Election results in Catalonia last week have given further support to
the Catalan nationalist cause and increased the likelihood that a
referendum on independence will be called in the country at some point
in the future. But, as the general secretary (GS) of the League
explores in the article below, the Spanish state is doing all it can
to resist attempts of the Catalans to exercise their democratic right
to self-determination. The GS argues that Catalonia?s fight for
independence is part of a growing movement of the peoples of Europe
who have the potential to redraw the European Union (EU) and shift the
balance of power to a more equal footing. The Spanish state have
argued that a referendum on independence in Catalonia is
unconstitutional and successive Spanish governments have repeated time
and again that they are not willing to amend the constitution to allow
the people a right to self-determination.
The Spanish Parliament is so concerned that the people of Catalonia
want to run their own affairs that Spanish military leaders have even
publically threatened the Catalans in recent years with violence if
they continue to pursue this particular political goal. The concerns
of the Spanish authorities that Catalans do want independence are more
than justified. There have been several highly organised, privately
sponsored and voluntarily run referendums over the last few years that
have shown the potential support for independence among the Catalan
people. In a recent poll, the Barcelona-based Centre d'Estudis
d'Opinio, showed that 51 per cent of Catalans would vote in favour of
full independence. The results of the poll was a motivating factor for
the Catalan parliament to vote in favour of holding a referendum on
independence for the first time in its history, but whether the
Catalan parliament will realise this aim in an official capacity
remains to be seen.
The Catalan elections that were called last month, two years before
the elections were due to take place, was an attempt by the Catalan
president Artur Mas of the ruling right of centre Convergència i Unió
(CiU) political party, to capture the popular support that the
independence debate is attracting among the general population,
especially since the deep economic crisis that Spain currently finds
itself in. However, the CiU actually lost 12 seats in the election
showing that independence is not a political football that can be used
by political parties as and when convenient. The CiU has not always
advocated independence (and Mas has previously stated that he is not
in favour of full independence for Catalonia), but Esquerra
Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) who saw their representation almost
double in the election, has always been a strong supporter of
independence. CiU remains the largest bloc in the parliament, winning
50 seats out of the 135 available, but the ERC has achieved an
enviable second place and are in a position to start demanding
concessions of their own, if the CiU want their parliamentary support,
which may be necessary.
The Catalans are resentful that their request for greater financial
autonomy -similar to what the Basques enjoy - has been rejected by the
Spanish government. Similarly a request by the Catalans for a greater
share of the 18bn-euro (£14bn) Regional Liquidity Fund that was given
to Spain by the EU to cushion its economic down turn earlier this year
was also refused. In protest a massive 2 million people marched
through the streets of Barcelona, the Catalan capital, in September
2012 demanding independence. Soon after the march the Catalans voted
to hold a referendum on independence. The Catalans argue that a
disproportionate share of its wealth, through taxes, goes to Madrid
than is received from central government spending in return, which has
affected their economic growth.
Catalonia is a country of 7.5 million people, a 200 billion euro
(£161bn) economy and its own police force. Catalonia is bigger than
Belgium and richer than Portugal and Andorra combined, which are all
independent states recognised by the European Union. If Catalonia
became independent, the effect on the Spanish economy would be
significant. If preparations for a Catalan referendum took place there
would be a risk that the Spanish authorities would attempt to block
it, either through the courts or with force. The Catalans could
attempt to take the case to an international court to get justice or
appeal to the EU, but the EU is unlikely to give much support. The
issue of 'internal enlargement' for the EU could turn into a huge
political headache, triggering as it could a domino effect in Italy,
Belgium and the UK. The EU will want to avoid discontentment among
many member states and, despite its 'richness in diversity' motto, may
want to make independence as unattractive an option as possible for
countries exercising their right to self-determination.
EU states are not ethnically homogenous and comprise at least one
national minority group. If each national minority decided to pursue
their right to self-determination, the EU of the future will be a very
different place to the EU of today. Suggestions last month from Jose
Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, were that
Catalonia as an independent state will not be automatically granted
membership of the EU nor the monetary union, but this has not yet been
stated categorically. The SNP will be watching closely as events
unfold in Catalonia and similarly Catalan nationalists have been
enviously following the developments in Scotland. It was rumoured that
president Mas wanted to emulate the success of the Scottish National
Party (SNP) by calling early elections, even if the tactic did not pay
off for the CiU. In Scotland the terms of the referendum may be agreed
between the Scottish and UK government for 2014, but the Yes campaign
has still to convince the majority of the electorate that an
independent Scotland is preferable. It is not just Catalonia and
Scotland that are perusing political independence. Support for greater
autonomy among the peoples of Europe has been steadily growing over
the last decade, with moves towards self-determination gathering pace
over the last few years year.
The islands of Guernsey and Jersey both toyed with the idea of
declaring their independence last summer with Jersey's assistant chief
minister saying in June that the island is ready to become independent
if it were necessary. Rumours abound that the Flemish parliament will
soon hold a referendum with the Flemish nationalist Nieuw-Vlaamse
Alliantie (N-VA) party retaining a strong political position following
the provincial and municipal elections in October 2012, which included
the significant win of the Mayorship of Antwerpen. In addition
Süd-Tirol is hoping to organise a referendum on independence in 2013
and the Veneto regional parliament plans to vote soon on whether to
hold an independence referendum of their own. It seems inevitable that
at some point one of these European territories will declare
independence, but nobody knows what will follow. If a territory in
Western Europe declared its independence in the same way as Kosovo did
recently, its impact would reverberate throughout the EU and the rest
of the world. The peoples of Europe are on the move and hold the
future in their hands. Their fight is older than that of the EU member
states to which they currently belong and their voice is steadily
growing and won't go away.
The fight for political independence for the historic nations of
Europe is no longer a nationalist dream of progressive democrats, but
a serious political goal that cannot be kicked into touch anymore for
minor political gain. The political, social and economic needs of the
peoples of Europe need to be addressed fairly and thoroughly and if
this right is being denied by the governments of EU member states then
they should be shown up to be the bullies they are. The key to a
fairer and more democratic EU lies with the peoples who comprise
Europe and not with artificial political states that hold all the
power in too few hands. If the EU cannot exist within a more
democratic model then change needs to occur or the system needs to be
confined to the scrap heap of history. It is the responsibility of the
people to address the balance and that is precisely what the Catalans,
Scottish, Basque, Welsh, South Tyrolean's, Cornish, Venetians,
Bavarians, Bretons, Kaszubians, Manx, Corsicans, etc. are trying to
achieve.
http://www.agencebretagnepresse.com/fetch.php?id=28421&title=Catalonia%20Fights%20for%20its%20Independence
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