Spanish Politics Summary November 2005

A new Estatuto of Autonomy (Main Regional Law) has been approved in the Catalan regional government. At this moment it is in the Spanish Parliament. The Estatuto, if passed in the Spanish Parliament would change unilaterally and in a covered up way the Spanish Constitution because:

• To change the Spanish constitution 75% of the votes are needed, and all Spanish people must have a say in the way of a Referendum. To pass this regional law only 51% of votes are needed in the Spanish Parliament and a Referendum in the whole of Spain is not needed.


• The Estatuto (regional law) gives Catalonia status of a nation and sets the Spanish state as a confederacy of states.


• It gives a decisive step towards monolinguism in Catalonia. Nationalists want everyone speaking Catalan and no-one speaking Spanish (Castilian). Today it is impossible for Spanish (Castilian) mother tongue speakers to take their children to study in Catalonia in their mother tongue (Violation of human rights) - This is the case for most of half of the Catalan population. There are linguistic fines to those who don't use Catalan in commerce or at school and offices to report against the Spanish Castilian speakers. The problem of nationalists is that where market forces thrive Spanish Castilian stays, where they intervene they can impose Catalan, so they have to increasingly intervene to impose Catalan. Catalan is the only language of the administration and of education. The law in force says that both Catalan and Spanish Castilian are official languages in Catalonia. The nationalists speak of asymmetric bilinguism but the new law wants to impose Catalan for everyone. All this discrimination of the Spanish Castilian started with Jordi Pujol (CiU). Those who defend bilinguism or the law in force are called fascists (or they say they tense the political atmosphere, or they sow hate), opponents to Catalonia, discriminated and victims of aggressions by the nationalists and the politically controlled and subsidised media.


• It gives Catalonia the power to raise all taxes, even those of Catalan companies in the rest of Spain, and then gives what seems convenient to the Spanish State. This is the extra money that will pay the huge deficit they have due to their linguistic apartheid, and policies mainly in the form of subsidies. The extra money that will finance further steps towards their goals: Only Catalan spoken in Catalonia and Independence, and later on, the annexation of Valencia, Balearic islands, parts of Aragon, and part of southern France. Only a few days ago in the Football Club Barcelona Stadium there was a huge banner with a Catalonia with Valencia and the Balearic Islands annexed. All this in the middle of the field under the consent of the club's nationalist authorities. At the end of the Franco´s dictatorship Catalonia was the most prosperous region in Spain in GDP terms. Today the region does not keep pace with the rest of Spain and there are several regions above Catalonia in GDP terms.


• It gives Catalonia Justice and other competences that now belong to the Spanish State. According to the law the Spanish Estate disappears in Catalonia and will not have any power over its affairs. However Catalonia would have decisive powers in all the main Spanish institutions. For instance Catalonia with this text has given itself the power of veto over Spanish foreign affairs, or the right to have representatives when Spain negotiates in the European Union. Therefore according to the new law Catalonia stays in Spain and doesn't become independent. Buy it stays in Spain to command.


• It is in summary the constitution of a new nation in disguise. A highly interventionist "ethnic" Constitution where only the Catalan people have rights and duties. It overlooks the rights and duties of the individuals as it is done in the Spanish Constitution. It breaches the unity of the Spanish market. Both Laws clearly clash.

Other points to be taken into account in relationship to the Estatuto Catalan (Regional Law):

• The Estatuto incredibly has been encouraged by the president of the Spanish government, Rodriguez Zapatero (PSOE, Socialist), who probably will be remembered in history with the doubtful honour of having made possible a legal text destined to dynamite the same foundations of his political power. Zapatero made a negotiation so that Maragall (PSC, Socialist of Catalonia, Regional President) and Mas (CiU) could reach an agreement and the law could pass in the Catalan Regional Parliament. The whole of the CiU group has voted this interventionist law in the regional parliament (liberals?). The PSC and independentists have also voted for it. Therefore 90% of the Catalan government. However on the streets there is no such overwhelming consensus, quite the opposite, and many do not talk because they fear the consequences.


• Zapatero said in a party rally in Catalonia that he would approve anything that came out of the Catalan regional Parliament.


• Zapatero's strategy towards the disguised coup d'etat: along the lines...nothing happens, everything is normal, the word "nation" has different meanings. Also there is informative censorship. There were several meetings Zapatero-Nationalists leaders without giving information. In the meeting Zapatero-Artur Mas. it was a Mas blunder that allowed the press to know that there had been such meeting.


• Catalonia at present is governed by an alliance of 3 parties, (ERC independentists, PSC socialists, and marginal ex-communists). In the Tinell accord they agreed to isolate politically the Popular Party. ERC party leader (Carod) was in negotiations with ETA (Vasc terrorists with more than 800 crimes) so that they stopped killing only in Catalonia.


• Relationship PSC, PSOE. PSC is the Catalan branch of PSOE (Socialists). PSC took the nationalist route to get CiU out of power and now it can be considered another nationalist party. PSOE is a federation of parties. PSOE governs in Madrid with the help of PSC, the independentists ERC and the marginal ex-communists. Zapatero owes Maragall (PSC) his support to become General Secretary of PSOE during the primary elections.


• Attacks to opponents to nationalist ideas. The only political party which subscribes clear ideas of respect to bilinguism and of a Constitutional Spain, the PP, is attacked (The socialist party subscribes those ideas in a very ambiguous way, as some nationalists parties. The fact that they have voted the new law has made clear to a lot of people that most of what they say is false. Although there is also much confusion due to the "nothing happens" messages of the media). The attacks to the PP are in the form of stones being thrown at their offices. Sometimes offices are burnt down. In fact this political party has serious difficulties to rent offices in some areas of Catalonia. No one wants to rent an office that risks being burnt down!. There are also attacks to PP leaders, their relatives, members and any other person who disagree in an organised way to the dominant ideas of nationalism, even if it is just to demand to enforce current laws. As an example, the pictures of recent aggressions to Francisco Caja, professor at the University of Barcelona. He committed the crime of making a conference to defend bilinguism at the University. The graffiti at his office: "Fascists out of Catalonia, Bilinguism is fascism, You're an enemy of Catalan (language) and of Catalonia". Also a group of people prevented him from giving a conference on the subject of bilinguism. This one like many other attacks are not covered in the media (or only covered in a marginal way). The attacks are never condemned by the Nationalists leaders, quite the opposite, authorities and media act most of the time as an accomplice. There are many attacks of this kind. In Catalonia there's no real freedom of expression and the attitudes described above violate several articles of the Declaration of Human Rights.


• Artur Mas (CiU) and party corruption (3% in all contracts of civil works in Catalonia). In 2004 there was collapse of the district of the Carmel during the construction of an underground line in Barcelona. The scandal has been silenced by mass media and the Catalan political class. In parliamentary debate, Artur Mas (CiU) blamed President of the regional government (Maragall ,PSC, Socialist) of what had happened. The president blackmailed him telling him to keep quiet or he would raise the issue of the 3% that CiU took in all contracts of regional civil works when in government.


• Hostile takeover bid of Gas Natural towards Endesa. Gas Natural, company controlled by La Caixa, controlled by the Catalan Regional Government. Whenever there's a weak government in Madrid, nationalists take advantage to be paid the toll of governance in the form of control of Spanish Blue Chips. This time is Endesa which is the first electrical company and the 5th biggest company in Spain. This is the economic part of the independentist project. No nation is possible without controlling the energy sector. There's now the feeling in the Spanish society that after 30 years of concessions to the victimism of nationalism, the effort was not worth while. Nationalists only satiation point is the independence or the dominance of Spain under their rule. The new Estatuto passed in the Catalan Parliament has proved it right.


• There is not a social demand for the new law. Or at least the people who support it are less than half of the population. In fact, the Catalan regional government needed to make advertisement to make popular the new law.


• A new political party, left wing, non nationalist, is coming into form in Catalonia. People who are not yet brainwashed by the dominant nationalist ideas in the media, culture and education are fed up with the situation and feel humiliated by the socialists in Catalonia. Many of them are Spanish Castilian speakers, but there are also many Catalan speakers that don't subscribe to the nationalists totalitarian methods.

 
Right now Spain confronts a historical challenge between two forces, those who defend medieval disintegration and those who defend the brotherhood of one of the world's oldest nations. Those who threaten the democracy usurping his name (nationalists), and those who defend the freedom in the name of Spain (being called fascists by the former). In my opinion Europe is also in serious danger because this would set a historical precedent and many European countries with plenty of "nationalities" to unleash could start a similar process.
  
The beliefs and political action of nationalists parties are, and have been since 1980 when they started to govern with Jordi Pujol (CiU):

• Usurpation of achievements and rewriting of history. "We are different (because we speak a different language) and very especial, the rest of Spain is just rubbish and despicable, all the good things in the Catalan society is thanks to the nationalists" "we are the true democrats (that is what they say but in reality they didn't fight against Franco, quite the opposite they thrived under the dictatorship), and all those who don't agree with our ideas are just fascists or Spanish nationalists" (however, Spanish nationalism allows them to make all those remarks in Madrid whereas a lot of courage is needed to defend current law and bilinguism in Barcelona). Their arguments continue along the lines... Castile invaded us in 1714 and Castilian was imposed in Catalonia. So why shouldn't we impose Catalan today? This is what kids study in Catalan schools. In reality that is a manipulation of history. In 1714 there was a war of succession to the Spanish Throne and all Catalan felt and fought for the best Spain. Not all of them fought on the same camp. Catalan was not forbidden. Latin was the administrative language and was substituted by Castilian Spanish and some privileges were forbidden in the whole of Spain in order to make a modern state, remove barriers and interior frontiers and to unify the market. In fact the Catalan and Spanish economy took off after those measures were taken.


• Pedagogy of hate towards the rest of Spain and Spanish Castilian speakers both by nationalists and the media. That can be seen in all kinds of statements made by nationalists since its ideologue Enric Prat de la Riba started in 1906. "We despise everything Castilian at left and at right, in an unrestrained fashion" suggested Prat. Since then all nationalists have not stopped in that attitude. In fact, they have provoked the end of democracy twice in the 20th century in association with communists and anarchists always with warmongering techniques and absurd demands that made democracy an impossible affair in Spain. Before the late 19th century there's not a single document referring to an oppression of Catalonia by the rest of Spain. Prat de la Riba ideas coincided with a wave of social Darwinism that was sweeping across Europe. "The survival of the fittest" taken to the sociological field. These same ideas inspired Nazism.


• Negative concept of history before nationalists and the rewriting of history. "Everything was bad. Catalonia is a oppressed nation. Nationalists are the illuminated leaders who are going to lead the Catalan people" This negative concept of the history of Spain is shared by some sectors of the Spanish socialist party who also want to "guide" the Spanish people into a brighter future. This negative concept of history encourages them to rewrite it.


• Victimism. (Playing out to be the victims). "If there's something bad is always Madrid or the Spanish State's (the way they always call Spain) fault"


• Discrimination and aggressions towards Spanish Castilian speakers including the violation of the declaration of human rights.


• Corruption, control of the media and culture through subsidies and abuse of the regional government and institutions to achieve their political objectives of making a homogeneous Catalonia where everyone speaks only Catalan at any cost. Individual rights don't matter much to them, and in Catalonia there is no real freedom of expression. They subscribe to the idea of a very plural Spain where all languages are spoken and paradoxically at the same time they subscribe to the idea of a non plural Catalonia where only Catalan would be spoken.


• Not all the nationalists have always followed the same policies. Tarradellas the first nationalist that came from exile, wanted reconciliation and finished every discourse with a Long life to Catalonia and to Spain. Soon after Jordi Pujol came into power, he was shocked to see the social engineering and cleansing of opposition that was being brought about. In 1981, 2300 intellectuals signed a manifesto asking in a very polite way to respect the law and allow both languages Catalan and Spanish Castilian in education in Catalonia. The intellectuals were called fascists, and one of them was kidnapped and shot with bullet. No nationalist leader condemned the violation of human rights, quite the opposite some of the regional press accused them of having prepared the kidnap and aggression to be able to present themselves as victims.

 
All this is not new in History, the situation is very similar to the Germany of the 1930's where a constitutional regime was destroyed without changing or substituting laws in force.