ARTUR MAS, the leader of Catalonia, has a clear message for Madrid: He
is serious about his threat to let the people of Spain's most
economically powerful region decide for themselves in a referendum
whether they should remain a part of Spain.
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In fact, he said in an interview this week, he would personally vote
for independence if the opportunity arose. "Our ideal is to be part of
the United States of Europe," he said.
That kind of posturing has thrust Mr. Mas, 56, to the forefront of
Spanish politics and made Catalonia the biggest domestic headache for
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is facing troubles on all sides as
he tries to satisfy demands from the European Union to straighten out
Spain's economy and from Spain's heavily indebted regions, including
Catalonia.
The question now for Mr. Rajoy, and for all of Spain, is just how far
Mr. Mas, a once relatively obscure politician who was elected regional
president two years ago, is willing to go in posing what may be the
most serious challenge to a sovereign entity in Europe since the
implosion of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Mr. Mas's talk is not idle. With a $260 billion economy that is
roughly the size of Portugal's, an independent Catalonia and its 7.5
million inhabitants — 16 percent of Spain's population — would rank
ahead of a dozen of the 27 nations in the European Union. But like
most of Spain's regions, it is under great financial pressure and
would like a better deal from Madrid.
In that respect, his threats may amount to nothing more than
brinkmanship, as he applies to Madrid much the same tactic it has used
to gain favorable treatment in its own dealings with Brussels: that
is, that Catalonia, which has its own language and sense of identity,
is simply "too big to fail" without calamitous consequences that no
one wants to see. On Friday, Catalonia's government raised the
pressure, saying it would not be able to meet its September payments
for basic services like heath care on schedule.
The great risk is that Mr. Rajoy's government — squeezed as it is,
itself weighing a European bailout — is hardly in a position to
appease Catalonia's demands under a Spanish tax system that
redistributes revenue from the richest to the poorest regions, without
also raising tensions with other struggling regions.
The grievances run in both directions. In Catalonia's view, Madrid has
drained its finances, while Madrid accuses Catalonia, like nearly all
of Spain's regions, of mismanaging its books.
In the interview on Wednesday in the Catalan government's medieval
palace, Mr. Mas was unrepentant about further unnerving investors who
already question Mr. Rajoy's ability to meet agreed deficit targets
and clean up Spanish banks. Instead, he contended that it was Mr.
Rajoy who had forced Catalonia down the separatist path, after
rejecting its demands unconditionally.
"When you get a clear no, you have to change direction," Mr. Mas said.
Although he acknowledged that there was no guarantee Catalonia would
succeed in imposing its claims on Madrid, he argued that "the
worst-case scenario is not to try, and the second-worst is to try and
not get there."
HIS advice to Mr. Rajoy was to avoid further delay in tapping a
bond-buying program, devised by the European Central Bank largely with
Spain's rescue in mind. European financing — in the form of billions
of dollars in subsidies received after Spain joined the European Union
in 1986 — had already played a major part in Spain's development, he
noted.
"The problems of Spain now supersede its capacities, so that it needs
help," Mr. Mas said. "If you have no other choice than to ask for a
rescue, the sooner the better."
Asked, however, where Spain would stand without Catalonia, its
industrial engine, Mr. Mas was unperturbed. "Spain without Catalonia
is not insolvent but more limited," he said.
An economist by training, Mr. Mas comes from a Catalan family linked
to the metal and textile sectors, which were at the heart of the
region's development after the Industrial Revolution. Having studied
at a French school in Barcelona and then learned English, he also
stands out as a rare multilingual leader in Spain's political
landscape.
He climbed the ladder of Catalonia's politics over a long career as a
public servant in the shadows of another politician, Jordi Pujol, who
ran Catalonia for more than two decades. While hardly unknown in his
region, Mr. Mas has surprised even party insiders this year by the way
he has thrown caution to the wind in challenging Mr. Rajoy.
"We all knew Mas as an efficient technocrat and one of our very best
managers, but I don't think many people expected him to show such
courage and patriotic feelings," said Josep Maria Vila d'Abadal, a
mayor and member of Mr. Mas's party, Convergència i Unió.
Mr. Mas insisted that his separatist drive was "not about personal
ambition," saying he would retire from politics once Catalonia
achieved sovereignty. He is married with three children.
Even though Catalonia would face an uphill struggle to join the
European Union, particularly given Madrid's opposition, Mr. Mas said
that Brussels had shown in the two decades since the collapse of the
Soviet Union that it could adjust to much more dramatic and
unforeseeable nationhood claims.
Mr. Mas has already put words into action. Shortly after being
rebuffed by Mr. Rajoy over his tax demands, he called early elections
in Catalonia — on Nov. 25, two years ahead of schedule — that could
turn into an unofficial referendum on independence, after a mass rally
in Barcelona on Sept. 11 in which hundreds of thousands of Catalans
demanded to form a new European state.
On the heels of the rally, Mr. Mas and his nationalist party are
counting on significant gains in next month's election as they try to
convince Catalans that Mr. Mas can erase their longstanding complaints
about control from Madrid.
"We have created a big feeling of hope among a big part of our
society," Mr. Mas said.
SUCH comments, however, have also prompted criticism of Mr. Mas, led
by Madrid politicians as well as other regional leaders, who have
denounced Catalonia's attempt to break ranks in a time of crisis.
While Mr. Rajoy has steered clear of the wrangling, some conservative
politicians have warned of retaliatory measures. His deputy prime
minister warned Mr. Mas last week that Madrid would use every legal
instrument available to block a Catalan vote on independence, which
would violate Spain's Constitution.
Others accuse Mr. Mas of using the tussle with Madrid to shift the
blame for Catalonia's economic difficulties onto Mr. Rajoy and to
distract voters from his government's own shortcomings, including a
failure to meet the deficit target that the Catalan government set for
itself last year.
Last week, Pere Navarro, the leader of the opposition Catalan
Socialist Party, called Mr. Mas "a false prophet," who talked about a
promised land instead of recognizing that he had made Catalonia "worse
than two years ago," when Mr. Mas took office.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/06/world/europe/in-catalonia-spain-artur-mas-threatens-to-secede.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
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