Catalan
separatists defy Spain in pursuit of ‘utopia’
Pro-independence
parties prepare for mass acts of civil disobedience against the
Spanish state.
By GUY
HEDGECOE 12/14/16, 5:28 AM CET
BERGA, Spain — A
large Catalan independence flag hangs from the city hall of Berga, a
town of 16,000 inhabitants in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Known as
the Estelada, the red-and-yellow striped design with a single star is
also visible on almost all the surrounding buildings in the medieval
square of Sant Pere, reflecting the depth of feeling about Catalan
nationalism in the town.
A few weeks ago,
this flag briefly became the flashpoint for a confrontation between
Madrid and Catalonia over the north-eastern region’s drive for
independence from Spain.
Early on the morning
of November 4, police arrested Berga’s mayor, Montserrat Venturós,
at her home and took her to a nearby courtroom to appear before a
judge. The 31-year-old was accused of violating electoral laws by
flying the Estelada from the town hall during the campaigns ahead of
last year’s Catalan regional election and the Spanish general
election. Her arrest was specifically the consequence of her refusal
to obey two earlier court summonses.
Nationalists in the
region immediately seized on this as an example of the Spanish state
repressing Catalan culture.
Throughout that
November day, Venturós, of the leftist Popular Unity Candidacy
(CUP), received messages of support from nationalists across the
region. Among them was the Catalan premier, Carles Puigdemont, who
tweeted his backing to her “and all the elected officials who
suffer persecution for their ideals.” Improvised demonstrations
were held in other towns and that same morning the separatist Catalan
National Assembly (ANC) designed a poster with an illustration of
Venturós’ face next to the words “You’ll never walk alone.”
It went viral.
When the mayor
emerged, defiant and tearful, from the courthouse, dozens of
supporters had gathered to cheer her.
This was just one of
many clashes between Catalan politicians and the Spanish judiciary in
recent months. The spotlight of nationalist outrage has since moved
elsewhere, but Venturós’ CUP remains the fiercest expression of
Catalan separatism in mainstream politics. Despite its small size,
this anti-capitalist party has become a crucial player in the
separatist drive — and one which could ensure the project’s
success or bring it crashing to the ground.
“Fifteen years
ago, when we talked about independence, I remember at home my family
would say, ‘That’s Utopia,’” Venturós tells POLITICO in her
office. “Okay, it was utopian 15 years ago, but who would have
believed back then that right now we would be talking about a genuine
separation of the Catalan institutions and Catalan people from the
Spanish state?”
The CUP is part of
an eclectic front of secessionist parties that, following elections
in September 2015, have been both governing Catalonia and pursuing a
so-called “roadmap” towards independence. The other partner in
the alliance is Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes), itself a coalition
of the center-right Catalan European Democratic Party (PDECat) and
the Catalan Republican Left (ERC).
These separatists
treated last year’s regional election as a plebiscite on
independence. When Junts pel Sí won that vote but fell short of a
majority in the 135-seat Catalan parliament, the CUP lent its 10
seats as support, but without formally entering the government.
Together, these parties claimed their parliamentary majority gave
them a mandate to push unilaterally towards independence — although
they only had 48 percent of the popular vote.
* * *
Berga is deep in the
Catalan nationalist heartland, fertile ground for the CUP’s
message. In last year’s regional election, pro-independence parties
accounted for 77 percent of votes here, a figure that does not
reflect the situation across the region, with polls showing Catalans
to be divided down the middle on the issue.
Venturós, who is
waiting to see if she must stand trial, says her decision to hang the
flag during two election campaigns was a deliberate “act of
disobedience.” She justifies it by pointing to a statement of
intent approved by the separatist front in the regional parliament in
November 2015, which declared that the independence process “will
not be subordinate to the decisions of the Spanish state, in
particular the Constitutional Court.”
“When things go
badly, when the Spanish state fails Catalonia, [independence] becomes
more imaginable for them’” — Enric Juliana, author and
journalist
“At some point —
and it’s going to be quite soon — we’re going to have to carry
out a massive act of civil disobedience in defiance of the Spanish
state in the face of a right that is being denied to us,” she says.
She is referring to
the next major stop on the roadmap: a referendum on independence that
the Catalan government is planning for the fall of 2017. It has
invited the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy to bless the vote,
Scotland-style, but that is almost certain not to happen, meaning the
referendum would be technically illegal. While its advocates insist
that a referendum victory would trigger secession, Rajoy has deemed
such a vote and the entire roadmap unlawful. “Without law there is
no democracy,” he told the Senate in November.
“Catalans have an
alarm inside them which says, ‘In case of emergency, break the
glass,’” says the author and journalist Enric Juliana, who is
from the region.
“When things go
badly, when the Spanish state fails Catalonia, [independence] becomes
more imaginable for them.”
In recent years,
Spain’s economic crisis and the institutional problems that
accompanied it, such as a torrent of corruption scandals and voters’
loss of faith in their elites, have set that alarm ringing.
* * *
The Catalan
independence movement, Juliana explains, is far from homogenous.
There are those who have long believed in the need for a separate
state; then there are those who have converted to the cause because
of tensions with the rest of Spain over recent years; and a third,
more calculating stratum sees the threat of independence as leverage
in squeezing concessions from Madrid.
While many in the
Junts pel Sí coalition are in the second and third categories, the
CUP is firmly in the first. “Independence, socialism and feminism”
are their guiding ideals and, unusually for a Spanish party, they
have imposed on themselves strict moralistic guidelines, including
four-year caps on the tenures of their leaders and frugal salary
limits (Venturós receives only €1,400 of the €2,700 she is
entitled to each month).
The CUP is also
determined not to give ground on its principles. After last year’s
regional election, the party stood firm on a promise not to support
the continuation of Artur Mas of Junts pel Sí as Catalan regional
premier and figurehead of the secessionist project. His economic
liberalism and the corruption scandals surrounding his PDECat party
(then known as Convergència) jarred with the CUP’s austere
anti-capitalism. A last-ditch accord in January allowed Puigdemont to
replace Mas, thus keeping the separatist front alive.
But while
privatizations, spending cuts and graft scandals distance the CUP
from its secessionist allies, there is consensus on the grievances
driving the independence movement.
“We need
independence because Catalonia pays a lot to the Spanish state and we
get very little back,” says Rosa Prat, a Berga local who is walking
past the town hall. “Independence would mean keeping that money
here in Catalonia and things would improve a lot.”
It’s a common
argument, based on the fact that industry-heavy Catalonia is Spain’s
wealthiest region. Nationalists claim they pay €15 billion more
each year to the central government than they receive back in
investment; Madrid puts this figure at €8 billion.
Separatists believe
the shortfall is visible in infrastructure such as Catalonia’s
erratic rail network and its health care system. But they point to a
broader failure on the part of the Spanish state to understand their
culture and language.
One recent example
of this was in October, when the Constitutional Court rolled back a
Catalan ban on bullfighting which was introduced five years earlier,
on the grounds that the region could not unilaterally decide such
matters.
* * *
As the Berga flag
controversy showed, the courts have become a battleground for the
conflict between Catalonia and Madrid. Nationalists point to a litany
of areas where political initiatives taken by their own regional
parliament have been reversed by magistrates in Madrid, while
unionists see a rogue region overstepping its powers. The most
contentious instance of this was in 2010, when the Constitutional
Court struck down several articles of a new statute granting
increased powers to Catalonia, despite the fact the document had been
approved by Catalans in a referendum and by the Spanish Congress.
For many, Rajoy’s
conservative Popular Party, whose legal appeal had led to the ruling,
thus enshrined its reputation as “anti-Catalan.” The episode also
undermined the faith of many Catalans in Spanish institutions.
As Rajoy has
embarked on his second term as prime minister, he has shown signs of
wanting to take a less rigid approach to Catalonia.
The judge Santiago
Vidal is one of many Catalans who converted to the independence cause
in the wake of the statute furor.
Since then, he has
become a vocal and controversial figure in his own right. In 2015, he
was suspended by the judiciary for having drawn up a draft
constitution for an independent Catalan state. More recently, he has
become a senator for ERC, the leftist partner in Junts pel Sí. He
sees two potential problems for the independence movement: a failure
to secure more than 50 percent support in the referendum being
planned; and the “unpredictable character” of the CUP.
“From a democratic
viewpoint, their role is unquestionable and legitimate,” Vidal
tells POLITICO in his office in Madrid, a large independence flag
hanging on the wall beside him. “But whether they are convenient
and of practical help is quite another issue and the truth is, in
many ways they don’t help.”
He worries the CUP’s
radicalism might tarnish the independence movement’s image on the
international stage. “And nor does it help internally,” he adds.
“Because it creates extra obstacles to the already difficult
conditions surrounding the development of the roadmap — the process
— in a calm, consensual way.”
Tensions within the
pro-independence front have become visible on several issues, most
obviously the annual Catalan budget, where the CUP has been
determined to prioritize social justice.
Revelers surround
'Gegants,' giants in Berga, Catalonia during the first day of 'La
Patum' Festival with a giant 'estelada,' the Catalan independence
flag, hanging from the balcony
The La Patum
festival in Berga, with a giant ‘Estelada,’ the Catalan
independence flag, hanging from a balcony | David Ramos/Getty Images
“Two things are
happening in Catalonia at the same time,” says Juliana. “There’s
the unrest and anger fueled by the economic crisis which feeds
separatist feeling, but at the same time that feeds the internal
tensions between the pro-independence parties.”
In recent weeks, as
Rajoy has embarked on his second term as prime minister, he has shown
signs of wanting to take a less rigid approach to Catalonia. He has
made a handful of what look like conciliatory appointments, including
deploying deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría to lead
his government’s management of the Catalan issue. She has pledged
“maximum willingness to intensify negotiations” and has started
meeting with senior separatists.
But the independence
movement is wary of this apparent change of tack, especially given
that Madrid’s previous toughness has been such an effective
recruiting weapon. In La Vanguardia newspaper, columnist
Francesc-Marc Álvaro described it as “a way of playing for time to
see if separatist feeling dips.”
Such initiatives
certainly don’t impress the CUP, which is struggling to maintain
its purist principles while inching closer to achieving what once
looked like no more than a utopian dream.
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