Etiqueta: ERC

Oficialitat del Castellà, i si ho parlem més endavant?

albert 3 Comments

He llegit l’article de l’Oriol Junqueras garantint la oficialitat del castellà al futur Estat Català. Tots sabíem que aquest debat arribaria tard o d’hora i com a líder d’ERC la posició de l’Oriol Junqueras té un gran impacte. Jo proposo que abans d’arribar a conclusions en parlem abans.

L’idioma és un tema important perquè en el cas de Catalunya aquest, i no l’etnicitat, és el principal element de vertebració de la identitat nacional.

Primerament, m’agrada que ja estiguem debatint com serà el futur estat català. Però abans d’entrar a cap altra consideració hem de reconèixer que el català ha estat discriminat, perseguit i atacat sense treva durant els últims segles i que d’això ha creat la seva actual situació de feblesa i que per tant no ens ha de fer por actuar per que el català tingui en lloc que li correspon a la nostra societat.

També crec que no es podrà negar que una gran part de la població ha arribat a posicions independentistes per la defensa de la llengua. Per tant aquest és un tema cabdal per a molts catalans.

Estarem d’acord en que fins ara cap col·lectiu castellanoparlant no havia mostrat cap tipus de preocupació respecte del futur del castellà a l’estat català. Som els mateixos independentistes els únics preocupats amb aquest tema.

Em sembla que ningú qüestiona que a l’Estat Català:

  • la llengua pròpia és el català (i l’aranès)
  • tots els idiomes seran respectats
  • buscar escenaris de puresa lingüística no és realista ni pràctic, jo mateix vinc d’una família bilingüe i és evident que dominar més d’un idioma té grans avantatges

Malgrat i que m’agrada la gestió d’en Junqueras al capdavant d’ERC la manera com ha despatxat aquest tema assegurant que el castellà serà oficial a la República Catalana m’ha decepcionat una mica.

M’ha donat la sensació de parlar sota una certa pressió per a guanyar vots ara que s’acosten eleccions (encara que no veig gaire a quin col·lectiu s’adreça) actuant amb un cert bonisme i una mica de candidesa. En la meva opinió penso que li ha mancat una mica de sentit d’estat. Cosa que no es sorprenent, els catalans hem patit molt i tenim por de semblar autoritaris, però crec que en aquest cas ens passem de la ratlla amb nosaltres mateixos.

Abans d’arribar a conclusions suggereixo mirar al nostre voltant i veure com es gestionen certes situacions lingüístiques que tenen algunes similituds:

  • Per exemple, protegint al feble. Al Quebec l’única llengua oficial és el francès. Inclús sense ser independents saben com n’és d’important la protecció de l’idioma que els diferencia com a nació francòfona enmig d’un mar d’anglès.
  • L’argument de que tothom el parla per a fer oficial un idioma. A Dinamarca malgrat i que tothom parla l’anglès dubto que mai se’ls acudís donar-li cap tipus d’oficialitat
  • O l’argument de la immigració, dubto que a Alemanya fos rebuda amb massa entusiasme una suggerència de fer oficial el turc per a esgarrapar uns quants vots extra d’entre els 3 milions d’immigrants d’aquest país que hi resideixen.
  • Lamentablement donant l’oficialitat del castellà a l’estat català estarem incentivant que els únics bilingües continuïn sent els catalanoparlants i donant aixopluc legal a la part de la població que no volen fer servir el català, i per un país petit com Catalunya suposarà una bomba de rellotgeria contra la cohesió social

I si algú es pensa que una vegada independents tot seran flors i violes amb Espanya i que no patirem intents de desestabilització com per exemple els que encara pateixen els letons per part de Rússia vol dir que encara no sap de quin peu calcen els nostres veïns.

I com que la política lingüística és un dels instruments més decisius per a la cohesió dels estats penso que per a fer aquest tipus de debat el millor és que primer ens dotem d’un estat. Personalment penso que és una mala idea donar oficialitat al castellà però el millor és que una vegada independents els catalans parlin i votem si se li dóna cap tipus de reconeixement legal en referèndum. Segurament des de l’altra banda veurem algunes coses més clares.

(actualització a 9 d’Octubre – penso que és important llegir aquesta editorial d’en Vicent Partal – La Catalunya ucraïnesa: un perill)

Madrid’s “No” is Catalonia’s ladder of escape

albert 1 Comment

The Catalan Parliament shifted visibly on wednesday from left-right blocks to Catalonia-Spain blocks. CiU, ERC and ICV, the Catalan parties, voted in majority on one side to demand Spain for Catalonia to collect all its taxes. PSC and PP were on the other side.

Catalonia is being deliberately starved of its own resources by the Spanish Government to force a bankruptcy and intervene. While this struggle may seem from the outside as purely an internal Spanish problem it is not. The starvation of resources is deliberate to force Catalonia to ask for a bailout to continue with Spain’s nationalistic agenda.

Even though from Catalonia things could certainly have been done better it would not be in this dire situation if it wasn’t for the 16 billion euros, or around 8-10% of its GDP (that’s about 40% of all taxes collected in Catalonia) which is plundered every year by Spain. Catalonia is only asking to dispose of its own resources in this time of crisis.

On wednesday a clear shift has taken place and the Catalan Parliament shows now a Catalonia-Spain dicotomy. While many independentists don’t believe this intermediate station is required (to ask Spain for Catalonia to collect all its taxes) Spain’s predictable reaction may be and eye opener for many to join the pro independence ranks. Currently 51% of Catalans would vote yes to independence and only 21% would vote no. With a 8% growth of the yes option only in the last year.

Immediately after the Catalan Parliament resolved to demand Spain to collect all taxes (currently Spain collects >95% of the taxes in Catalonia) Spanish Miniter Montoro completely discarded the possibility. The Basque Country already enjoys the tax collection system that Catalonia is demanding and it has proven effective since unemployment figures are half of those in Catalonia and it’s economy much more sheltered from the Spanish crisis.

After the summer Catalonia will need financing from Spain to pay its debts, but in exchange Spain will demand political changes that will be targeted against Catalan culture and interests. Spain has been using the legal system to this end in the last 3 decades.

And then at that point Catalonia will be at the crossroads. To let Spain take control and disappear or to become a State. President Mas will have to take control of the situation justified on Spain’s disloyalty against Catalonia and eventually let Catalan people speak. Events are accelerating.

Spanish elections analysis

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Yesterday’s Spanish elections showed a predictable result in Spain with the absolute majority of right wing Spanish nationalists PP and the also predictable collapse of PSOE due to their mistakes in managing the crisis. This shows a uniform blue painted Spain for the first time.

In the midst of the blue tide in the Spanish State only Catalonia and the Basque Country appear clearly politically differentiated. Catalan CiU have for the first time been the most voted party in Catalonia at the Spanish elections with 16 deputies. The most noticeable change has been PSOEs collapse going from 25 deputies to 14. PP with 11 hasn’t even achieded their best results from 1993.

On the other hand we have ERC-RCat. With 3 deputies (maybe 4) Bosch has done remarkably well in stopping the downwards spiral that had started in the last two elections and was threatening to leave them without any deputies according to polls from only two months ago. Instead, they have increased their representation and could even achieve one deputy for Girona, depending on the expat votes. This shows it was a mistake to not have Reagrupament’s Quim Torra be the candidate for Girona, as Junqueras wanted.

However, these results validate Junqueras’ change of direction and shows that ERC+RCat have the potential to become the core of a broad Catalan independentist coalition for the 2014 Catalan elections. An important date since it will be the 300 anniversary of the Spanish occupation in Catalonia.

Also good news is that Catalan left wing ecologists ICV have trebled their representation and now have 3 deputies. Meaning that Spanish parties, which traditionally dominated the Spanish elections in Catalonia, with 25 deputies are quickly losing ground to Catalan parties with 21 deputies.

In the Valencian Country for the first time Coalició Compromís has managed to break the dominance of the Spanish parties and the Valencian voice will be heard in the Spanish Congreso.

In Euskadi the abertzale coalition Amaiur have achieved historical results and have become the most voted party. This hints the possibility that in the next Basque elections Basque parties could concentrate the great majority of the votes which could potentially trigger serious political changes in that country.

The clear differences in the results in Catalonia and the Basque Country with Spain question the legitimacy of any of Spain’s predictable future attacks to Catalonia’s self government, culture and institutions. A desperate Spanish State with undermined political and economic independence by the severe measures that Europe will impose will turn to Catalonia’s self-government as a scapegoat. Hopefully, with a lot of work and a bit of luck these may be the last Spanish elections for Catalonia.

In the meantime, even though they are two very different situations in Catalonia we have some lessons to learn from the Basques. Until April it was them who looked towards Catalonia because of the popular referendums of independence but after the successes of Bildu in May and now Amaiur they seem to have found a way to translate the popular demand for independence into a political representation in a way that Catalan parties have failed to do.

Update: Syniadau have written an excellent analysis of the Spanish elections results. I recommend it.

Pictures by El Punt Avui

Per què he votat ERC-RCat-CatSí

albert Leave a comment

Per si a algú li pot interessar avui estic content. Estic content perquè ja he enviat el meu vot, ja que sóc resident a l’estranger i ho he pogut fer a una llista que de fet m’agrada, em sembla que abans només m’havia passat una vegada.

Després de tot el que ha passat amb els partits independentistes els últims anys finalment es veuen brots verds. ERC i Reagrupament concorren junts a unes eleccions i per mi la presència de Reagrupament és la garantia que aquesta vegada per a ERC la independència no és un objectiu secundari i es posa la llavor per a una gran coalició independentista en un futur proper.

Vaig ser molt crític amb ERC al passat i puc entendre que per a molta gent encara estan en fase de proves per a veure quina és la dimensió de la renovació. Però després de la davallada d’ERC a les últimes dues eleccions només un nom em venia al cap com a possible renovació: Junqueras. I va passar. Els militants ho han vist i l’anterior direcció s’ha fet a una banda sense crear més faccions i obrir nous conflictes.

En quant a en Junqueras ja fa temps que el seguia llegint amb interés sobre les seves iniciatives al Parlament Europeu i escoltant els seus discursos i no només vaig descobrir algú que coneix profundament la història del seu país sinó es va guanyar la meva confiança per pensar que ho intentarà amb totes les seves forces. I no acaba aquí, no només en Junqueras ara és al capdavant d’ERC sinó que a sobre tenim com a candidat a Madrid a l’Alfred Bosch i per no parlar de pesos pesants com en Carretero donant un cop de mà a la campanya.

Per altra banda, no he pogut trobar motius per a votar CiU, no només no m’agrada que fins ara després que l’any passat fessin una campanya centrada en l’eix nacional i el concert fiscal una vegada al govern només s’han concentrat en les retallades sense fer cap tipus de pedagogia sobre l’espoliació, semblen no tenir més idees que retallar i retallar, vacil·len en la defensa del país davant dels constants atacs d’Espanya, el concert fiscal va passar a dir-se “pacte fiscal” i no semblen tenir cap projecte de reconstrucció nacional.

I centrant-nos més en en Duran. El candidat al Congreso és anacrònic, porta més de 30 anys dedicant-se a la política de forma professional i està totalment amortitzat. Diu que no vol la independència del seu país, i defensa orgullosament que va actuar amb “sentit d’estat” (espanyol, s’entén) salvant-lo repetidament d’una intervenció europea. Encara que aquest sigui el mateix estat que perpetra l’espoliació fiscal, es carrega l’estatut votat en referèndum, tomba la immersió lingüística, bloqueja l’oficialitat del català a Europa, actua contra els nostres interessos estratègics, com el corredor mediterrani o els aeroports, instiga el racisme anticatalà o fa broma sobre bombardejar Barcelona, entre moltes altres coses.

Quan el centre polític del país s’ha mogut massivament cap a posicions independentistes no podem tenim a un aferrissat defensor de l’estat espanyol al capdavant d’un partit català a Madrid. Penso que no votar Duran és facilitar la renovació de CiU i l’acostament d’aquesta cap a posicions sobiranistes. Que en Duran hagi estat repetidament el polític més ben valorat pels espanyols és senyal que no fa la seva feina.

D’altra banda l’Alfred Bosch m’agrada, i m’agrada perquè no és un polític professional, perquè està fent una campanya excel·lent en clau positiva i dirigida als catalans i a aquests es dirigirà des de Madrid amb l’altaveu li donarem. M’agrada que per fi una coalició catalana hagi decidit que no vol canviar Espanya, que només vol començar a preparar el divorci. Recomano aquesta entrevista a l’Alfred Bosch a l’Àgora de TV3.

I mentrestant s’haurà de pressionar a CiU per negociar la independència fiscal (a la qual no hem de tenir por ja que no faria més que augmentar les ganes d’independència, com a Euskadi i Navarra) i quan no s’aconsegueixi estendre-li la mà i ajudar-la en el seu camí cap a la construcció d’un estat català.

Madrid és un altaveu que no hem de desaprofitar ja que tots els corresponsals estrangers llegeixen la premsa espanyola, de la qual tots en coneixem la seva qualitat i que per tant tenen una idea molt esbiaixada de la realitat a Catalunya. Per desgràcia en la majoria de casos aquests corresponsals repeteixen tal qual als mitjans internacionals allò que llegeixen i escolten allà.

Necessitem una veu com la de Bosch a Madrid. S’apropen temps difícils i cal que els catalans tinguem una veu clara, valenta i el més forta possible per a tirar endavant el gran repte de la nostra generació, crear l’estat català. El moment decisiu s’apropa.

Upcoming elections in Spain and Catalonia’s invisibility

albert 1 Comment

Next November the 20th, on the anniversary of Franco’s death, there will be elections to the Spanish Parliament. Nobody has any doubt that right wing PP will win by an overwhelming majority of the votes since the current crisis and Zapatero’s frivolous policies have payed too high a toll on PSOE’s credibility. However, nobody knows what PP will do once they win, probably not even themselves.

Even though some Catalans claim that there’s no reason for Catalans to vote on those elections I disagree. Representation at the Spanish Parliament is very important since, while we are not independent, many things affecting Catalonia are decided there and therefore we need to defend our interests. Plus it is also a good way of publicizing Catalonia’s independence since many Catalans read Spanish centric media and all foreign correspondents are based in Madrid and only see what goes on there.

Last tuesday there was a face to face debate on the Spanish public TV between PSOE’s candidate Rubalcaba and PP’s Rajoy. Ignoring the fact that there are 10 different parties in the Congreso de los Diputados and therefore no reason to invite only 2 of them to a debate. During the debate Catalonia was not mentioned once. Not a single word regarding the Catalan fiscal deficit, the Constitutional Court amendment of the Catalan Statute, the dismantling of the the language immersion in schools or the mediterranian freight railway line or even their opinion how 75.7% of voters think Catalonia needs a new fiscal deal that guarantees collection of all taxes or that 65% of votes would go to independence. Nothing.

To illuatrate this, when the show started and the presenter greeted the Portuguese and Italian audiences (since the debate was being broadcasted by TV channels from those countries) in their languages but did not say a word in their languages to the Catalan, Basque or Galician speaking audiences (even though ignoring all other languages that are not Spanish is the norm in Spanish public TV)

On wednesday there was another debate on the Spanish public TV where out of the 10 parties only 5 were allowed to take part and ERC, with 3 deputies, was left out while IU (Spanish left wing), with only 2 deputies, was included. They claimed IU is a “nation wide” (meaning Spanish State-wide ) party as opposed to ERC which only available in Catalan countries. Therefore IU is more relevant. This left out a party that represents more than 200000 voters when the easiest would have been to bring extra chairs.

To me, all this, aside from the lack of democratic culture. Shows how scared the Spanish are of any actual debate about Catalonia (or Catalonia’s independence).

And finally some self criticism. I guess Spanish politicians don’t really feel that they need to say much about Catalonia since PP and PSOE are going to be two of the 3 most voted parties in Catalonia. They probably feel they have more to lose than to gain from doing so.

However, it is worrying that at the time when independentism is as its height voters don’t feel any of the available Catalan parties will be able to defend their interests in Madrid. This has been studied before. Voters change their vote depending of the elections. For the Catalan elections they’ll vote the party the party they want at the Generalitat but for the Spanish elections they’ll vote with a Spanish frame of mind.

Only a referendum of independence will show actual support of independence. One cannot infer that ERC’s 3 deputies at the Spanish Parliament reflect the social support to Catalonia’s independence. It would be like saying that only people who vote ecologist parties are concerned with the environment.

Also, some good news, it seems that, as I pointed out before, the change in the leaderships in ERC is already improving the expected results, which initially predicted ERC would lose their 3 deputies. Now it seems they may be able to keep them. I’m also happy about how the integration with Reagrupament and Catalunya Sí brings us closer to a broad Catalan independentist coalition for the next Catalan elections in 2014.

New leaderships for Catalan Independentism

albert 2 Comments

ERC have gone from being on their way to being the second Catalan party to being in danger of becoming irrelevant after the last two rounds of elections and has left Catalan independentism clearly underrepresented in the Catalan Parliament. It seems now that the party has finally come to the conclusion that it needs to change strategy since the current prioritizing the left wing policies over the independentism has proven disastrous. Also, ERC hasn’t been able to deal with the different ideological and power struggles from within which have progressively weakened it.

Since May it has not been able to be an effective oposition and make CiU’s contradictions more clear in the face of the severe cuts applied to the Generalitat’s budget and the deals CiU has closed with PP.

So when internal elections in ERC were called everyone looked over to Brussels for Oriol Junqueras. Junqueras, an independent euro MP for ERC has stayed away from all the internal struggles while at the same time managing to collect a promising array of successes. His most recent achievement was to win the the municipal elections in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, the biggest council that ERC have won in the past municipal elections. Junqueras is now virtually ERC’s president, since noone else has taken a step forward to compete for the position.

Junqueras has managed to articulate a Catalan front, siding with CiU (Ramon Tremosa) and ICV (Oriol Romeva), in Brussels and also in Sant Vincenç which great success in defending Catalan interests and creating a set of alliances which make sense and that many people would like to see translated into the Catalan and Spanish Parliaments.

Junqueras’ appointment as leader of ERC sends a very clear message. ERC wants to take the lead as the main party of Catalan independentism. Also, a lot of care has been taken to avoid internal struggles and to make the handover period as smooth and peaceful as possible.

But now a new front has been opened. The upcoming elections to the Spanish Parliament (Congreso de los Diputados) on November the 20th finds ERC in the middle of its transition. On September the 17th ERC members will also elect their candidate for the Spanish elections. The
options are Joan Ridao and Alfred Bosch.

Bosch, a successful writer and historian, was the spokesman for Barcelonadecideix.cat, the entity formed by volunteers which organised the popular referendum for independence in Barcelona last April, and has accepted the challenge at Junqueras’ request. Bosch is perceived, as an independent, to be an excellent choice for leading a Catalan coalition in Madrid.

If Bosch is elected interesting things may happen. Reagrupament have already shown interest in a coalition and the members of SI have voted that the party can only go to Madrid within a Catalan coalition, so they are forced to speak with ERC. If this finally takes place it could steal a chunk of votes from CiU since their candidate Duran i Lleida has a clear profile against independence and many of CiU’s independentist voters would not feel comfortable voting him.

Pictures by Oriol Junqueras and BarcelonaDecideix2011