Resources – Pàgina 4 – CataloniaDirect

In a nutshell: What is Catalonia and why it wants independence

17/08/201017/08/2010 albert 22 Comments

Catalonia is one of the oldest European nations. Located on the north eastern side of the Iberian peninsula with a current population if 7.5 million people. It has its own culture, language and traditions. Until 1714 was an independent state with its own government, laws, constitution and institutions. It has one of the oldest democratic traditions having created the first Parliament in mainland Europe during the middle ages.

In 1714, after the defeat in the succession war the Castilians imposed their language, dismantled the Catalan institutions and committed a cultural and historical genocide attempting to erase any historical traces that portrayed Catalonia as a leading nation in Europe and the Mediterranean.

Catalonia has throughout history played an important role as one of the richest areas commercially thanks to its privileged location and during the 19th century becoming the first industrialised area in Southern Europe and continuing to this day thanks to its long entrepreneurial tradition. It is also a cultural pole with decisive contributions to western culture.

The 20th century brought a civil war, two dictatorships and even further efforts to make Catalonia become a Castillian (Spanish) province by actively prosecuting and illegalizing public use of the language and culture and banning Catalonia’s claims for self-rule. Fortunately, the Catalan nation has resisted all efforts to make it disappear.

Since the death of Franco in 1975, with the Bourbon restoration and Spain closely watched by western countries, Spain attempted to clean their image (that of a developing, poor, old-fashioned and backwards country) and to project an image of a democratic country which respects the nations that compose it. Unfortunately, this was only a mirage.

The restoration of the Spanish monarchy never led to a prosecution of the fascist regime that preceded it and therefore the foundations of the state and its Constitution are heavily rooted in the previous regime. The current Spanish constitution only recognises the existence of one nation, the Spanish one and doesn’t give Catalan language an official status. Amongst other things, it gives the army permission to act against secession attempts. The Spanish legal system is heavily politicized and dependent of the Castillian interests creating a de facto first class nation, (the Castillian-Spanish one) and several second class nations: Catalan, Basque and Galician. Catalonia is currently an Autonomous Community inside the Spanish state and has the same status and degree of self-government as the Spanish provinces which are not nations.

Catalonia currently sustains an unparalleled fiscal plundering of 10% of its GDP, around 22000 million Euros every year, which equates to about 3000 Euros per Catalan citizen. There are no control mechanisms or possibilities of negotiation for wealth redistribution inside of Spain and the process lacks transparency since the latest official data available is from 2005. After wealth redistribution Catalonia loses 8 positions in the Spanish welfare ranking starting as 3rd and ending up below the Spanish average on the 11th position. In federal countries this redistribution is limited and controlled, ranging from 2% (ie Canada) to 4% (Germany) of the GDP of the richest regions. Unlike in Spain, wealth redistribution in federal countries is generally limited so that rich regions don’t go down in welfare status because of this.

Catalan, though it is the 10th European language in number of speakers is not official in Europe, even though languages with less speakers such as Danish, Finnish, Norwegian or even Maltese with only a few thousand are. Spain actively lobbies and bans Catalan national teams from entering official competitions and coerces Catalan players to play in Spanish national teams with the threat of disqualification from official competitions if they don’t. Spain holds bilateral agreements which ban flights to Barcelona airport from more than 30 international destinations. The list is endless.

The chronic lack of infrastructures in Catalonia caused by the fiscal plundering is now, in a crisis environment, heavily damaging the possibilities of the Catalan economy to recover. Examples of this are a third class airport, most of the toll motorways in the Spanish state and no railway that links the Mediterranean coast with Europe.

The financial plundering is unsustainable and the impoverishment rate is alarming with 20% unemployment and all important economical decisions are made 700km away in Madrid not only ignoring Catalonia’s interests but against them.

Catalan institutions are equivalent to a Colonial Parliament where almost any law approved at the Catalan Parliament can be overridden by a Spanish law if they don’t like it and the attributions are mostly limited to the management of certain public services such as education, healthcare and the police with no real decision power. As an example, Spain are currently looking for a formula to counter the recent bullfighting ban in Catalonia voted by the Catalan Parliament.

Catalan culture is also threatened, even though historically the Catalan language has been the best tool for integration of the immigration lack of power to enforce its use is making it quickly lose shares of usage with a growth of immigration from practically 0 to more than 10% of the Catalan population in the last 10 years causing social unrest and unbalances.

Catalonia has tried all possible ways to improve its situation and now, after 150 years of attempting to fit inside of Spain, having decisively contributed to Spain’s development to become the 8th biggest economy in the world Catalonia has seen any attempt of greater self-governance to improve its situation frustrated by the lack of democratic culture in Spain.

The last chapter of the new Statute from 2006, the law that defines Catalonia’s self-government within Spain, which granted slightly improved self governance, was approved by 90% of the Catalan Parliament. It was heavily watered down by the Spanish Parliament but later was approved in a referendum by the Catalans. Finally, it was appealed by the Spanish parties to the Spanish Constitutional Court and further cut by this highly politically biased court acting like a de facto legislative chamber rather than as an independent law court. This has cut any aspirations of greater self-government inside of Spain forever, leaving the new Statute even worse in most aspects than the previous one. Even the most conservative layers of society in Catalonia have been disappointed, leaving independence as the only way forward for Catalonia.

For all these reasons we believe that it is not only a matter of identity but also a matter of pure survival for Catalonia to achieve independence democratically and to become a state within the European Union as soon as possible.

The benefits are multiple. Europe will gain a rich, stable and democratic commercial ally in Southern Europe that has the potential to become the 4th richest state in the European Union. It would also be a pole of stability in the Southern European area and the gate to commerce with Asia in Europe with (once the fiscal plundering is over) first class infrastructures and an economy based in added value activities achieved through excellence in education.

Catalonia has all the ingredients to become, once independent, an advanced country with a high degree of democracy and social welfare rivaling the most advanced countries in the world and that is why we ask you to spread the word about our democratic struggle to regain our independence. Thank you.

Picture courtesy of Xavi Bassols

I’ll start posting the sources to the data, I’ll try to find them in english but most times the sources will only be available in Catalan or Spanish.

The Spanish Constitution – 1978 PDF in English. Section 2, Section 3 articles 1 and 8
Wikipedia article on the Nueva Planta decrees that abolished Catalan institutions and government in 1714 in English
Spain’s legal system rates 60 out of 133 in judicial independence just after Nigeria in the Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 by the World Economic Forum
Latest data (from 2005) published in 2008 by the Spanish Government on the fiscal balances PDF in Spanish
Fundació Josep Irla – Estimation of the fiscal balances between the autonomous communities and the Spanish State 1979-2005 PDF in Catalan
Summary of results of the report on the Catalan fiscal balances of the period 1986-2001 by the experts group of the Catalan Government PDF in Catalan
Summary of results of the report on the Catalan fiscal balances of the period 2002-2005 by the experts group of the Catalan Government PDF in Catalan
The Spanish Ombudsman appeals to the Spanish Constitutional Court the Catalan Welcoming and Integration Law that says Immigrants in Catalonia will be welcomed in Catalan so that they are welcomed in Castilian-Spanish instead Link to news in Catalan
PP will promote a law in the Spanish Parliament to overturn the Catalan Bullfighting Ban approved by the Catalan Parliament Link to news in Spanish
Spanish Consitutional Court’s sentence on the Catalan Statute PDF in Spanish
Fresno Case of Spanish lobbying against Catalan national teams Link in English and in Catalan
Cercle d’Estudis Sobiranistes – Economic studies, graphs and data about Catalonia Link in Catalan
Cercle Català de Negocis – PDF presentations and data with sources about Catalonia’s fiscal plundering and the economic viability of a Catalan State within the EU Link in Catalan
Barcelona airport is banned from flying to 23 countries Link in Catalan and article in CataloniaDirect in english
Sample of Spanish media promoting anti Catalan racism Link to my article and to the original poll in Spanish

No more bullfighting in Catalonia

28/07/201028/07/2010 albert 8 Comments

Catalan Parliament has finally approved to ban bullfighting in Catalonia. This decision has attracted much foreign media attention and surprise for its supposed meaning coming from a country which is now inside the Spanish state. Even though it was popular in Catalonia many decades ago and Barcelona even had at one point 3 bullfighting rings those have progressively closed as people lost interest and now there’s only one left open. Nowadays bullfighting “shows” in Barcelona are practically only attended by tourists brought in for the show from nearby towns, mistakenly thinking they’re watching a popular local tradition.

The bullfighting ban was promoted by an animal rights association and it was decided that this time Catalan deputies would have freedom to vote, since every other time they must vote according to the party’s guidelines and therefore the pro bullfighting Spanish lobbies have been pressuring very strongly each deputy whose vote wasn’t clear.

The Spanish have taken this ban as an offense, even though the Canary Islands banned it back in 1991, since they see this as an attack to their fragile national identity, based in symbols such as bullfighting, especially if this initiative comes from Catalonia, a country where latest polls show that a majority of people want independence and where a few days ago more than a million people took the streets of Barcelona to defend Catalonia’s right to regain its independence.

On the other hand, most people in Catalonia just see this ban as a normal and logical step towards a more civilised society where animal torture has no space in public shows. The ban will come into full effect in 2012 and no more bullfights will be allowed

International press coverage:

UN’s sentence on Kosovo clears the way for Catalonia’s independence

22/07/201022/07/2010 albert 19 Comments

Today the UN’s International Court of Justice said Kosovo’s independence didn’t break any rules since there are no international laws that prohibits declarations of independence. This is very important for many stateless nations in the world, including Catalonia. The list of countries against Kosovo’s independence includes China, Serbia, Russia and Spain. Spain’s fear was that this ruling would create a precedent that stateless nations such as Euskal Herria (Basque Country) or Catalonia could use to accelerate their processes of independence.

This is excellent news and with very good timing since only two weeks ago Spain’s Constitutional Court sentenced that Catalonia has no right to organise referendums and therefore the possibility of a referendum of independence was shut leaving only the declaration of independence. Today’s sentence does indeed create a precedent in international law and clarifies that the international community would support Catalonia should we decide to follow the same path.

Catalan independentist association Reagrupament has been defending for years that this is the best choice for Catalonia and precisely this week a call to all Catalan independentists to unite to achieve this target was done by Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència, led by Laporta, López Tena and Bertran. Reagrupament have already showed their support and cooperation.

Congratulations to Kosovo!

Update on July 24th:

To clarify things you can download the full sentence here, in english. The precedent the sentence creates refers, in plural and in general to declarations of independence. Let’s read some of the articles:

80 “Thus, the scope of the principle of territorial integrity is confined to the spehere of relations between states” Meaning the principle of territorial integrity doesn’t apply if a secession comes from within a state.

81 “…no general prohibition against unilateral declarations of independence may be inferred…”

84 “For the reasons already given, the Court considers that general international law contains no applicable prohibition of declarations of independence”

Now people can still argue Kosovo and Catalonia are different cases, which is true. But the above points of this sentence effectively are indeed applicable to any future declaration of independence.

Photo: AMWRanes

No, Mr Zapatero. The era of self-government has just started.

07/06/201007/06/2010 albert Leave a comment

Zapatero declared on May the 25th that: “hemos culminado la fase del autogobierno” (link in Spanish) (this is the culmination of the phase of self-government), you can even check the audio here (in Spanish). Quite explicitly declaring that he has no intention of supporting any further self-government increases for the autonomous communities, like Catalonia, and implicitly telling us what can we expect of the forever delayed sentence from the Spanish Constitutional Court on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy.

Catalan independentism had forgotten about the Statute a long time ago, looking much further into regaining Catalan independence. However, many Catalans still believed in eventually achieving a more comfortable degree of self-government through a hypothetical federal Spain.

PSOE (and especially its Catalan branch) had always fooled Catalans into believing that they wanted a federal multicultural Spain. One that respected the several cultures that currently exist inside the Spanish state as opposed to Partido Popular’s vision of a centralized, monocultural state with Castillian (Spanish) supremacy, similar to the French one. PSOE leaders claimed that Catalonia had three choices: to stay as an automonous community inside of Spain, to somehow become a state inside a hypotethical federal Spain or to regain it’s independent state.

To illustrate this, Catalan president, the socialist Montilla, declared on April the 9th: “I’m a Catalan and catalanist, Spanish and federalist, not in favor of an independent Catalonia” (link in Catalan). Now Zapatero has just made it impossible for a federal Spain to be conceived, effectively leaving Montilla without an alibi and making it clear that PSOE’s model for Spain is just the same as PP’s.

Now there’s nowehere to hide, there are only two choices for Catalonia: to stay in Spain, be assimilated and become a Spanish region (and become bankrupt and impoverished in the process, let’s not forget Spain is one of the european PIGS) or to regain its independence and save itself and, through a lot of hard work, become the rich, modern state it has the potential to be.

Thanks Mr Zapatero. We know now that the era of self-government has just started.

Related articles: an excellent translation to english of an excellent opinion article on the subject (in catalan) by Vilaweb‘s director Vicent Partal can be found here, thanks to Liz Castro.

Picture: Philippe Grangeaud

Adéu, Espanya? The road to independence of Quebec, Scotland, Greenland and Catalonia

04/06/201004/06/2010 albert 38 Comments

Adéu Espanya

As we speak I’m still impressed by the documentary “Adéu, Espanya?” just watched online on live broadcast from the Catalan TV3. It portraits the realities in Greenland, Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia and the current situation on their paths to a possible future independence. I think this is the first time a catalan television discusses this topic so openly. The documentary compares our situation to other national realities. There’s a bunch of excellent interviews, including Scotland’s Primer Minister, Alex Salmond and excerpt of the history of every country, very enlightening and entertaining.

To me the most important message is that Catalonia is perfectly viable as an independent state, and refutes the only argument the unionists keep inisisting on that Catalonia would not be able to survive independently. The documentary proves that this is laughable because of Catalonia’s strong economy and vigorous cultural scene, not only it would survive but independence will improve Catalonia’s quality of life substantially.

On the other hand, it also shows how while the states containing the other countries in the documentary respect the national realities of Greenland, Scotland and Quebec and above all would respect their decision should they wish to become independent states in the Catalan case the Spanish State doesn’t. Also, Spain is the only country of the four that specifically threatens with and armed intervention in their constitution against a secession attempt.

Thank you TV3 and thank you Dolors Genovès, the director.

Unfortunately as we speak the documentary only includes Catalan subtitles and I don’t know if it will ever include english and since it’s not Youtube I don’t know hot to download it and do it myself. But I promise I’ll try. In any case, the production, soundtrack and photography are excellent and the panoramic views of the countries portrayed are reason enough to watch it.

Enjoy.

UPDATE on 2010/06/04:

Seems like the documentary was an absolute success: 733.000 people watched it on average, , audience leader in Catalunya and the most viewed showof the year on a thursday for TV3.

Also, the hashtag #adeuespanya to tweet about the documentary got to #1 in twitter trending topics in Spain! Awesome!

#adeuespanya #1 trending topics

Deconstructing Spain (part 2)

01/06/201001/06/2010 albert 6 Comments

El Mundo - Catalanofòbia

“Do you hate catalans?”. Guess in which european country it is OK to incite racism from mainstream media.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo (the second newspaper in Spain) asked its readers that question on 16th July, 2009. The exact question was “¿Se siente usted catalanófobo?” a direct translation would be “Are you catalanophobic?” or “Do you hate catalans?”. The original poll page can still be seen here.

The problem is twofold, first it is very serious that the mainstream Spanish media incites to racism and secondly and most worrying: nothing, absolutely nothing happened even though this is a crime and the spanish legal system should prosecute, according to its article 510, “…those who incite discrimination, hatred or violence against groups or associations for racist reasons…”.

In Spain insulting catalans on a daily basis from the media is a popular sport. It is a proven way to gain votes for the elections and audience for your radio or TV, the examples are countless. This happens so often that catalan newspaper Avui contains a section called “Good morning Madrid!” with a daily selection of insults to Catalans, Catalonia and Catalan institutions in general heard on Spanish radio stations.

Finally, the results. Out of 26648 people, 14981 (56%) answered yes.

Deconstructing Spain (part 1)

14/05/201014/05/2010 albert 3 Comments

This is the first of a series of articles where I’ll explain some probably not so well-known facts about the state of democracy in Spain and the way it affects Catalonia.

In 1969 Franco himself appointed the Bourbon (the current King of Spain) as his successor. The Bourbon swore to the principles of Franco’s “movimiento” after Franco’s death on November the 20th, 1975 to become the head of state. He never swore to the current Constitution of Spain from 1978.

Historically the period after Franco’s death is known in Spain as the “transición”, meaning a transition from dictatorship to democracy. However, more precisely it should be called the “restauración”, the restoration of the Bourbon King.

The Spanish, Catalan and Basque nations were never asked whether they were happy to have a Bourbon back and were never given the opportunity to organise themselves as a Republic instead, which had been the democratically legitimate regime before the Civil War.

The problem is that the legitimacy of the previous fascist dictatorship was never questioned and the whole process was carefully overlooked by the still powerful fascist state structures, especially the military. In any case, the monarchical restoration indeed served to give a layer of legitimacy to the Spanish State after 4 decades of dictatorship in the eyes of the international community.

However, new cracks are constantly appearing on the foundations of the Spanish state caused by the shortages of the restoration. For example, none of the crimes committed by the fascist regime during the dictatorship, which prosecuted the illegalized left wing parties and the Catalan and Basque nations, have been investigated to date. Unlike in the rest of Europe Spain’s fascists have not yet been prosecuted (in catalan and in english). Falange, Franco’s party, is still legal in Spain as of 2010. More about this here.

To illustrate this, Spain’s legal system rates 60 out of 133 in judicial independence just after Nigeria in the Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 by the World Economic Forum.

Another dark chapter of the Spanish restoration was the coup d’état of February the 23rd 1981. A group of armed “guardias civiles” occupied the Spanish Parliament and were supported by general Milans del Bosch who took the tanks out in Valencia in an attempt to go back to a military regime.

The official story made the Bourbon appear as a hero to the public opinion, saving Spanish democracy. However, there were many grey areas in the resulting investigations and the visible leaders were set free in the early 90s. As a result of the attempt much of the Catalan self-government granted by the Catalan Statute of 1979 was further limited using a law called LOAPA.

The concessions to Franco’s ideals in the current Constitution of Spain are many. It contains several articles explicitly aimed against future possible Catalan and Basque national claims. For example:

Article 8, which explicitly allows military action against any secessionist attempt Article 8 “1 . Las fuerzas armadas (…) tienen como misión garantizar la soberanía e independencia de España, defender su integridad territorial y el ordenamiento constitucional” The mission of the armed forces is to guarantee Spanish sovereignty and independence and defend its territorial integrity and constitution.

Chapter III Article 145 which blocks Spain from becoming a federal state. “1. En ningún caso se admitirá la federación de Comunidades Autónomas” Under no circumstance the federation of Autonomous Comunities (Catalonia and the Basque Country fall within this category) will be admitted

Also, the right of self-determination of the nations is not contemplated. Even though Spain signed the Charter of the United Nations which explicitly states the right of all nations to self-determination.

In all this, Catalan politicians are also to be partly blamed. Most of them enthusiastically collaborated during the restoration seeing this as an improvement over the dictatorship and decisively contributing to the political stability in Spain for 30 years while they tried to convince us Catalans that once Spain was rich it would become modern and open minded and Catalan national ambitions would eventually be fulfilled.

Historical Catalanism was aimed at converting Spain in a real confederation of Iberian nations, mainstream Catalan independentism is more recent. But now after 150 years of trying it’s clear for us that not only has Spain not changed but it is now showing in all crudeness its true colors. At least, Catalans can’t be blamed for not having tried.

But unlike Basque politicians, who didn’t agree with the Spanish Constitution and abstained, like the main basque party, PNB, or voted against it, the two main Catalan parties CDC and UDC naively didn’t realise how much they were giving up by accepting those terms and campaigned to vote yes. Only ERC campaigned against it. A full study on what each party campaigned for can be found here (link in Catalan).

The worst Catalan politicians did was that once the damage was made instead of showing us the reality of the situation they tried (and keep trying) to hide it and make the public opinion believe that the Spanish Constitution was a sort of pact between Spain and Catalonia when the reality is that the Catalan autonomy is a gracious concession of the Spanish state. For example, Catalonia has the same degree of autonomy as La Rioja, a region which has never been a nation.

Personally, I still don’t understand how a country with so very little democratic quality made it through to become a member of the European Union. Perhaps the other European states also believed, as we once did, that a richer Spain would slowly change. In any case, the reality is quite different.

Sant Jordi’s best read, the Constitution of Catalonia

24/04/201024/04/2010 albert 1 Comment

Constitució de Catalunya

My favourite day of the year in Catalonia is La Diada de Sant Jordi, our Saint Patron. Not only it is usually a beautiful sunny but cool day in Barcelona but walking around with all the little stands ornamented with senyeres (the Catalan flag) selling roses and books is a delight. Couples and families strolling down the streets, the girls holding their roses and books. If there’s a day worth experiencing in Catalonia that day is definitely Sant Jordi. I make a point of celebrating it every year no matter where I happen to be.

I’m gonna share with you this year’s favourite read of mine. A group of expert lawyers (interview in Catalan), at the request of Reagrupament’s Joan Carretero, have written the Constitution of Catalonia, in Catalan for us and in English, so that everyone can read it. Yesterday, newspapers Avui and El Punt distributed more than 70,000 printed copies of it.

Now that it’s clear that Spain’s project doesn’t (and has never tried to) include Catalonia and with tomorrow’s next round of popular Referendum of Independence I think the best way to move forward is to show what we want for our country. Currently the law that defines Catalonia’s self-government is the Statute of Autonomy. Statutes are laws that regulate companies and not nations and our current Statute is a Spanish law, therefore it is not the expression of the Catalan nation’s will. With this Constitution we want to make it clear that the sovereignty of Catalonia lies within the Catalans and not elsewhere.

The text is clear, brief and concise, as Constitutions should be. Our target now is for the Catalan Parliament to declare independence and pass it.

CONSTITUTION OF CATALONIA

We, the people of Catalonia,
Willing to re-establish our sovereign rights, conscious of our responsibility towards future generations and in order to build a united, prosperous, supportive, open community respectful with human dignity and with the fundamental rights, we provide ourselves with the present Constitution.

Preamble

The Constitution we provide us with is inspired on the principles contained into the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen from 1789, on the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights of the United Nations proclaimed in 1948 and on the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950.

Public authorities are obliged to ensure and respect those principles and fundamentals rights as established in this Constitution.

Title I.- General Principles. The sovereignty

Art.- 1. The State

Catalonia is an independent, democratic and social State under the Rule of Law

Art. 2. Exercise of the sovereignty

The national sovereignty belongs to the Catalan people, who exercise it directly or by its representatives.

Art. 3. The territory

The territory of Catalonia corresponds to the geographical boundaries of Catalonia.

Art. 4. The National Capital

The National Capital of Catalonia is the City of Barcelona.

Art. 5. Language

Catalonia has its own, national and official language, the Catalan language. Aran has its own, national and official language in that territory, the Occitan language in its Aranese variety. Linguistic freedom is ensured.

Art. 6. Nationality

A law will regulate the conditions to obtain, preserve and lose the national condition of Catalan. Citizens of the Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands, North Catalonia, Ponent Franja and Alguer are ensured to count on the Catalan national condition, upon requirement.

Art. 7. Symbols

Catalan symbols are the national flag, the national day and the national hymn.

Title II. Fundamental rights

Article 8. Human dignity

Human dignity is inviolable.

Article 9. Right to life

All human being has the right to life.

Death penalty, torture and inhuman or degrading treatment are forbidden.

Article 10. Equality before the law

Women and men are equal before the law.
No one may be harmed or favoured because of its origin, its race, its birth, its beliefs, its opinions or its social or other personal condition.

Article 11. Freedom

Individual freedom is guaranteed.
It is especially guaranteed:

a) Personal freedom and physical and moral integrity
b) Respect for private and family life
c) The right to honour and own image reputation
d) The inviolability of the home, correspondence and telecommunications
e) The right of having and raising children
f) Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
g) The freedom to have opinions, express and disseminate them
h) Freedom of the press
i) Freedom of association, assembly and demonstration
j) The right to strike and the right to collective bargaining
k) The right to receive education and freedom of education
l) The freedom of artistic creation and research
m) The freedom to choose and practice a profession
n) The freedom of enterprise, trade and industry
o) The freedom to set an own home
p) Freedom of access to public office

Article 12. Legal protection

Everyone has the right to obtain an effective judicial protection.

Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Any person arrested must be brought before the judge within the next twenty-four hours after his arrest.

Everyone has right to the natural judge default by law, to be defended by lawyer, to be informed of the nature of the accusation and to a public, fast and fair process.

Criminal laws and penalties are non-retroactive.

Special courts are prohibited.

Any person wrongfully detained is entitled to compensation for damage suffered.

Article13. Prohibition of censorship

Censorship is prohibited.

Article 14. Property

The right to property is guaranteed in its private and social function.

Article 15. Marriage

The right to marriage and to a family is guaranteed.
The freedom to constitute another form of common life than marriage is guaranteed.

Article 16. Protection of the territory

Everyone has the right to live in a balanced natural environment.
The State bodies are obliged to ensure equitable and rational land use. They must fight the noise and air, soil and water pollution and preserve the flora, wildlife and natural beauty of the landscapes as well as the natural and architectural heritage.

Article 17. Prohibition of arbitrariness

Everyone is entitled to be treated by State organs without arbitrariness and with full respect to the principles of goodwill.

Article 18 Political rights

Citizens have the right to participate in public affairs.
Any person over sixteen years old has the right to take part in elections, popular consultations and referendums, to be elected to hold public office and to support any popular legislative initiative.
A law shall specify the exceptional cases in which a person may be deprived of political rights.

Article 19. Popular legislative initiative

Fifty thousand voters or fifty municipalities may require the legislative power, by a popular legislative initiative, the promulgation, amendment or repeal of constitutional or legislation provisions.

Title III. The duties of the citizens

Article 20. The defence of Catalonia

Catalans have the duty and the right to defend Catalonia.

Article 21. Public expenditure

All citizens must contribute to the maintenance of public expenditure.

(Note: since the Constitution is being published in installments at Reagrupament’s website there are still 3 sections left to be published. I’ll update this post as soon as they become available)

(Video) Joan Laporta’s political speech (with english subtitles)

31/03/201031/03/2010 albert 1 Comment

In this post you can find embedded a the two videos (with English subtitles) that show Joan Laporta’s (the president of FC Barcelona) political speech last March the 21st at Reagrupament’s meeting.

It is a brave and nice speech that talks about why we need the independence for Catalonia as soon as possible and how that will improve all Catalan citizens’ prosperity and well being. Hope you enjoy it.

Next they Knock Down the Holy Family (‘La Sagrada Familia’)

23/03/201023/03/2010 albert Leave a comment

SOS Sagrada Família

This March 20, at 7:30 p.m., before the “Nativity” façade of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família Temple, between its bordering streets, Carrer Mallorca and Carrer Provença, there will be a candle-light protest vigil to make Catalans (especially Barcelonans) aware of the brutal attack about to befall Gaudí’s masterpiece: the high-speed train (known by its French acronym “TGV”, for Train à Grande Vitesse), will be routed so that it passes a mere 75 centimeters from the building’s foundations. Tomorrow’s grassroots act of protest will consist of the lighting of over 20,000 candles, the reading of a manifesto, and a performance by the Temple’s boy’s choir, l’Escolania de la Sagrada Família. So far, there have already been two cave-ins along Carrer Mallorca, very near the Font and Maiol passages, which has sounded the general alarm regarding the building’s well-being. That is, for everyone except the Socialist Party, which is imposing the route.

Many have questioned the Party’s motives for doing this “the hard way,” when it would be much more economical and more reasonable to choose pre-existing coastal or inland routes (for example, through El Vallès). No justification has been given, however, because there simply is none: running these high-speed trains within inches of this architectural masterpiece is a political, and not a technical, decision, and those behind it are José Montilla, Joaquim Nadal, Jordi Hereu, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. In a show of utter disdain for the thousands of signatures collected in protest, and of the professional opinions of internationally renowned experts, and displaying a complete lack of simple common sense, they continue wanting to subject this, Gaudí’s most emblematic work, and the most universally recognized symbol of Catalonia, to the risk of crumbling its foundations, at the same time putting innumerable people at risk of death, victims of an event that would provoke an international media blitz similar to that regarding the destruction of the Twin Towers, or the hypothetical destruction of Tower of London. In fact, major international news media, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and Le Monde, are already covering the case, as is German television, which recently broadcast a report titled “Tunneling Against the Temple:” “This terrible event could become reality. The most important and most emblematic symbol of Barcelona, the Temple of the Holy Family, could be brought crashing down.” The International Herald Tribune and the NY Times recently published statements by MIT Professor J. Mark Schuster, who said, “’To consciously endanger a World Heritage site is an act of thoughtless vandalism.”

But these vandals, the Socialist Party, respond to protests by yawning and looking away. Only other political parties (assuming any of them retain a sense of national dignity), in conjunction with the Catalan people themselves, will be able to avoid this catastrophe. There is still time to stop this barbarism ordered by Catalan and Spanish representatives of the Socialist Party from an office in Madrid. The Socialist Party has nothing but disgust for anything related to symbols of Catalan national identity, and we have witnessed this malignancy wherever it touches the life of our nation: in the (intentionally engineered) collapse of our rail system, the cave-in in Barcelona’s neighborhood of El Carmel, the massive black-out of 2007, the brushfire tragedies of L’Horta de Sant Joan, or the chaos that resulted from the lack of coping mechanisms against the snow this past March and the subsequent collapse of third-world-quality electrical infrastructures. If the Sagrada Família collapses, some committee will end up investigating itself, and not a single head would ever roll. Ever.

For all of the above, it is so very important to be one of those lighting over 20,000 candles at the “SOS” protest for the Sagrada Família on March 20th. Only by stopping this attempt to assassinate a national symbol can we save ourselves from future ridicule and shame. A people that does not defend its heritage is a people condemned to disappear. We must stop this barbarism, out of respect for Gaudí’s work, and out of respect for ourselves.

Note: This article was originally written and published by Víctor Alexandre in Catalan here

Thanks to Heather Hayes and Sal Constans for the translation.

Also, more information on the subject on the NY Times