte entre Reagrupament i SCI, un pacte d’igual a igual i no incondicional. No ha estat possible. No passa res. Ara no analitzaré les causes de la no unitat ni criticaré a ningú. Ni em pararé a analitzar les teories conspiratives sobre si SCI són un submarí de CiU i Esquerra per a acabar amb Reagrupament. No és aquest el moment de fer això. Ara és el moment d’avançar. A qualsevol que s’informi una mica sobre les evidents diferències entre les dues formacions no li hauria de resultar gaire difícil escollir.

El que està clar és que Reagrupament ha superat les crisis i deixant enrere cada obstacle ha anat guanyant força. Celebro que ara hi hagi més d’una opció que defensi la independència. Per això no tindria sentit que cap vot independentista anés a parar a CiU com a vot de càstig per la manca d’unitat.

Algú pensarà en els resultats de les enquestes que han publicat recentment els mitjans dependentistes i espanyols. Al contrari del que sembla aquestes enquestes són per mi la prova que l’indepedentisme farà uns grans resultats. Les enquestes són part de la seva estratègia per a desmoralitzar, dividir i desconvocar l’independentisme. No hem de caure en aquest parany. Ens agradaria que les enquestes donessin 40 escons o més als nous partits independentistes per a votar amb absoluta tranquilitat però sabem que això no passaria encara que fos veritat. Els mitjans, en mans dels dependentistes, ho amagarien.

Per altra banda, entenc que hi ha gent que voldria que els nostres líders independentistes fossin diferents, a tothom se li poden trobar defectes. Som un país petit i tenim uns candidats i uns partits que potser no són perfectes però segur que estaran a l’alçada de les circumstàncies. Entenc que Esquerra ha fet molt de mal a la credibilitat de l’independentisme parlamentari i precisament per això tenir més opcions en comptes de desencoratjar-nos ha de ser motiu de celebració.

Però aquells independentistes que esperin que votant CiU un dia es despertaran i de cop i volta serem independents s’equivoquen. Tal i com diu la frase d’inici d’aquest article, si seguim fent el mateix que hem fet fins ara esperant resultats diferents és que estem bojos. CiU han dit una vegada i una altra que no són independentistes. Els hem d’agraïr la seva honestedat i votar en conseqüència.

Hem d’aprofitar que en Montilla ens està fent un gran favor en centrar el debat de la campanya entorn la independència i no ho podem desaprofitar. Qui s’ho hauria imaginat fa tot just un any!

Sé que l’independentisme entrarà amb força, la llei d’Hondt especifica un llindar de només el 3% per a aconseguir representació. Els independentistes som molts, els voluntaris de les consultes, els votants de les consultes, els que es van manifestar el 10 de Juliol. Està clar que només que una fracció d’aquestes persones votessin en conseqüència l’independentisme faria un gran resultat i per això mateix l’establishment dependentista està acollonit. No poden suportar la idea que un grup com Reagrupament, format per professionals que fan política (que no polítics professionals), voluntaris entusiastes i independentistes insubornables entrin al Parlament a fer neteja. És la seva festa i no hi estem convidats. Ja ho sabem però precisament per això és el nostre deure convertir en realitat els seus pitjors malsons.

Tampoc no entenc aquesta dèria per l’ara o mai. Si pel que sigui no s’arribés a entrar al Parlament, cosa que dubto, no passaria res. Hem viscut així durant gairebé 300 anys, potser necessitem encara uns més per a fer el pas. Si per mi fos jo declararia la independència demà a l’hora d’esmorzar però entenc que hi hagi gent amb diferents velocitats. El que està clar és que l’independentisme cada vegada està més extés, per tant, els dependentistes podran fer tot el joc brut que vulguin però el temps juga a favor nostre i més d’hora que tard decidirem el nostre futur de forma lliure.

Finalment, això no vol dir que poguem esperar asseguts sense fer res i la independència ens caurà del cel, no. Els canvis arriben quan la societat els impulsa i aquí no valen excuses, els catalans hem de donar un pas endavant amb valentia. Mai havia estat tan fàcil. El canvi és a les nostres mans. El 28 de Novembre tots els independentistes tenim un compromís amb el nostre país. Votem independència!

ETA’s ceasefire: will it be for real this time?

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In the last few months the abertzale (left wing Basque Independentism) movement has publicly expressed their commitment to continue their claim for independence exclusively by democratic means. That refers to a willingness to end ETA and terrorism in the Basque country.

This process has been influenced by many factors, ETA has never been weaker, Spain’s police fight against ETA has proven very successful and its supports within Basque society are fewer than ever. On top of that, in the international scene Spain is perceived as a democratic country and to pursue political claims through terrorism is not understood or tolerated any more.

This has set the goal of independence of the Basque Country further than ever before in the last several decades. Also, the whole process might have been influenced by the events happened during the last year in Catalonia showing the progresses towards independence that have been made through democratic means.

Back in March the Declaration of Brussels was presented. In that declaration 21 leaders specialised in conflict resolution and peace processes, amongst them 4 Nobel Prizes, from South Africa and Northern Ireland, appealed to ETA to declare a permanent and verifiable ceasefire and offered their mediation in the conflict. While this should have been celebrated by Spain, this declaration was largely ignored by the Spanish media and Government.

ETA has declared ceasefires in the past that have been broken but this time there seems to be a difference, especially now that the abertzale movement is committed with democracy. Four days ago, ETA made a statement and committed themselves to the Declaration of Brussels, appealing to the international mediators to cooperate and analyse the steps to take towards a permanent and verifiable ceasefire. This was preceded by a video sent to the BBC a few days ago where they announced a ceasefire.

The Spanish, on the other hand, have so far replied to these statements aggressively, claiming that this ceasefire doesn’t mean anything, that they are not interested in international mediation (link in catalan) and that they will not enter any kind of negotiation with ETA. All the Spanish expect is a unilateral dissolution of ETA without any concessions.

International opinion, like the Financial Times, have expressed that even though it’s not surprising that the Spanish government disbelieves ETA’s announcement a verifiable and permanent ending of violence should lead, for instance, to the legalization of the abertzale political parties which would, at the same time, make it more difficult for ETA to continue its activity by withdrawing its remaining supports.

However, there’s an explanation for why the Spanish seem so reluctant to cooperate to end the armed conflict. Spain have not hesitated for a second to use the presence of terrorism to their political advantage to continue their colonialist task and this has reported many votes to the Spanish parties which have, for instance, used the victims to their political benefit.

As perverse as it sounds, Spanish politicians have been benefiting greatly from the armed conflict and have set the conflict in a very comfortable scenario since they’ve passed laws to illegalize abertzale political parties, shut Basque newspapers down (the Egunkaria case has recently finished, everyone was absolved, but the damage is done), initiatives that have been unseen for a long time in Western Europe. They have also spread the idea that all Basque independentism (and even moderate nationalism) equals supporting terrorism. All this has led so far to an unnatural Spanish nationalist government in the Basque Country through a coalition of PSOE with PP since a significant percentage of Basque voters have been left without a choice to vote.

The Spanish are aware that an eventual ending of the violence will expose the conflict to democracy, an uncomfortable situation for them. A first consequence of the ending of ETA would be to never again be in the Basque government and eventually the real possibility in the short to midterm of The Basque Country’s independence from Spain by democratic means.

The international opinion is starting to realise that behind this attitude there is not so much the reluctancy to negotiate with terrorists but the perverse unwillingness to cease the violent conflict so as not to stop the political advantages this situation yields Spain.

As an example of double standards by the Spanish Government when it comes to terrorism, a few weeks ago the Spanish government paid several million euros ransom to Al Qaeda and freed some captured terrorists in exchange for 3 aid workers kidnapped in November 2009 in Mauritania (link in Catalan). This was criticised because all that money will go straight into funding terrorism and also collides with other countries’ policies, such as France, which refuse to pay ransoms in these cases.

This will set a dangerous precedent and become a threat anybody traveling or living abroad holding a Spanish passport. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated example, there are other similar cases which have happened recently where the lack of negotiation skills and firm attitude form the Spanish Government have set dangerous precedents in dealing with international terrorism.

Therefore, Spain seems to have no problem bending to terrorist demands when they don’t interfere with their internal politics. Let’s hope that both sides make an effort to end the conflict so that this time ETA’s violence is finally ended. I think international mediation such as the one offered by the signers of the Declaration of Brussels should be accepted since it can be a key factor to guarantee that, at last, all political claims are channeled through democratic means from now on in the Basque Country.

Photo: Theklan