Nostalgia for the Franco era is alive and well
IT HAS been a week of high drama in Barcelona, as Madrid moves to suspend Catalonia’s autonomous powers. Frantic efforts were made by various factions in both Madrid and Barcelona to defuse the crisis.
On Thursday, a proposal that the regional government declare regional elections, in return for Madrid pushing the pause button on direct rule, briefly buoyed up the Spanish Stock Exchange.
However, under pressure from his coalition partners, it was rejected by the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont. Tension was high outside the regional government buildings, with pro-independence demonstrations, this time striking students, and the noise of helicopters from three different police forces endlessly circulating overhead.
Yesterday, Spain’s Senate empowered the government to proceed with the takeover, and, in probably one of its last official acts, the regional parliament declared independence from Spain.
Planning and preparation for the takeover of power is well advanced. Madrid has already been, for some time, chipping away at Barcelona’s decision-making capacity in the financial area.
Apart from taking political and financial control of the region, Madrid will most likely take over control of security. Asserting national control over the regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra (ME), is now a priority, as its present leadership is perceived to be loyal to the current Generalitat. Madrid’s build-up of its national forces in the region is probably, by now, adequate to deal with any mutiny that might occur among the ME.
Another target for Madrid could be the region’s embryo foreign service, Diplocat, which, in the event of independence, could become an effective foreign ministry overnight. Expect also controls to be placed on the media, especially (Catalan) TV Channel 3.
The shape and form of resistance to Madrid rule should be apparent over the coming days. We can expect largescale civil disobedience, street protests and strikes. However, the more that tensions rise, so too does the risk of violence.
Once empowered, Madrid will be able to dissolve the regional parliament and declare elections, possibly as early as January. This could be a gamble. Many nationalists feel that the public revulsion to the police action during the recent referendum will enhance their support from the electorate. However, opinion polls show little or no significant rise in support for the independence parties since the referendum.
But there was a disturbing report last week in ‘El País’, the prestigious daily. It seems that Madrid might ban independence parties, or individuals, from participating in the elections. Senior hard-line personalities in Mariano Rajoy’s Partido Popular are talking about using Article 4 of the Constitution, the article previously used to ban Basque nationalist parties, such as Batasuna in 2003, from participating in regional elections.
Should this happen, a prounionist majority will emerge from the elections, and it will be game over for the independence movement, for a long time to come.
Moreover, it is unlikely that the international community would object, as many EU member states have similar clauses in their constitutions, or in law, to protect the sovereignty and unity of their nations. Still, many European democrats will be uncomfortable with the way the Madrid government continually brushes aside the aspirations of Catalan nationalists for self-determination. These aspirations may conflict with Spanish law, and be in violation of the Spanish constitution, but they have resonance in international law. Look no further than the UN Charter’s call to “respect equal rights and self-determination of peoples” (Article 2).
The fallout from the October 1 referendum continues, with recriminations coming from both sides. Bizarrely, the Spanish foreign minister seems to have had a Donald Trump moment. Last Sunday he claimed that some of the scenes of police violence on referendum day were based on alternative facts and fake news. Given that foreign media gave massive coverage to this event, were they too, part of the fake news conspiracy?
WHILE a foreign minister’s remarks are usually addressed to a foreign audience, in this case, it must be to a home constituency. One could ask, who would be eager to listen to, and believe, this claim? Perhaps the kind of people who are one step removed from believing that the police violence did not happen at all.
Nostalgia for the Franco era is still alive and well in certain quarters.
But the nationalists can be criticised too, for playing footsie with the facts. Claims that upwards of 1,000 people were injured by police violence have had to be revised, to include people who merely sought medical attention.
The central question remains the nationalist claim to being a nation. Spain’s Constitutional Court has interpreted the constitution and decided it is not. Still, the Catalan nationalists’ claim to nationhood is arguably stronger than that of Kosovo, South Sudan or East Timor, who have achieved independence.
The Spanish constitution has been amended before, and can be changed again, but entrenched positions have to give way. Dialogue is the only way forward. Both sides have simply got too much to lose.