Canada should condemn the violence in Catalonia
Canada should speak out against Spain’s use of force against voters
In a referendum held Sunday, Catalonia, a prosperous region of 7.5 million people in northeastern Spain, voted in favour of independence.
The Spanish government had declared the vote illegal and unconstitutional from the get-go. Acting on a judge’s orders, police were dispatched to Catalonia from other regions to confiscate ballot papers and boxes, and halt the voting process.
Amateur videos have exposed some brutal scenes: people being dragged out of polling stations by the hair by police in riot gear, thrown out the door and down stairs, hit with truncheons and rubber bullets; elderly people being grabbed and shoved to the ground. The Catalan health ministry estimated that around 900 people were injured in the clashes Sunday. Reports also indicate that 33 police officers were hurt.
Despite the chaos, Catalan regional government spokesman Jordi Turull told reporters that of 2.26 million ballots counted, about 90 per cent of people who voted were in favour of Catalan independence, answering “yes” to the question: “Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?” The total number of eligible voters was 5.3 million; the official turnout was 42.3 per cent.
Many Canadians, particularly Quebecers who lived through two referendums on sovereignty, were shocked by these scenes. Catalans and Quebecers have long expressed solidarity with each other’s separatist movements. Although both movements have been shaped by different conditions and histories, the nationalist movement in Catalonia is — like that in Quebec — closely tied to language, culture and identity. Under the nearly 40-year dictatorship of Francisco Franco, the Catalan language was prohibited.
When Franco died in 1975, and Spain transitioned to democracy in the late 1970s, Spain granted Catalonia increased control of its own education system. While Catalonia has a high degree of autonomy, the Spanish government does not recognize it as a separate nation. Separation would threaten Spain with the loss of one of its wealthiest regions, including the popular regional capital Barcelona.
Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says the Spanish region has won the right to statehood. He said the door was open to a unilateral declaration of independence. Both Spain’s constitutional court and the European Commission have declared the Catalan referendum illegal. Spain’s government has warned it could suspend Catalan autonomy.
In a televised address, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that “there has not been a selfdetermination referendum in Catalonia.” He also stressed that “the rule of law remains in force with all its strength.”
The crackdown has elicited a muted response from Canada’s federal government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been restrained in his reaction, saying he wouldn’t comment on Spain and its “internal processes.”
Given our own unresolved constitutional situation with Quebec, this response is not entirely unexpected. But another option is possible. For example, Belgian politician and senior EU politician Guy Verhofstadt condemned the violence by saying: “I don’t want to interfere in the domestic issues of Spain, but I absolutely condemn what happened today in Catalonia.”
Whatever one might think of the Catalan government, its decision to hold a referendum or the legitimacy of the results — for what it’s worth, I think it would be difficult to justify Catalonia’s unilateral secession based on the results of this referendum — nothing can justify the kind of brute force and repression we saw from Spain, a democratic country, against its own people over the weekend. It isn’t clear what will happen if Catalan officials follow through on their pledge to use the vote as a basis for declaring independence, and it remains to be seen whether police aggression will fuel the nationalist movement, as it might well. Either way, Spain stands at the cusp of a political and constitutional crisis with the potential for more unrest.
The government of Canada should issue a statement condemning, in the strongest possible terms, the use of state sanctioned violence in Catalonia.