Categoria: Referendum

(This is a translation for this article)

Recently it’s been made public that the strategy that the referendums’ National Coordinators want to follow is to promote a binding referendum using the brand new Catalan referendums law. On paper it looks good, we get the signatures. Then we take them to the Parliament, which will evidently approve it and then we take it to Madrid, where they’ll obviously deny it and then we have the conflict. Next we use the right to self-determination and under the supervision of the international bodies to let the Generalitat organise the Referendum.

This all looks good on paper, but, has anybody stopped to think that the execution of all this requires the Catalan Parliament to be clearly independentist? I mean, does anyone still believe that Artur Mas will do the slightest thing to contradict whatever they tell him to do in Spain? The same Mas who negotiated to cut down the Statute, the same Mas of the eternal “now’s not the time”, etc.

I can’t believe that, for instance, someone as intelligent as López Tena, who has proven to be able to organise the referendums until the last detail hasn’t realised that unless Laporta and Reagrupament achieve enough deputies next autumn (maybe adding ERC’s) the process of the Referendum will never reach Madrid, or if it does Mas will do as told from Madrid, he’ll never be able to challenge the Spanish State, he’s had plenty of chances so far. This is not Mas’ struggle, even thought many members of CiU are independentists, it’s current target is to manage the Autonomous Community, make no mistake. If we leave this responsibility in their hands they’ll spoil it.

That’s why I lean towards a declaration of independence, this is way easier and removes many unnecessary and complicated steps. Through this procedure we’ll create a new legality, then we’ll organise as many referendums as we want without anyone interfering.

However, I support all initiatives to achieve independence, but if we want to use the Referendum way we gotta do it well. That’s why I think that everybody, the National Coordinators, Deumil.cat, López Tena, Laporta, Reagrupament, everyone from the Acte d’Estat from a few weeks ago, etc. Everyone. We must start talking with humility, without prominence, we need to create a solid unity candidacy to achieve the greater number of deputies at the next elections to the Catalan Parliament. If we win, we finish the fast way, if we don’t at least we make sure the independentists have a real representation at the Parliament that will work for the Referendum to succeed. I know many people will call me a dreamer for saying this but I know that sooner or later unity will be necessary to achieve the independence, we’ll have to agree whether we like it or not.

What would be irresponsible is to leave in the current parties’ hands all the hard work done until now, they’ll spoil it. The job has to be finished by those who started it. We need the highest representation at the parliament and unity.

Fa poc s’ha fet pública que l’estratègia que la coordinadora nacional de les consultes vol seguir és la d’impulsar un referèndum vinculant mitjançant la llei de consultes. Sobre el paper tot sembla molt bé, s’aconsegueixen les signatures, es porta a la mesa del Parlament, que evidentment l’aprovarà i finalment es porta a Madrid, ens la deneguen i tenim el conflicte servit. Després ens basem en el dret a l’autodeterminació i sota la supervisió dels organismes internacionals per a que la Generalitat convoqui el referèndum.

Tot això està molt bé sobre el paper, però, algú s’ha parat a pensar que l’execució de tot això requereix que el Parlament de Catalunya sigui marcadament independentista? Vull dir, us penseu que per exemple l’Artur Mas farà el més mínim intent de portar la contrària a allò que li diguin a Espanya? El mateix Mas que va pactar la retallada de l’Estatut, el mateix Mas de l’etern “ara no toca”, etc.

No em puc creure que, per exemple, algú tant intel·ligent i que ha demostrat com gestionar les consultes fins a l’últim detall com en López Tena i companyia no hagin caigut en el compte que a no ser que Reagrupament i Laporta arribin i aconsegueixin una quantitat suficient de diputats (potser sumant-hi els d’ERC) el tràmit del referèndum mai arribarà a Madrid, o si hi arriba Mas acatarà el que li diguin a Madrid, mai serà capaç de desafiar l’Estat Espanyol, oportunitats no li han faltan. Aquesta no és la seva batalla, malgrat i que molts militants són independentistes, CiU, ara per ara, és un partit de gestió de l’autonomia, no ens equivoquem. Si es deixa aquesta responsabilitat en les seves mans mai arribarà a materialitzar-se.

Per això jo sóc partidari de la opció de la declaració unilateral d’independència, perquè és molt més simple i elimina moltes passes complicades. Mitjançant aquest procediment es crea una legalitat nova, i després fem tots els referèndums que vulguis sense que ningú ens hi posi impediments.

Malgrat i això estic a favor de totes les iniciatives per a aconseguir la independència, però si es vol utilitzar la via del referèndum s’ha de fer bé. Per això opino que tothom, la Coordinadora Nacional, Deumil.cat, López Tena, Laporta, Reagrupament, tota la gent de l’Acte d’Estat de fa unes setmanes, etc. Tothom. Ens hem de posar a parlar ara mateix, amb humilitat, sense protagonismes, necessitem crear una candidatura sòlida per a treure el màxim nombre de diputats independentistes a les properes eleccions al Parlament. Si guanyem ho acabem per la via ràpida i si no com a mínim ens assegurem que els independentistes tenim representació real al Parlament que treballarà per a que el referèndum prosperi. Sé que alguns em diran somiatruites per proposar això però sé que tard o d’hora la unitat serà necessària per a aconseguir la independència, ens haurem de posar d’acord per força.

El que seria irresponsable és deixar en mans dels partits existents tota la feina feta fins ara, la malbarataran. La feina l’hem d’acabar aquells que l’hem començat. Necessitem la màxima representació parlamentària i unitat.

(You can find here the translation to english of this article)

A new round of referendums, after rounds of 13S, 13D and 28F the process has taken shape and is unstopabble. Next April the 25th 200 towns and villages will be involved and more than 1 million Catalan citizens will have the right to vote. By the end of this round around half the municipalities in Catalonia will have organized a referendum. After this the aim is to organise one in Barcelona.

Big cities like Girona, Lleida or Manresa are being involved this time and with supporters like Justo Molinero, a popular radio presenter with a huge influence on the Spanish speaking areas in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, like Cornellà, who will campaign for the right of the Catalans to decide (link in Catalan). Former Catalan President Jordi Pujol recently declared that he can’t be against the independence referendums since the pact with Spain has failed, and the debate for independence has to normalise. These declarations are a huge step forward since Jordi Pujol, who was in power for more than 20 years with CiU never before has openly declared himself to be pro-independence.

Turnout might be influenced by a filtration that the Spanish Constitutional Court will finally give a sentence regarding the Catalan Statute (the law that regulates Catalan self-government) this week (link in Catalan). It has taken so far 4 years for the Spanish Constitutional Court to come up with a sentence. No person or court has the moral right to contradict what the citizens have approved in a referendum, this is the foundational principle of democracy and in Spain this is not being respected since the Catalan Statute was voted by the Catalans. The sentence will very likely be very restrictive and rewrite several of the articles. The filtration also illustrates how little independence there is in the Spanish legal system.

The referendums are difficult to ignore and they put pressure on the political parties to position themselves with respect to independence now that the elections are coming next autumn. José Montilla said that he doesn’t want Catalonia to be independent (link in Catalan). He didn’t support this statement with any arguments. Artur Mas, the leader of CiU, the main opposition party and historically the biggest catalanist party, has recently declared that now’s not the time for a referendum (link in Catalan). He claims that the issue divides Catalan society. Maybe he should pay more attention to what Pujol is saying?

Obviously, Montilla’s opinion is not surprising since he is a Spanish unionist (even thought he disguises himself as a catalanist) but it is intriguing that CiU believe that in order to get back in the power they must be as undefined as possible with regards to Catalonia’s sovereignty.

Mas has illustrated this a few times, he declared months ago that in a referendum of independence he’d vote “yes” but shortly after said that “now’s not the time” to organize one. The problem is that he’s never said when would be, in his opinion, a good time for that.

At least it seems that for a significant part of the Catalan society now is indeed as good a time as any other. To contradict Mas’ statements there are several polls and the independence referendums themselves that show that even in traditionally Spanish-speaking areas what actually unites Catalan society is, after all, the conviction that Catalonia needs to become a State in the EU as soon as possible.

Many interesting things have happened in the last 10 Days in Catalonia and I wish I had been able to write about them but an intercontinental move, an awful cold I caught thanks to the Siberian cold wave that is sweeping Europe, some socialising and an unreliable internet connection have stopped me from doing so until today. But more to the point, I’ll write a few entries about the events enumerate the topics that I believe are important to be up to date on what’s going on in Catalonia right now.

Firstly, the aftermath of the 13D referendums, there has been some tensions between the organisers of the referendums. The story starts with the organisators splitting in two separate entities back in October, one comprising the consultations that took place in the Osona shire and led by Alfons López Tena and the other one taking care of the rest of the country.

When the results were made public it was clear that even though both organisations did an excellent job Tena’s team had achieved better results by means of a much higher participation and Alfons López Tena publicly criticised the other organisers. This caused some disappointment at first but seems like now both organisations have agreed to work together to learn from the past experiences and make it better in the February and April rounds of referendums.

It also seems that the Barcelona referendum might be held at a later time than the initially planned Apirl the 25th, to which I agree. The day it is done in Barcelona it has to be very carefully planned and the maximum amount of effort will have to be made to make sure it is a non arguable success. Therefore it might be beneficial to have a reasonable amount of time for preparation and as much experience from the previous referendums as possible.

The reaction to the referendums in the Spanish media was the obvious and expected one attempting to minimise it by stressing the “low” participation. They can keep fooling themselves (and their arrogance plays in Catalonia’s favour) but in my opinion if we keep making progress at this pace soon the process of organising a final binding referendum will reach the point of no return.