spanish nationalism

Irene Rigau, the Catalan Minister for Education, announced that Catalonia will participate in the working group created to analyse how to better implement the Spanish Government's Education Reform. Such a group was announced by the Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, to make "Catalonia feel comfortable" with a Reform that totally changes the current school model. However, Rigau stated that the results of the working group will have to be assessed before implementing the Reform. On Wednesday, she refused to attend a meeting in Madrid to discuss how Spanish will be made an instruction language in Catalan schools. After the meeting, the Spanish Government stated that this will done "one way or the other" in September 2014. Meanwhile, the judicial battle goes on and the five schools forced to teach 25% of the subjects in Spanish will be allowed to appeal.

According to a poll issued by the Centre of Opinion Studies (CEO), run by the Catalan Government, 59.7% of Catalans would agree with Catalonia becoming "a new European State". Specifically, 40.2% of the interviewees "totally agree" with the idea, 19.5% of the interviewees tend to agree, 10.8% tend to disagree and 18.9% are "totally against" it. Furthermore, 87.3% of the interviewees affirm they would accept the result of a self-determination referendum while 9.3% state they would not accept it. Furthermore, 74% of Catalans believe that the best way to decide on Catalonia's political future and its relationship with Spain is through a referendum, while 21.7% think the opposite.

The Catalan Government announced that, if the Spanish Executive finally decides to recentralise Catalonia's own taxes, they will take the issue to the Constitutional Court. The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, stated that, if confirmed, "it would be a very provocative proposal" and "would make totally transparent, if it is not already transparent by now, the recentralising assault and the policy to dismantle the [current] Autonomous Community model". On Thursday an expert committee handed a report to the Spanish Government suggesting 270 measures to completely reform Spain's taxation system. The text states that the Spanish Government will "order" all the taxes, including those of the Autonomous Communities. Regional governments might continue having their own taxes but market unity will be a higher priority and taxes will always be "coordinated" by the Spanish Finance Ministry.

Súmate, an organisation mostly formed of people of Spanish origin living in Catalonia who support independence from Spain, presented on Monday evening its views during a round-table at the Friends of the UNESCO headquarters in Madrid. The organisation, described as plural, independent and non-partisan by its members has entitled its intervention ‘Escucha España. Los catalanes quieren votar’ (Listen Spain! Catalans want to vote). For its President, Eduardo Reyes, the main objective is to encourage a democratic debate on the ongoing process in Catalonia, since for now “all the news that is reaching Spain about Catalonia is false”. Reyes believes that the Spanish institutions are “creating hatred” and said that he had decided to go to Madrid to explain that “there is no social fracture” in Catalonia. Not a single Madrid-based printed media talked about the event.

The Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, stated that a unilateral declaration of independence would condemn Catalonia "to roam across space" and that it would be "excluded from the European Union for the centuries of the centuries". García-Margallo, who is one of the most vocal members of the Spanish Executive against Catalonia's independence, stated that such a scenario is "a high risk operation". He criticised the politicians supporting independence, who "put at risk a population that is essentially European", which goes against the will of a majority of Catalans "who want to be part of the European area". "Secession is extremely harmful for Spain but particularly harmful for Catalonia", he insisted. On the same day, the Candidate of the Greens to chair the European Commission, German Ska Keller, stated she was supporting Catalonia's right to self-determination.

The Catalan Government announced it will take to the Constitutional Court four bills drafted by the Spanish Executive because they neglect Catalonia’s self-government capacities and exclusive powers. The 4 affected bills are the Education Reform, the Market Unity Law, the Local Governments Law and the Environment Evaluation Law. The Spokesperson for the Catalan Government and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, said that those reforms go against the Constitution and aim to reform it “through the back door”. “It is a reform without the needed transparency, without holding an open debate”, he said. “They are stripping away our political capacity to decide”, Homs emphasised. The Spanish Government justified the recentralisation of powers as a way to improve efficiency in times of economic crisis and austerity. However, several experts have already warned that it is not proven that efficiency will improve if powers are centralised.

The Spanish Ministry of Education has released the decree proposal stating that the Catalan Government has the obligation to provide alternatives to families who request their children to be taught in Spanish in public schools, where Catalan is the first language of instruction and Spanish is mostly taught as a subject. Furthermore, Catalonia and all other Autonomous Communities with two official languages will have “to fully assume” the costs of these children’s education in privately-owned schools using Spanish as the language of instruction if the families do not find the appropriate public alternative. The money will be deducted from the Autonomous Communities’ funding scheme if they do not cooperate. However, the decree does not work the other way round in regions such as Valencia, where families are having problems to school their children in Catalan (co-official there).

The 33 judges who signed the manifesto in favour of Catalonia’s right to self-determination, stating that it “is a nation without discussion”, and therefore has “full sovereignty to decide on its own future”, have filed a complaint after photos of their personal profiles were published in a Madrid-based newspaper on Monday. The complaint was filed for revealing personal information, arguing that such pictures can only have been accessed from computers used by the Spanish Police or the Spanish Ministry of Home Affairs. Therefore, the judges have asked to open an investigation to find out who divulged such confidential information.

The Spanish Parliament has approved a motion that “supports” the Spanish Government using “all the measures that the legal framework allowed to keep the unity of Spain, as a nation of free and equal citizens only subject to the rule of Law”. The motion has been filed by the People’s Party (PP), which holds an absolute majority and runs the Spanish Government. Spain’s nationalist and populist party UPyD abstained, as well as the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), including the MPs from the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC). Article 8 of the Spanish Constitution, negotiated between democracy supporters and members of the Franco Dictatorship, reads: “the Armed Forces […] have the mission to guarantee Spain’s sovereignty and independence, defending its territorial integrity and the Constitutional order”.

Catalan parties have filed several motions requesting the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to make a move regarding Catalonia’s self-determination and abandon his frontal opposition attitude. “React now before it’s too late”, the Spokesperson of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), which runs the Catalan Government told Rajoy. The Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) was asking the Spanish Government to negotiate the terms for holding a self-determination referendum in Catalonia. The Catalan Green Socialist and Post-Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA) was asking Rajoy to transfer the powers to organise referendums to the Catalan Government, using Article 150.2 of the Constitution. Meanwhile, the Spanish and Catalan Socialists are proposing a revision of Spain’s territorial model. Rajoy rejected all the motions.

The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy disclosed on Tuesday evening that the Spanish Deputy Minister for EU Affairs, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo had travelled to Barcelona on Sunday “to talk with” Viviane Reding and tell her “what is going on in this country”. Méndez de Vigo’s trip was decided after the European Commission Vice President had publicly called on Catalan and Spanish authorities to negotiate “without red-lines” to solve the conflict. Rajoy also said that he had spoken about Catalonia with the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, “and many other political leaders”. The Catalan Government’s Spokesperson, Francesc Homs, ironically stated that  the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry is putting “so much pressure […] for us not to be received anywhere [to talk about self-determination] that in the end [this attitude] opens doors for us”.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, did not announce any new plan to handle Catalonia’s self-determination claims during the State of the Nation Debate at the Spanish Parliament. On the contrary, Rajoy stiffened his stance on the issue and talked with a stronger tone than usual, saying that he “will not remain indifferent” to the self-determination process. The Spanish PM added he “will fight for Catalans and their progress”, as he will do for “all the Spaniards”. Rajoy repeated once again that Catalonia’s self-determination vote “cannot take place”. He said he is “always open to talk” but “always within the Constitution and the Law”, which are unquestionable red-lines. Two days ago, the European Commission had asked for a “dialogue” without red-lines “to keep Catalonia within Spain”. “Unity is a greater value” than “dialogue”, answered Rajoy. In addition, he pointed out that the Constitution can be modified following the foreseen procedures, although three months ago he completely opposed any modifications.

The Catalan Minister for the Presidency and Spokesperson for the Executive, Francesc Homs, warned that “if a political solution cannot be reached” to keep Catalonia within the EU if it becomes independent from Spain, it would be “the end of Europe as a model for democratic and peaceful integration of the different peoples that form it”. On Monday, in a debate on ‘Catalonia’s political process’ held at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Law, Homs highlighted the fact that if EU Treaties had been interpreted “literally”, the financial bailouts for Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece would not have been possible. However, in this case, the EU reacted “with common sense” and for “the general interest”. Therefore, “since the EU is a project of peace and democracy, a political solution [for Catalonia] will be found, as the EU has ever done in all situations”, he stated.

The Spanish Government replies that dialogue can only take place “within the law” and respecting “the national sovereignty”, “two red-lines” that cannot be questioned. The Catalan Government said the Commission should consider Catalonia as “a very good ally to build Europe’s future”. The day before, in Barcelona, Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, had asked the Spanish and Catalan authorities “to talk” with “an open attitude” and “without red-lines” in order to remain “united”. The European Commission broke its supposed neutrality in the political conflict regarding Catalonia’s future within Spain, despite it officially considers the issue to be Spain’s internal affair. The Commissioner for Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights acknowledged “to understand” the Catalan claims, but she refused to say whether citizens should be allowed to hold a self-determination vote. However, she stated that if independence was declared, Catalonia would no longer be part of the EU.

“An independent Scotland would have a right to become a Member of the EU” as “territorially [it] is part of the EU […] and the Scots are European citizens”. Such were the words of Jim Currie, the former European Commission’s Director General for Environment, before a Scottish Parliament Committee on European and External Relations on Thursday. Currie also said that the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, had given “extremely unwise” and “inaccurate” comments last Sunday, by claiming that it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” for a hypothetical independent Scotland to join the EU. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the Brussels-based think tank European Policy Centre, Fabian Zuleeg, stated it was “very difficult” to see EU Member States vetoing the application of an independent Scotland to join the Union.