“A nation is a group of people united by a common
mistake regarding its origin and a collective
hostility
towards its neighbours”.
(Professor Shlomo Sand in a quote from Karl W. Deutsch).
Some people regard the present catalan nationalism eruption as a result of
the systemic crisis, more severe in Spain due to the construction bubble, that
has increased the unemployment to an unusual rate. Catalonia suffers also the
impact of the crisis and demands to the Central Government of Spain a new
fund-sharing more profitable.
But in fact, Catalan nationalism is a dormant volcano that erupts from time to
time and catches the spanish Central Government on the wrong foot.
Let us
recall a bit of history:
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On September 14th, Catalonia celebrates its National Holiday, what is, in
fact, a day in memory of Rafael Casanova, leader of the Catalan Government
who died in 1716 during the final battle against the invading army sent by the
Bourbon PhilipV.
After that defeat, the old democratic Catalan institutions (Corts y Consell de Cent) were abolished
and a militar authority was imposed. New taxes were created
and old ones increased. Castilian became the official language, which
cooperated on the progressive Catalan extinction in favour of Castilian.
It was not until 1932 that Catalonia first obtained a Statute of Autonomy.
It
happened during the Second Spanish Republic. After Catalonia was occupied by
Franco’s army, the Statute was abolished, Catalan self-government was harshly
suppressed and the usage of Catalan language banned. The Prime Minister of the Generalitat, Lluís Companys, was handed to Franco by the German
Gestapo and shooted.
In 1979, after Franco’s death, the second Statute was approved by
referendum.
It was the fruit of a compromise
reached in the middle of a very serious threat posed by a coup. It was a
reminiscent of 1932’s treaty.
On september 30th 2005, the Parliament of Catalonia approved a new Statute,
that subsequently was deepely curtailed by the Central Congress and Senate.
Even so, it was approved on a referendum held in Catalonia in june 16th 2006,
and enforced on august 9th same year.
The Partido Popular, a spanish right-wing party, labelled the Statute as
confederate and even as secessionist, and made an appeal to the
Spanish Constitutional Court to reject the text. Rajoy, the chief of opposition,
took to the streets to collect signatures against the Statute.
The firm sentence of this Court turned out in another significant curtailment
of primitive text; a fact that from any theory of democracy point of view leaves a little to be
desired, since the Estatut was approved by the legislative chambers, both spanish
and catalan, that represent the mayority of citizens, whereas the Constitutional
Court is a small group chosed by cooptation by the main parties leaders.
Fourteen articles y sections
of the Statute were rejected and 27 more were reinterpreted; mainly those relatives to an Autonomic
Justice, Tax collection and Oficial
Language. Nevertheless one of the most conflictive points was about the
term „ Nation.“.
What is it? says John Wyse. —A
nation? says Bloom. A nation is the
same people living in the same
place. —By God, then, says Ned,
laughing, if that’s so I’m a nation for I’m
living in the same place
for the past five years. (Quoted from „Ulysses“ by James Joyce).
The first article of the
Statute stated „Catalonia
is a nation“.
Strong discussions were held
regarding that term. Former President J. L.R. Zapatero said in the Senate that
the concept of Nation is „debatable“ and
„controversial“. A sentence that was quoted out of context by the conservative
press and right-wing politicians. Zapatero, a former professor of Constitutional Law, regreted later to have caused such a confrontation.
The statement was removed from the Article and
translated to the Preamble, where it has no political or legal significance.
A
língua é minha Pátria" (F. Pessoa)
Another boiling point was the
use of Catalan language at school and at the Administration.
The first project attempted to make the Catalan a predominant language at
school and even at the Central Administration in Catalonia.
The final text sets the right to use and the duty to know one of the two
languages on a co-official basis.
Nevertheless, Article 4
states that: “Catalonia’s own language is Catalan”.
Also, the new Estatut introduces
de plurilingal principle (aranés dialect is also included) in the Central
Administration of the State.
Art. 6.3 states: „The Generalitat and the State shall undertake the
necessary measures to obtain official status for Catalan within the European
Union and its presence and use in international organisations and in
international treaties of cultural or linguistic content. the International
Institut“.
Catalan has been since long ago a boiling point between Spanish (Castilian)
nationalism und Catalan nationalism. A point often settled by force by the
Castilians:
After the defeat of catalan
nationalists in 1716, the king Philip V issued a decree dictating to the
corregidores the following order:
“Castilian language should be introduce
as carefully as posible, so the most mild, discreet and disguised directives will be provided in order to
achieve the desied effect without noticing any intention”.
Dictator Franco was less
subtle. He banned abruptly any use of catalan under the threat of strong
sanctions. The result was patently shown after Franco’s death: most of catalans
were not able to write catalan. The language had been preserved orally.
Castilians tried of;enly to
justify his rejection to Catalan saying
“Why to learn a language only by nine million people spoken if Spanish is
spoken by 400 millions?" Another argument
considers Spanish as a more powerful tool for knowledge. A simple comment that reminiscences
when Adolfo Suarez, the first Prime
Minister after Franco’s death, was in a official visit to Barcelona. There, chatting in a group at the University, he smiled a bit smuggly
and said „We understand that Organic Chemistry cannot be taught in Catalan“.
The answer was „President; we have been teaching Organic Chemistry for many
years“.
Castilians did not realized
the advantages of bilinguism as a new culture added.
Catalan and Castilian come from the Vulgar Latin
and were formed more o less along the same centuries. Catalan has in its favor
from Castilian its richness of wovels sounds –Castilian has only five vowels
sounds, whatever some linguistics said-. That makes easier for catalans the approach to another foreign
languages. (Old romans mocked primitive spaniards for they were unable to
pronounce the liquid „S“, like in Scipion.)
We have exposed heretofore the
long war between two nationalisms: the week catalan nationalism and the
stronger spanish (castilian) nationalism.
The Spanish philosopher J.
Ortega y Gasset wrote in 1921 about this problem in his essay “Invertebrate Spain”:
“When a society consumes due to its
particularism, we can always affirm that the first to show as a
particularist was precisely the Central Power. And that is what has happened in
Spain…..Castile has built Spain and Castile has demolished it“.
How are things at this stage?
On September 11th last year, a new political-social movement, the Catalan
National Assembly, (ANC), created in the past two years, called the catalans
for a big demonstration with the aim of
achiving the political independence of Catalonia.
The Assemblea Nacional Catalana (Catalan
National Assembly, ANC), a non governmental
group, is an organization that aims at regaining the political independence of
Catalonia trough the establishment of a free and democratic State.
The massive turnout surprised all and sundry, around one million people
–callers proclaim two millions-. In any case, it was the most massive
demonstration ever celebrated in
Catalonia. The organizers of ANS stated that meant the „consolidation phase“
previous to get the social majority to win the independence referendum.
After that massive demonstration, Artur Mas, President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and leader of
Convergència, a wright-wing nationalist party, felt his moment had arrived, and
tried to capitalizes the 11th-s crowd to
push Mariano Rajoy (the Spanish Prime Minister) into increasing the sharing-fund
the Central Administration distributes to Catalonia.
What, in fact, President Mas wanted was to make the grant of Navarre and
the Basque Country the same for Catalonia. He claimed Catalonia was suffering
discrimination.
Basically, Navarre and the Basque Country, due to historical rights, manage
by themselves their government finances, like a sovereign state; a peculiar
fact, unknown in any other country, democratic or not. They collect their
taxes, they establish them, and so they rule their Autonomous Communities. This
is named „el cupo“.
Central Government explains that Navarre has 642.000 inhabitants and the
Basque Country a little over two millions (2.184.000) , whereas Catalonia has
7.5 millions; so an extra „cupo“ that
the rest of the country possibly cannot afford.
Both Presidents (Rajoy and Mas) met last month in Madrid. Rajoy was adamant about his
stance and no compromise was agreed. From that meeting, Mas, perhaps thinking
in the recent secessionist demostration called early elections. He should’n
have done it! His coallition CiU lost 12 seats in the Parliament and failed to
obtain an absolute majority.
Why this confrontation now, since both right-wing parties help usually
each other against other political forces?
One theory explains that both political groupings are having problems
because of its budgetary deficits as well as the corruption –huger in Rajoy’s
party-. The confrontation might be the goal to divert the attention of the
people, to stir people up, appealing in
both nationalisms the everlasting affront.
To the threat of catalan sovereignty and seccesion, spanish nacionalistics
reaction is, some times, paternalistic: ”What are you going to do alone?” An
argument that ignores that Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Island were a united
country until the beginning of last century, and now they have populations
similar o even lower than Catalonia, with very high standard of life.
In some other cases there are menacing reactions, some of them a bit childish “If you go, you couldn’t enter the
EU, we’ll veto you”: Probably they ignore that 656 kilometers
separate Catalonia from France, and that in retaliation for the veto, the
citrics and other commodities probably had to go by ship to Europe, from
Valencia to the Port of Marseille.
There are also some supercilious people that flap their hands saying: Beat
it! Beat it!
The Spanish Government goes for appealing to the 1978 Spanish Constitution,
that in its Preliminary Title state the sovereignty on the spanish people as
well as the unbreakable unit of the spanish Nation.
That means that any referendum should be held by the whole spanish
population. This is a point of friction since catalans wish held a referendum with
the catalan population both catalan and castilian-speaking citizens.
In conclusion:
Quoting former british Prime Minister
Harold Wilson: “A week is a long time in politics.”:
Should catalan Government call for a
referendum for sovereignty, it might be prohibited by Spanish Constitutional
Court.
If
it takes place in spite of that prohibition, catalan leaders might be
accused of rebellion, which would increase the affronts to their dignity of
both nationalisms.
The most reasonable proposal appears as
to be that of letting the catalan people a free
right to chose, which does not mean an automatic secessionism.
A closer examination of the situation
should take in account the results of last
referendum as well as the 2012 elections:
The Estatut
was approved with the 74% of votes, but there was not a turn-out of voters
–less than 50%; whereas in 1979, the Estatut
reached the 88.15 of approval with a higher participation.
The right to choise will probably calm
down the feelings, and the probability of secession doesnot appear so high.
Not to forget that nacionalism uprisings
arise from time to time like volcanos, but political movements like ANC’s are
tsunamies, that hardly ever repeat.
In any case, should be remember than in
1945 there were 51 Sates as members of the United Nations: Today there are 193.
Not to talk of current map of Europe.
llustrations:
Monument to Rafael Casanova in Barcelona
Pamphley against Statut 1932
Lluís Companys
Rajoy collects signatures agains the Satut
Franco visits Barcelona
Diada 2012
Este derrochador fastuoso, este malgastador, este
despilfarrador de los bienes que no eran suyos, pero los consideraba como
propios; salió del Ayuntamiento al que le había desterrado otro que tal
baila -el de los fastos padrinescos de
El Escorial- , para formar parte de la cúpula de un Gobierno, procedente toda
ella de un partido que a tenor de lo que aparece cada día en los periódicos –incluso
en los que les son afines- más se asemeja a una asociación de malhechores.
Pero
no frivolicemos, fascistas o idiotas, o ambas cosas; se trata de dos tipos
peligrosos para nuestra sociedad.
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