Mucho Do-Do About Nothing
Catalonia
is one of the richer regions in Spain. It has its own language and culture and
has always felt itself apart from the rest of the country. There is also the
fact that a lot of taxes leave wealthy Catalonia and go to the poorer and
needier regions of Spain. This chafes a lot with the Catalans who feel that if they
work hard, their rewards shouldn’t go to less hard-working compatriots.
Like with
every other country in the world, the latest crisis has heightened the
us-and-them attitudes of the locals and reignited the question of a possible
independence. A week ago, the local government convened a referendum about
independence which was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the central
government in Madrid. This is technically true although stopping a people from
mounting their own election doesn’t seem very democratic.
So on
Sunday last (October 1st) a few thousand national police were called in to
prevent this ‘illegal’ referendum. The local police who had more or less said
that they would help out the national cops, backed out at the last minute,
leaving the nationals with their asses swinging in the air. So when the
National Police went out on Sunday to close down polling stations and
confiscate ballot boxes they met with passive protests. People with their hands
in the air, blocking the way. People sitting on stairways. In many cases, the
cops walloped people and dragged people brutally out of the way in order to get
through. These images went all round the world. They scandalized many people
and enraged the local population.
So where
are we now?
The way I
see it there are morons on both sides of the clash and I just hope that cooler
heads come forward sooner than later.
Firstly,
the Catalan leadership:
The
current leader of the local government Mr. Puigdemont is obsessed with
independence to the point where I've never heard him speak of anything else.
Education, public health, unemployment? Forget it. He's a one-trick pony. And
what's worse is that his party is in a coalition with the CUP. They're
anti-establishment anarchists, a bunch of extremists who are gagging for a
fight. They must have creamed their pants when the cops put the boot in last
Sunday.
Now,
being Irish, I'm certainly not against Catalans' rights to self-determination.
I just don't think they should destroy the country in order to achieve it.
On a practical level, the idea of independence is not viable without the
blessing of the EU. And there are enough member states in the EU with their own
problems of national unity, so don’t expect a whole lot of encouragement for
separatism there. In the past few days, all of the Catalan banks have
transferred their headquarters out of Catalonia and capital is hemorrhaging
outwards too. Didn’t they know that this would happen? I’m not an economist or
a professional politician and I fucking knew it was going to happen.
So either
they’re insane and are going to declare unilateral independence anyway or
there’s going to be a climb down. But the gang at the top is so frenzied at the
moment; it’s just possible that they think committing economic hara-kiri would
be the noble and heroic thing to do. If that’s the case, we’re all fucked. The
economy will come crashing down and Madrid will send in the army - but probably
not in that order.
The
problem is that since last Sunday’s beat down, the issue has become very emotional
here and rationality has gone out of the window. The Catalans are seriously
pissed off and to be honest, it’s hard to blame them. But emotions make a
people easy fodder for propaganda and that’s a little scary. It`s a bit of a powder
keg and all it would take is one little spark. The anti-separatists are having
themselves a march today. Let’s see how that works out.
What
annoys me is that the Catalan separatists have been selling that idea that
independence will bring financial prosperity. That all the extra taxes we pay
to Madrid will be kept in the region and we can spend it on our own sweet
selves instead of building toll-less motorways for the Andalusians. It’s a
level of economic simplicity that one would associate with that dolt Boris
Johnson. Now that the cold reality of the situation is setting in and you can
see people are having second thoughts.
And yes I
am Irish and yes I’m happy we got our independence in the 1920s but by God we
suffered for it. Decades of hardship, we were an economic backwater until the
EEC came along and fished us out of the primordial sludge. So if you want
independence Catalonia, don’t kid yourself that it’s going to be a bonanza
because it won’t, it’ll be tough. Now if you are prepared to suffer for your
sovereignty, fine. Carry on. Just don’t expect a bowl of cherries.
Secondly,
the Spanish leadership:
As an
outsider, I can only stand back in awe at the utter stupidity of the Spanish government.
(The centre-right Popular Party) Honestly? Did you really think it was a bright
idea sending in the riot police to a peaceful vote? You can hear all the
anti-separatists defending the decision saying that the referendum was
anti-constitutional and illegal and we had to stop it one way or another. And
perhaps they’re right on paper but boy are they up their own asses when it
comes to common sense.
The day
after the clashes, the central government declared the referendum invalid - exactly
the same what would have happened if they hadn’t sent in the paramilitaries –
but with three slight differences:
1:
As I’ve
said before, the Catalans are now very, very angry. They have been censored and
treated like shit. Before this debacle, if there had been a referendum (even a
non-binding one) according to the polls, the separatists probably would have
lost. But I can tell you from my own experience that a lot of people here who
would have voted against independence would now vote firmly for it. So congratulations
for radicalizing the moderates and shifting them to the other camp!
2:
Putting
aside the idea of legality for a moment and replacing it with legitimacy, let’s
look at the affect of Sunday’s actions. A question – what is an illegitimate
referendum? A referendum without legitimacy is a bunch of people putting little
bits of paper into a box, nothing more. Now if that’s illegal, I’m going to
have to start throwing my garbage onto the street. If the central government
really believed that the referendum was illegitimate, they would have ignored
it and declared it invalid afterwards.
But they
didn’t. Instead they treated it like a real threat to their power, they gave it
huge importance. By sending in the riot cops and shutting down polling
stations, ironically, they actually legitimized the referendum as a proper act
of democratic protest.
3:
Regarding
the coverage of this event in Spain, what most people saw was the news on the
national television network. This was edited and sanitized to minimize any
police brutality and to make the protesters look like violent rioters. There
were 900 injured members of the public and a handful of police hurt, so unless
the numbers lie, the vast majority of brutality came from the cops.
However,
what people saw abroad was not this censored version of events. What people saw
were peaceful citizens outside polling stations with their hands in the air
getting beaten in the ribs by helmeted bully-boys, they saw young women being
thrown down stairs, passive protesters getting dragged away by the hair.
Now, you can get as righteous as you want and stamp your little feet and
yell about the constitution but those images were viscerally repulsive and they
did terrible harm to the image of Spain as a country.
I received several messages from friends abroad asking if I was OK and
almost all of them mentioned Franco. One
friend said: “You’re supposed to be part of a modern Europe now Spain. Time to
hang up the Tricornio.”
So what’s the solution?
Well, the Catalan govern should under no circumstances declare unilateral
independence right now. It would be like pulling the rug from underneath the
whole country. Enough damage has already been done. By all means, work towards
independence but prepare the ground first. It’ll be very hard with the PP in
power but they probably won’t be there forever. Meanwhile, look for some
leverage to force Madrid to give you more fiscal autonomy, much like the Basque
Country already enjoys and you could also put the pressure on to amend the
constitution which would give you more room to move forward.
And as for the national government? Well, pretty simple really. Sending
in cops to beat up peaceful voters was an awful idea. Try not to do it again.
Stop being so obstinate, stop hiding behind laws and constitutions, they can always
be altered. And maybe throw Catalonia a bone to calm things down.
Watch this space.