Catalonian leaders have one ideology – money

IN “DISTURBING instability is tearing at Catalonia” (The Star, March 2), Tai Ramos Marti makes such absurd accusations as to show unequivocally that he is a separatist writing and thinking from a well of information prescribed by the leaders of the failed coup d’état staged by Puigdemont and his closest accomplices – all of them belonging to the Catalan government – on October 27, 2017.

Marti seems to be speaking about Venezuela rather than about Spain when he says: “A trial has been initiated for rebellion and sedition without democratic guarantees, with evidence made to measure…” and goes on to involve Franco in this legal procedure.

The politicians that staged a UDI in Barcelona have been given ample time to prepare their defence since October 2017.

I visit Barcelona, my home town, often and I have to add that there has been a growing cancer in society in the last 20 years or so, whereby if you are not a separatist you are a Francoist.

Twisted reasoning, me thinks. The Catalan government of Barcelona has started suggesting that companies who were formally pro-separatist will benefit economically. Are we witnessing some kind of affirmative action movement or Catalan Economic Empowerment? Not very democratic.

During the present trial of the 12 rebels in Madrid, the accused are trying to prove that their declaration of UDI was nothing but a political “performance” (in their own words) to gain an advantageous position during the negotiations with Madrid for independence from Spain.

In the end, the leaders lost control of the situation, declared UDI and Puigdemont, their Messiah, seconds after finishing his official statement broadcast throughout Catalonia jumped into the boot of a waiting car and drove away into self-imposed and very comfortable exile in Brussels, leaving behind his acolytes with the words, “See you at your desks on Monday.” He is still there, laughing at his colleagues being drilled in Madrid.

Separatists’ war cry is “Madrid Robs us”. Catalonia is part of Spain as an autonomous province, with their own government and parliament and laws, but always under the laws of the country.

They are 16% of the total population of Spain but they contribute 20% of Spain’s gross domestic product – €223 billion (R3.6bn) a year. This is what the leaders of Catalonia want for themselves, and this is the real “ideology” of separatism, money. Any government employee position in the Catalan government, from the president down, earns a much higher salary than their equivalent in Madrid.

The money that Catalonia sends to Madrid every year is used to upgrade the economies of other Spanish provinces less productive than Catalonia.

The man in the street does not know that, but the separatist leaders use this information as a tool to put Madrid in a bad, anti-Catalan light.

MARIANO S CASTRILLÓN | Randpark Ridge