Spanish monarchy and Catholicism

Spanish monarchy and Catholicism

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Catalan President declaration of independence speech

 

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Catalan leader stakes claim to independence, then delays it

by Aritz Parra And Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press
Posted Oct 10, 2017 8:48 am EDT

BARCELONA, Spain – Catalan separatists on Tuesday signed what they called a declaration of independence from Spain to cheers and applause in the regional parliament. Catalonia’s president said he would delay implementing it for several weeks to give dialogue a chance.

 

Spain, however, called an emergency Cabinet meeting for Wednesday morning and gave little indication it is willing to talk.

 

In his highly anticipated speech, regional President Carles Puigdemont said the landslide victory in a disputed Oct. 1 referendum gave his government the grounds to implement its long-held desire to break century-old ties with Spain.

 

But he proposed that the regional parliament “suspend the effects of the independence declaration to commence a dialogue, not only for reducing tension but for reaching an accord on a solution to go forward with the demands of the Catalan people.”

 

“We have to listen to the voices that have asked us to give a chance for dialogue with the Spanish state,” Puigdemont said.

 

The central government in Madrid responded that it did not accept the declaration of independence by the separatists and did not consider the referendum or its results to be valid. Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said an emergency Cabinet meeting had been called for Wednesday.

 

The Catalan leader “doesn’t know where he is, where he is going and with whom he wants to go,” she said.

 

Saenz de Santamaria said the government couldn’t accept the Catalan government’s validation of its referendum law because it is suspended by the constitutional Court, or the results of the Oct. 1 vote because it was illegal and void of guarantees.

 

She said Puigdemont had put Catalonia “in the greatest level of uncertainty seen yet.”

 

One of the government’s options at the Wednesday meeting could be to set about applying Article 155 of the Constitution, which allows the central government to take some or total control of any of its 17 regions that don’t comply with their legal obligations. This would begin with a Cabinet meeting and a warning to the regional government to fall into line. Then, the Senate could be called to approve the measure.

 

Puigdemont also could be called in for questioning in court and possibly arrested.

 

Following his speech, the Catalan leader was the first to sign the document titled “Declaration of the Representatives of Catalonia.” Dozens of other separatist lawmakers signed it after him.

 

The signatories said the document was a full declaration of independence.

 

Joan Barcelo, a researcher on political conflicts at Washington University in St. Louis, said the mixed messages sent by Puigdemont’s speech did little in his effort to rally international support.

 

“It’s a mess and a mistake in political communication strategy,” Barcelo said. “He was trying not to burn bridges to dialogue, but he’s going to create doubts among his supporters.”

 

In his remarks, Puigdemont was highly critical of the Spanish government’s response to the referendum and the violent police reaction that left hundreds injured on voting day, but said Catalans have nothing against Spain or Spaniards, and that they want to understand each other better.

 

“We are not criminals, we are not crazy, we are not pulling off a coup, we are not out of our minds. We are normal people who want to vote,” he said.

 

Opposition leader Ines Arrimadas of the Ciutadans (Citizens) party slammed the speech.

 

“This is a coup. Nobody has recognized the result of the referendum. Nobody in Europe supports what you have just done,” she said.

 

“The majority of Catalans feels they are Catalans, Spanish and European. … We won’t let you break our hearts into bits,” Arrimadas said.

 

Socialist leader Miquel Iceta also was highly critical.

 

“You are proposing to suspend a declaration that hasn’t been made, that’s pretty tough,” he said with irony, adding that “you can’t claim a mandate from the Oct. 1 vote … a vote that had no guarantees.”

Puigdemont’s speech marked a critical point in a decade-long standoff between Catalan separatists and Spain’s central authorities. Security was tight in Barcelona and police cordoned off a park surrounding the legislative building.

 

In Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk pleaded directly with the Catalan leadership ahead of the speech to choose dialogue rather than a divisive call for independence.

 

“I ask you to respect in your intentions the constitutional order and not to announce a decision that would make such a dialogue impossible,” he said.

 

Some 2.3 million Catalans — or 43 per cent of the electorate in the northeastern region — voted in the referendum. Regional authorities say 90 per cent were in favour and declared the results valid. Those who opposed the referendum had said they would boycott the vote.

 

Rajoy’s government had repeatedly refused to grant Catalonia permission to hold a referendum on the grounds that it was unconstitutional, since it would only poll a portion of Spain’s 46 million residents.

 

Catalonia’s separatists camp has grown in recent years, strengthened by Spain’s recent economic crisis and by Madrid’s rejection of attempts to increase self-rule in the region.

 

The political deadlock has plunged Spain into its deepest political crisis in more than four decades, since democratic rule was restored following the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.

 

Thousands rallied in Barcelona’s streets and watched Puigdemont’s speech. For some, his move to not declare outright secession was disappointing.

 

“I feel a little sad because now is not independence,” said 55-year-old Maria Gill. “We must wait a few weeks, a few weeks we must talk with the government of Spain.”Others took a more stoic approach.

 

“Perhaps it isn’t the decisive declaration, declaring the republic and breaking away (from Spain) from today before any negotiation,” said Oscar Baldes. “But it’s a first step and that’s important.”

 

Any declaration of independence won’t immediately lead to the creation of a new state because the Catalan government will need to figure out how to wrest control of its sovereignty from a Spanish government that has the law, and international support, on its side, said Barcelo, the researcher on political conflicts.

 

He said any declaration must be viewed through the lens of “the Catalan government’s long-term strategy of provoking an extraordinary and even clumsy reaction from central authorities” to build support.

 

Hundreds of thousands have turned out for protests in Barcelona and other towns in the past month to back independence and protest against police violence during the vote. Those committed to national unity have also staged separate, large-scale rallies.

 

Polls indicate that Catalonia’s 7.5 million residents are evenly divided over secession, although a majority support holding a referendum on independence authorized by central authorities.

 

The tension has already affected the economy, with dozens of companies relocating their corporate addresses to remain under Spanish and European laws if Catalonia secedes. The moves of the firms’ bases have not so far affected jobs or investments, but they don’t send a message of confidence in the Puigdemont government.

___

Associated Press writers Hernan Munoz in Barcelona, and Ciaran Giles in Madrid, contributed to this report.


 

CCP 19th Party Congress to be a monument to Xi Jinping

19th Party Congress to be a monument to Xi Jinping

Xi is likely to be endorsed as China's third paramount leader after Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping

By Wu Zhong| September 29, 2017
 
The Communist Party of China (CPC) has set the tone for its 19th National Congress, scheduled to open on October 18, as an epoch-making event on par with the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by Mao Zedong in 1949 and the launch of economic reform and opening up by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, which logically leads to endorsement of President Xi Jinping as the third paramount leader after Mao and Deng.

Briefing the Chinese media recently on the upcoming party meeting, Jiang Jianguo, deputy chief of the CPC’s Central Department of Publicity, said recently that the 19th Party Congress “will take care of not only the next five years, but the next two or three decades as well”. In other words, the Congress will set an agenda for the party and the nation to follow for quite a long time. But why 20 to 30 years, specifically?

In 2012 when Xi took the reins after the conclusion of the 18th Party Congress, he put forward his concept of a “Chinese dream” for “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. To fulfill this great dream, he later set two centenary goals: to build China into a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021, when the CPC marks its centennial; and to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by 2049, when the PRC marks its centennial. There are now 32 years left to realise Xi’s “Chinese dream” fully.

Xi’s “Chinese dream” seems to consist of three phases: for the Chinese nation to stand up, to become wealthy, and then to become strong. As he elaborated in a speech in late July, “The Chinese nation, which has experienced tribulations and hardships since modern times, has made a historic leap from standing up to becoming rich and then to getting stronger. Having stood up and become better off, getting stronger now becomes a new challenge to China. We must get prepared mentally, theoretically and systematically.”

So roughly speaking, the first centenary goal “to build China into a moderately prosperous society in all respects” is meant for Chinese people to become rich or at least better off, and the second one, “to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, is to turn China into a strong power.

Third milestone in history

It is a common saying in China that Mao led the Chinese nation to stand up and Deng paved the way for the nation to become rich. Therefore, it is Xi who is tasked with blazing the way for the nation to become a strong power by the middle of this century. If he succeeds, he will surely become the third epoch-making leader after Mao and Deng. Since it is believed that the 19th Party Congress will focus on how to make this last phase of the “Chinese dream” come true, it will also be hailed as the third milestone in the histories of the CPC and the PRC.

Hence it is no surprise that the 19th Congress will revise the party constitution to endorse Xi’s ideas as part of the CPC’s guiding ideology. The current party constitution stipulates that the CPC upholds Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the “important idea of Three Represents” and the Scientific Outlook on Development as its guidelines to action.

It is noted that “Three Represents” was the brainchild of former party chief Jiang Zemin and the Scientific Outlook on Development was proposed by Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor. Nevertheless, neither of those men is named in the constitution. If, as widely expected, Xi’s ideas are to be written into the party constitution as part of its guiding ideology with his name attached, then it means he will be endorsed as a paramount leader on par with Mao and Deng.

And in fact, only Xi can be said to be as strong a leader as Mao and Deng, given that he is firmly in command of the armed forces. By comparison, Jiang and Hu, especially the latter, had no military experience and had to rely on the top generals, who being unchecked acted recklessly and cared for nobody and eventually became corrupt.

On the economic front, since the CPC’s goal for the next couple of decades is to make China strong, one can be certain that the party will task itself to continue boosting economic growth through reform and opening up. This is evident in remarks made this week by Vice-Premier Liu Yandong during her visit to the United States. On Wednesday she told former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in New York that China would further open up its economy after the 19th Party Congress.

Hence it can be expected that the Chinese economy will grow at the current pace if not faster in years to come, although it is unlikely that specific growth goals will be set at the Party Congress, which focuses more on matters of principle.

And under Xi, China’s rise will follow its own path. The statement  following the Politburo meeting on August 31, which set the date for the 19th Party Congress, made it clear that “the whole party and nation must hold and boost firm self-confidence in the socialist road with Chinese characteristics, theoretical self-confidence, self-confidence in [China’s own] system, and cultural self-confidence.”
These “four self-confidences,” coined by Xi himself, clearly indicate that China rejects becoming Westernized, whatever that word means. As a matter of fact, the Chinese people nowadays are becoming increasingly confident that their nation is on the right track of development.

A July 25 Wall Street Journal report, “New challenge to US power: Chinese exceptionalism,” said:
President Xi Jinping is holding up China as a confident global power at a time when US leadership seems uncertain. Increasingly, his government can count on swelling national pride among its own citizens.

A generation after China’s late reformist leader Deng Xiaoping exhorted his fellow citizens to “keep our light hidden and bide our time”, Chinese exceptionalism is on the rise. While some Chinese still believe the country will need to embrace democracy to reach its full potential, many others are convinced the country has reached this point not in spite of the government’s crushing of pro-democracy protests in 1989, but because of it.

Annual surveys by the Pew Research Center since 2010 show more than 80% of Chinese are satisfied with the direction of their country. Three-quarters of the Chinese surveyed by Pew last year see China playing a bigger role in global affairs than 10 years ago, and 60% view China’s involvement in the global economy as positive.

Major leadership reshuffle

With Xi’s somewhat absolute authority established, he surely has the final say on the major leadership reshuffle to be made at the 19th Party Congress.

At the five-yearly Party Congress, the 2,300 deputies representing 88 million CPC members across the country will elect its new Central Committee, which in turn will elect a new Politburo and its Standing Committee.

Apart from Xi and Premier Li Keqiang, all five of the other members of the incumbent Politburo Standing Committee have reached retirement age. And four are sure to step down: the chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Yu Zhengsheng, propaganda tsar Liu Yunshan, and Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli.

But there is speculation that Xi may want the no-nonsense Wang Qishan, head of the top anti-graft watchdog, to stay and continue leading the campaign to crack down on corruption. Supporters of this cite as evidence Wang’s recent high-profile activities such as meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. However, there are also unconfirmed reports saying that Wang, 69, is not in good health and wishes to retire.
Given Wang’s age, he will have to step down under the party’s unwritten rule of compulsory retirement. But there is also no doubt that given Xi’s authority today, he can easily change that rule. But the cost would probably be too high, according to some Chinese sources.

The rule was established through arduous efforts and has been strictly followed in past decades. Once it is broken, it may not be easy to re-establish it. And without such a rule in place, retirement of officials would become an arbitrary thing again, opening doors to nepotism and corruption.
More important, through Wang’s efforts over the past five years, effective anti-corruption mechanisms have gradually become institutionalized, so his retirement would not necessarily signal that the crackdown would slow down or become less effective. Therefore, right now it seems there is a greater chance of Wang retiring than otherwise. If he does so, his latest high-profile activities could be seen as his farewell gesture.

According to the CPC’s adopted practice, vacancies in the Politburo Standing Committee normally will be filled by incumbent Politburo members, and vacancies in the Politburo will be filled by incumbent Central Committee members. But this year, there may be a couple of “dark horses”.
Among the current Politburo members, the most likely to be promoted into the Politburo Standing Committee include Vice-Premier Wang Yang, Guangdong provincial party secretary Hu Chunhua, Shanghai municipal party secretary Han Zheng, and the director of the CPC’s General Office, Li Zhanshu. It is said that Wang Yang is also likely to replace Zhang Dejiang as NPC chairman, and Li Zhanshu to replace Wang Qishan, if he retires, to head the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the top anti-graft watchdog.

Xi protégé Chen Min’er, currently Chongqing municipal party secretary and a Central Committee member, is likely to be a dark horse to climb two rungs to become a Politburo Standing Committee member.

No endorsement of heir to Xi

Another Xi protégé, Cai Qi, currently Beijing municipal party secretary, is likely to be another dark horse in the leadership reshuffle at the 19th Party Congress. Currently, he is not even an alternate member of the Central Committee, but he is sure to be promoted into the Politburo – also moving up two rungs of the CPC’s bureaucratic ladder.

Unlike in the past, the 19th Party Congress will not endorse an heir to Xi, though he will have to step down five years later if the rule of retirement remains in effect. Does this mean Xi would seek a third term in 2022 or want to run a “horse race” to see who will stick out with outstanding performance? On that question, we can only wait and see.

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France will not recognise Catalonia Independence, minister

File Photo: French European Affairs Minister
Nathalie Loiseau

France will not recognise Catalonia independence, minister
By RFI    Issued on 09-10-2017 

Reutrs/Eric Gaillard

France will not recognise Catalan independence if the region's president announces that it will leave Spain in a speech to parliament on Tuesday, French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said on Monday.

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is due to bring the results of the region's independence referendum before the regional parliament on Tuesday.

The regional government published the final results on Friday, with 90.18 percent of those taking part voting "yes" on a low 43 percent turnout.But the vote was declared illegal by the Spanish government and obstructed by police.

Many opponents boycotted it and there was a large demonstration against independence in Barcelona on Sunday.

“If there were to be a declaration of independence, it would be unilateral and it would not be recognised,” Loiseau told CNews television on Monday.

“Catalonia cannot be defined by the vote organised by the independence movement just over a week ago,” she went on. “This crisis needs to be resolved through dialogue at all levels of Spanish politics.”

She also repeated the European Union's warning that a breakaway Catalonia would have reapply for membership of the bloc, saying it would have “automatically left the European Union".

It was not clear on Monday whether Puigdemont would declared independence or simply recognise the referendum result.

The Catalan independence campaign has worried some politicians in France, which has its own Catalan-speaking region, known as Pyrénées-Orientales and has also faced a separatist movement in Brittany.

King of Spain accuses Catalan leaders of 'unacceptable disloyalty'

கற்றலோனியா  சுதந்திர வெகுஜன வாக்கெடுப்பு, ``ஏற்கத்தகாத அடிபணியாமை``!

ஸ்பானிய மன்னர்

 

'Unacceptable Disloyalty'

King of Spain accuses Catalan leaders of 'unacceptable disloyalty'
By Hilary Clarke, Claudia Rebaza and Isa Soares, CNN
Updated 1042 GMT (1842 HKT) October 4, 2017 Barcelona (CNN)

The King of Spain lashed out at Catalan authorities on Tuesday evening after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Catalonia to vent their fury over the violent police crackdown on Sunday's contested independence referendum.

In a rare televised statement, King Felipe said the referendum's organizers had jeopardized national stability. "With their decisions, they have systematically undermined the rules approved legally and legitimately, showing an unacceptable disloyalty towards the powers of the state -- a state that represents Catalan interests," he said.

King Felipe's hardline address was an unusual departure for the Spanish monarch, who used the majority of his speech to castigate Catalan leaders while making no reference to polling day violence that left nearly 900 people injured. He concluded the address with a call for national unity, while continuing to unleash a verbal assault on the Catalan authorities.

"Today Spanish society is fractured and confronted. Those authorities have underestimated the fondness and feelings of solidarity that have united and will unite the whole of the Spanish population, and with their irresponsible attitude they have put the economic and social stability of Catalonia and Spain at risk," he said.

On Tuesday night Catalonia's leader, Carles Puigdemont, told the BBC in an interview that his government would unilaterally declare independence by "the end of this week or the beginning of next." If Puigdemont follows through on the promise in the interview, recorded before the king's address, it would further deepen the constitutional crisis facing Spain.

King Felipe's decision to intervene in the crisis came after 700,000 people gathered in Barcelona, according to City Police, angered by the harsh treatment meted out by national forces who tried to prevent the banned vote from taking place. Many demonstrated in front of the Barcelona headquarters of the Spanish national police.

Shops were closed, universities halted classes and transport companies ran reduced services as supporters of Catalonia's bid for independence from Spain attempted to maintain the momentum from Sunday's vote.

Facing Spain's biggest political crisis in decades, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy held talks with opposition parties in Madrid. Spanish authorities have ordered members of the Guardia Civil, the national security force deployed to Catalonia to block the referendum, to remain on standby in the region for the next week.

'The streets will always be ours'

Protesters gathering in Barcelona said they were motivated by fury at Sunday's violent crackdown -- the Catalan health ministry said 893 people were injured as riot police raided polling stations, dragged away voters and fired rubber bullets.

"This is a protest against police violence and maintaining momentum after Sunday," said Victor Noguer, 27, a firefighter.

"The streets will always be ours," protesters chanted, some of them draped in the blue, yellow and red Estelada flag used by Catalan separatists.

Protesters wave a Catalan pro-independence &#39;Estelada&#39; flag as they gather at the Placa de la Universitat square in Barcelona during a general strike in Catalonia called by Catalan unions on October 3, 2017.

Protesters wave a Catalan pro-independence 'Estelada' flag as they gather at the Placa de la Universitat square in Barcelona during a general strike in Catalonia called by Catalan
unions on October 3, 2017.

Officers from the Guardia Civil and the Catalan police force stood guard outside the local headquarters of the Spanish government in Barcelona, where hundreds of firefighters
gathered. Other groups of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the national police, shouting "Spanish police get out!"

In an interview with CNN at a police control center in the city, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau condemned Rajoy's decision to deploy national security forces as "seriously irresponsible."
"Why is he throwing thousands of police officers against the population," asked Colau, who does not support Catalan independence but was in favor of holding the referendum.

"Why is he keeping thousands of police officers on standby in the city of Barcelona and in Catalonia? What is the message of fear he wants to send?"

The presence of the Spanish national police and the Guardia Civil in Catalonia is a source of increasing tension in the city following Sunday's violence. Animosity is also rising between
local and national forces.

On Tuesday, the Guardia Civil police union, the AUGC, filed a complaint with the Catalan High Court against the Catalan police, or Mossos d'Esquadra, complaining that they failed in
their duties by not enforcing the court ruling that banned the referendum.

The AUGC also filed a complaint in connection with the eviction of 200 officers from the Hotel Vila in the Calella district of Barcelona. It called for a judicial inquiry into reports the mayor threatened to withdraw the hotel's license if the Guardia Civil remained there.

Spanish newspaper El Pais said two hotels in Barcelona and hotels in Reus, 100 kilometers from the city, have ordered Guardia Civil officers to leave following Sunday's referendum. Spain's Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said Madrid would "take all necessary measures" to stop the "intolerable harassment" of national security forces.

The Catalan government says it earned the right to split from Spain, claiming 90% of those who voted in Sunday's poll were in favour of independence. But the result was not decisive:
turnout was low, at around 42%.
===================
Catalan independence vote caps four centuries of mistrust
Related Article: Catalan independence vote caps four centuries of mistrust (N/A)
=====================================================
Catalan authorities blamed the crackdown for the low turnout, but it remains clear that public opinion in Catalonia is deeply split on independence.

Catalonia's President Carles Puigdemont stopped short of declaring independence for Catalonia Monday. According to the referendum law passed by the Catalan Parliament -- and
declared illegal by Spain's top court -- authorities have 48 hours after the result to declare a split. Catalan authorities have not yet presented a final result to the Parliament in Barcelona.
Puigdemont has called for international mediation to resolve the crisis.

Spanish PM unrepentant

On Monday, an unrepentant Prime Minister Rajoy met Spanish opposition leaders to discuss the government's next moves.

A statement released Monday night by the Spanish government described Sunday's events as a "serious situation of institutional disobedience in this community."

Protestors throw referendum ballots as they rally in front of Spain's ruling Partido Popular headquarters in Barcelona.

Protestors throw referendum ballots as they rally in front of Spain's ruling Partido Popular headquarters in Barcelona.

It said that during his meetings the Prime Minister "has strongly defended the actions of the security forces during [Sunday's] events and has reiterated that more than 400 officers needed (medical) attention and 40 needed emergency attention because of their injuries."

Rajoy's office said Tuesday that he was considering calling a special session of Spain's Congress of Deputies to discuss the crisis.

So far, European Union leaders and the European Commission have backed the Spanish government's opinion that the referendum was illegal.

The European Parliament, the EU's only elected body, will discuss the crisis on Wednesday. The Catalan cause is likely to find more sympathizers there, especially from the smaller nations.

The UN Commissioner for Human Rights has asked to be allowed to send in experts to examine if citizens' rights have been violated.
 =====================================
Correction: An earlier version of this article mis-stated the time of the King's speech.

Isa Soares and Claudia Rebaza reported from Barcelona. Hilary Clarke wrote from London. Vasco Cotovio in Barcelona, Hilary McGann and Milena Veselinovic in London and Kara
Fox in New York contributed to this report.

Spanish loyalists on streets to defy Catalan breakaway

Spanish loyalists on streets to defy Catalan breakaway
Graham Keeley, Barcelona
October 9 2017, 12:01am,
The Times UK

Hundreds of thousands of people waving the flags of Catalonia and Spain turned out in Barcelona yesterday to show their opposition to the independence movement, calling themselves the Silent Majority

RAFAEL MARCHANTE/REUTERS

Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Catalan independence were on the streets of Barcelona yesterday in the largest ever demonstration driven by the desire to keep Spain together.

Protesters calling themselves the Silent Majority converged on the centre of the city waving Spanish and Catalan flags and shouting “Viva España, Visca Catalunya”
(Long Live Spain, Long Live Catalonia).

The march came two days before a showdown between Madrid and Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader who has threatened to declare secession from Spain tomorrow at a special meeting of the regional assembly.

As Spain’s worst political crisis for decades showed no sign of easing, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, said that if separatists declared unilateral independence he could not rule out using article 155 of the constitution to impose direct rule and then call fresh regional elections.

Such a move, which has never been used since Spain returned to democracy in 1978, could trigger riots.

“I don’t rule out anything that is within the law . . . Ideally, we shouldn’t have to take drastic solutions but for that not to happen there would have to be changes,” Mr Rajoy said in an
interview with El País published yesterday.

In Barcelona, in a largely good humoured demonstration, people sang the Spanish national anthem and Y Viva España. Many held banners saying “Catalonia is Spain” and “We are proud Spaniards and Catalans”. Others shouted: “Puigdemont to jail!”

Societat Civil Catalana

Societat Civil Catalana, the group opposed to independence that organised the protest, called for a return to common sense. It claimed 950,000 people turned up but police said it was more like 350,000.

Ismael Caldera, 42, wearing the blue and red shirt of FC Barcelona, the football club that has supported Catalan independence, held a Spanish flag with the Catalan yellow and red stripes on the reverse.

“I came to show that not all Catalans are for independence. We are the silent majority who never demonstrate, but now we are frightened about what is happening to our country. It is
being taken over by a small minority,” he said.

Fascist salutes were seen at a protest rally in Madrid

PABLO BLAZQUEZ DOMINGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES

The wealthy northeastern region of 7.5 million people, which has its own language and accounts for 19 per cent of Spain’s GDP, held an independence referendum on October 1 in defiance of a ban by Spain’s highest court.

More than 90 per cent of the 2.3 million people who voted backed secession, according to Catalan officials. But the turnout was only 43 per cent of the region’s 5.3 million eligible voters. Many of those on the streets of central Barcelona yesterday claimed that the disputed referendum did not represent the views of most Catalans.

Asunción Bernardo, 48, an administrator, travelled 60 miles from Tarragona in the south of Catalonia to take part. He said: “You see how many people really oppose independence.

The independence people are better mobilised than us and we never raise our voices because we are frightened of reprisals at work or in the street. But now it is vitally important to show Catalonia is part of Spain. I am for dialogue to sort this out. Perhaps they could give the Catalans control over taxes, because they always complain that Madrid takes all the money.”

The Nobel literature prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and Josep Borrell, a former president of the European parliament, addressed the rally.

“Besides Catalans, there are thousands of men and women from all corners of Spain who have come to tell their Catalan companions that they are not alone,” said the writer, who took Spanish citizenship in addition to that of his native Peru in 1993. “We want Barcelona to once again be the capital of Spanish culture.”

Mr Borrell said: “Catalonia is not a state like Kosovo where rights were systematically violated.”
Tens of thousands of people also gathered in 50 cities across Spain on Saturday, some defending national unity and others dressed in white and calling for talks. Some protesters made fascist salutes at a rally in Madrid. Most demonstrators in Barcelona carried Spanish and Catalan flags.

There was a sharp rise in support for independence in Catalonia after an economic recession. Recent polls showed at least 40 per cent of Catalans supported independence, with 49 per cent against, but more than 70 per cent were in favour of a referendum agreed with Madrid, like the 2014 Scottish vote.

Concern is growing in European Union capitals about the impact of the crisis on the Spanish economy. Some European officials are also worried that any softening in the Spanish
government’s stance towards Catalan independence could fuel secessionist feelings among other groups in Europe.
Article Source : The Times UK Subscription
High Lights ENB.

Catalan independence: arrogance of Madrid explains this chaos

John Carlin

ஒரு சாமானிய ஸ்பானிய அறிவு ஜீவியின் கற்றலோனியாவுக்கான ஆதாரம் மிகுந்த தாராளவாதக் குரல்.

Catalan independence: arrogance of Madrid explains this chaos

Three centuries of Catalan grievances came to a head this week, but the intransigence of Spain’s government is ultimately to blame for the crisis

John Carlin

October 7 2017, 12:01am, The Times

 

Shortly before the King of Spain addressed the nation this week, some of his more rational-minded subjects hoped that maybe, just maybe, he might rise above the petty-mindedness of the Madrid political establishment. He could, they thought, offer a generous vision of how to resolve the crisis caused by the escalating clamour for Catalan independence. No such luck. By the end of his six-minute speech Felipe VI had only made things worse.

 

Stiff in his bearing, coldly commanding in his tone, he did not build bridges, he dug trenches. He did not lament the police violence during last Sunday’s simulacrum of a referendum in Catalonia, so damaging to his country’s global image; he denounced the “irresponsibility” and “scorn” of the elected Catalan government and threatened more violence. It was the “responsibility of the legitimate state powers”, the king warned, “to ensure constitutional order”, code for if the Catalan government makes good on its promise to declare unilateral independence, we’ll send in the tanks.

 

Speaking on behalf not of the nation but of central government, he did as prime minister Mariano Rajoy has done these last five years: he abdicated responsibility and, oblivious to what he was doing, abdicated his sovereign hold on the hearts of Catalonia’s increasingly embittered 7.5 million people, 80 per cent of whom are in favour of the right to vote on independence.

 

Before Sunday several polls indicated that the secessionist vote in Catalonia stood at between 40 and 50 per cent. There can be no question that those numbers have since risen. As a British friend who knows Spanish politics well remarked, minutes after the king’s speech, “that’s another ten points for the independentistas”. Yes. To add to the ten or more they added after the police clubbings of last Sunday.

 

I have a more than academic interest in this unfolding slow-motion disaster. My mother is Spanish, from Madrid. I lived 15 years in Catalonia until I moved to London four years ago, but I have always meant to return and applied for a Spanish passport after the Brexit referendum. I love Spain and so am against Catalan independence but I have never loved Spanish politics, especially the authoritarian strain represented by the people in power today and shared by much of the Madrid establishment. I have never forgotten a conversation I had 15 years ago with a man who remains a pillar of that establishment. “I can’t stand the Catalans,” he exclaimed. “They always want to make a deal. They’ve got no principles, for God’s sake! No principles!”

 

It is Madrid’s adherence to its blessed principles that has led us into today’s dangerous mess. It also explains what, to the Anglo-Saxon mind, seems to be the inexplicable refusal of Rajoy’s government to try to solve the problem through international mediation, or dialogue of any kind. “Principles” in the Catalan context means the Spanish constitution, which does not allow for a Catalan referendum on sovereignty. One might think that a constitution, being a necessarily fallible human document, would be open to change as circumstances change. Not on the Catalan question; not for Rajoy.

 

Miguel de Unamuno, a celebrated Spanish writer of the last century, lamented what he saw as a national political spirit contaminated “by the barracks and the sacristy”. My sense has long been that the intransigent habit of thought exhibited by Spain’s political classes is the inheritance of 500 years of Catholic absolutism. Spanish Catholicism was to Christendom generally what Saudi Islam is to the Muslim world today: the most resistant to outside philosophical, political, cultural or scientific influence. I don’t think it is any accident that there is no translation in Spanish, or in Arabic, for the English word “compromise”. The concept of “I cede a little and you cede a little so we both end up winning” is alien to the Spanish political mind.

 

It is why the Spanish empire lost Cuba in 1898 and before that California and the rest of what is now the western United States. It is the chief reason why, on the Catalan question, the centre-right Popular party government of Rajoy and the Madrid establishment have achieved the opposite of what they claim to want: instead of working to preserve the unity of Spain they alienate the Catalan people and fuel the drive for independence.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, King Felipe VI and Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in a rare moment of unity, observing a minute’s silence for victims of the August terrorist attacksMatthias Oesterle/Alamy

Put simply, they are third-rate politicians. Rule one for the intelligent resolution of a dispute like the Catalan one is to know your enemy: put yourself in their shoes, try to understand why they think the way they do and then try to persuade them to come around to your point of view, or at least to meet you halfway. The Struggle for Catalonia, a new book by the New York Times correspondent in Spain, Raphael Minder, ends on just this note. The peoples of Spain will not be reunited, Minder writes, so long as the political establishment in Madrid makes no effort to “understand the feelings expressed by hundreds of thousands on the streets of Barcelona”.

 

Catalan nationalist feelings go back at least 300 years. On September 11, 1714, at the end of the Spanish war of succession, Barcelona fell after a long siege to the army of Felipe V, Spain’s first Bourbon king. His namesake might have trodden with a little more tact in his speech this week had he chosen to recall that this glorious defeat, the Catalan Dunkirk, today marks the date of Catalonia’s annual national holiday. It is a commemoration of the suicidal heroism of the city’s defenders but also a reminder of the oppression they suffered under Felipe V. An absolute ruler, he demolished a fifth of the city, closed the Catalan parliament and the universities and banned Catalan as an administrative language.

 

An absolute ruler of more recent memory, Francisco Franco, fanned the flames of nationalist grievance by carrying out uncannily similar measures after he assumed absolute power in 1939 following the victory of his fascist forces in the Spanish civil war. Apart from the executions by firing squad of leading Catalan politicians and thousands more, he too suppressed the local language, the chief emblem of Catalan identity. Under Franco’s rule parents were not allowed to give their children Catalan names such as Jordi or Josep. The generalissimo chose to regard Catalan as a dialect, which was as insulting as it was wrong: Catalan is just as much a language in its own right as Spanish, French and Italian.

 

A hangover of the Franco era that continues to stir the nationalist pot is the disdain for Catalan among other Spaniards. It is accompanied by a dislike for Catalans generally, whom many choose to regard as snooty and superior when the truth is, I think, that they are merely shy. But nationalism is a sentiment, a simmering resentment towards a neighbour perceived to be abusive. Nationalism is not a plan. Independence is. What we see today is how one has evolved into the other and on a scale never before seen. Many who were once merely heart-sore nationalists are now active campaigners for independence.

 

The years 2006, 2010 and 2012 mark the progression. In 2006 the pro-independence vote stood at barely 15 per cent of the population. A decision taken that year gave hope that the number would drop: not only the Catalan parliament in Barcelona, but the national parliament in Madrid, voted in favour of a new statute defining Catalonia as a nation and granting it greater autonomy than it had enjoyed since the death of Franco in 1975. This included giving Catalonia a greater degree of judicial independence.

Delays in the implementation of the statute gave time for a Spanish nationalist backlash. In 2010 Rajoy’s Popular Party, then in opposition, succumbed to the impulse that sparked the explosion of Catalan independentismo and has led to the present crisis: seeking votes in the rest of Spain, it campaigned against the Catalan statute and took it to the notoriously politicised constitutional court, where it was overruled. The law trumped politics, the precedent that continues to hinder a solution of the problem today.

 

In 2012 what was then the centre-right Catalan government nevertheless tried to find an accommodation with Rajoy, who had become prime minister the year before. It sought talks to try to obtain fiscal concessions along the lines of those granted to the Basque country, whose government has a much greater authority over the collection and distribution of tax money. But Rajoy rebuffed them. Add the economic crisis and high unemployment to the outrage among ordinary Catalans at the scornful treatment they felt they had received and the upshot was the biggest protest anyone in Catalonia could remember. On the national holiday of September 11 a million people poured on to the streets of Barcelona.

What they called for was a legally binding independence referendum and the clamour only grew after the British government agreed to precisely such a vote in Scotland in 2014. But Rajoy’s government would not budge. The law was the law. Pragmatism was for him an unintelligible Greek word. It was as if he took his cue from the advice Franco once gave a friendly newspaper editor: “Do as I do, don’t get involved in politics.”

 

But the Catalans were doing plenty of politics and in 2015 a rag-tag pro-independence coalition led by Carles Puigdemont took power by a slender margin in the Catalan parliament. Whereupon the rhetoric from both sides became more angry and the political climate more hostile.

 

Rajoy’s government and his supporters in the media have portrayed the mop-topped Puigdemont and his radical comrades as irresponsible and infantile but it has been hard to avoid the conclusion that, if so, the supposedly adult politicians in Madrid have descended to the same level. The education minister stoked the flames by stating the government’s intention to españolizar — Spanishify — Catalan children; the foreign minister did the same when he accused the Catalan government of “an uprising” and “a coup d’état”. Felipe González, a former socialist prime minister, trumped them both in an article in El País in which he compared the independence movement to “the German or Italian adventure” of the 1930s.

 

Things could have been so different, so easily, starting with the Popular Party restraining the vindictive impulse that drove it to overrule the autonomy statute through the courts. Even if it had not, the massive street protests two years later provided another opportunity. Had Rajoy possessed an ounce of statesmanship, he could have gone to Barcelona, made a conciliatory speech and offered dialogue with the less militant, more pliable Catalan government that was then in power. Applause would have rung out around the hall and the Puigdemont radicals would probably have been done for.

''Had Rajoy an ounce of statesmanship, he could have gone to Barcelona in 2012, made a conciliatory speech and offered dialogue with the less militant Catalan government then in power''

The dangerous showdown today between Spanish fanatics and Catalan romantics would never have happened if, along with the change in mood music, the upshot of talks had been the granting of a binding referendum such as the one Scotland was given three years ago. Catalans say of themselves that two emotions vie in their hearts, seny and rauxa: common sense and raging passion. They are by ancient Mediterranean tradition a trading nation. When they are not angry, as they are now, they are the most practical people on earth. A proper referendum held a couple of years ago would have yielded in all likelihood a substantial “no” to independence from Spain and, as happened in Quebec, the subject would have been put to bed for a generation at least.

 

Instead what we have is the cruel absurdity of the Madrid government acting towards the Catalans like a husband who hates his wife and mistreats her but refuses to let her contemplate leaving him, screaming “She’s mine!”.

 

What happens now? Puigdemont has said he will make a unilateral declaration of independence but his delay in doing so indicates an entirely realistic fear of more violent reprisals from Madrid, hence his stated desire for EU mediation, so far refused. Such a declaration would signify scarcely more in substance than the outcome of the unilateral “referendum”: it would be more political theatre. Catalonia is not a small Pacific island, sufficient unto itself. It is part of Spain and part of the European Union. A hard, overnight Catexit is simply not possible. Puigdemont is playing a high-risk game.

 

The Spanish government could see he is playing a game, if it chose to, and react proportionately: watch and wait a while and, acknowledging that the Catalan independence clamour has significant numbers behind it, accede to talks. The wife, in this scenario, could respond yet to some blandishments. Rajoy could do what he should have done five years ago and agree to a binding referendum. In the event of a victory for the “yes” vote, order — at least order of the type now found in Brexit Britain — would be restored. Madrid, having given its legal blessing to the referendum, would have to abide through gritted teeth by the result. In the event of a “no” victory, the problem would be solved.

 

Fat chance, though, as things stand. More likely is that ominous royal defence of the “constitutional order” by “the legitimate state powers”. Luis de Guindos, the economy minister, showed just how inflexible the Spanish government remains when he said in a television interview on Thursday that Catalan independence was “out of the question” because it was, first, “illegal” and, second, “irrational”: “Catalonia has always been part of Spain”.

 

A part of me still clings to the sliver of hope I felt before the king’s speech, that maybe the EU will intervene and knock sense into Spanish heads. But it is more likely that they will do so only after the cracking of more Catalan bones, by which time it may be too late. One death at the hands of the king’s police, one martyr for the Catalan cause, and anything could happen. Rajoy calls Puigdemont a traitor but if the conflict descends into widespread violence, and if Catalonia does eventually achieve independence, history may record that the bigger traitor was Rajoy.

 

John Carlin writes for the Spanish newspaper El País
==========

Career

Carlin began his journalism career at the Buenos Aires Herald in 1981, writing about film, football and politics. In 1982, he began a six-year stint in Mexico and Central America working for, among others, The Times and Sunday Times, the Toronto Star, BBC, CBC, and ABC (US) before joining the staff of The Independent at the newspaper's launch in 1986.

Carlin was The Independent's South Africa bureau chief from 1989–1995.[1] In 1993, Carlin wrote and presented a BBC documentary on the South African Third Force, his first television work.[3]
From 1995–1998 he was the United States bureau chief for The Independent on Sunday.[1]

In 1997, Carlin wrote an article titled "A Farewell to Arms" for Wired magazine about cyberwarfare. This was originally intended to form the basis of a 1999 film, WW3.com.[4] When this project stalled, its script was rewritten into the 2007 film, Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0).[5]
In 1998, Carlin joined El País, the world's leading Spanish-language newspaper, where he still works as a senior international writer.

Carlin was writer and interviewer for the 1999 episode "The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela" of the American PBS series Frontline.[6] It was also broadcast as "The First Accused" in South Africa by the SABC.[3]

Carlin won the 2000 El País Ortega y Gasset Award for journalism, for an article in Spanish newspaper El País.[1] In 2004 he won the British Press Awards "Food and Drink Writer of the Year" prize. He has won numerous other awards for his writing in Spain and Italy.

Source: Wikipedia

Catalonia poses a real crisis for both Spain and Europe

World Views
 Analysis 




By Ishaan Tharoor 

Catalonia poses a real crisis for both Spain and Europe
October 5 

In the aftermath of Sunday's independence referendum in Catalonia, the rifts in Spanish society are only growing wider. “With each passing day, national authorities and the pro-independence forces in Catalonia appear to be moving inexorably toward direct confrontation,” wrote my colleague William Booth.

The past few days have seen heated protests and a general strike in Catalonia, an economically prosperous region in northeastern Spain whose local government unilaterally staged the independence vote over the weekend. The bruising handling of the situation by right-wing Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who deployed security forces to Catalonia who bloodied unarmed protesters, has hardened Catalan attitudes against Madrid. And as both sides dig in, the showdown may trigger a constitutional crisis that would have profound ramifications not just for Spain but for all of Europe.

Catalan's separatist leaders say that more than 2 million people were still able to cast ballots, the vast majority of which were for secession from Spain. Officials in the region suggested they could formally declare independence as early as this coming Monday. On Wednesday, Spain's high court launched an investigation into possible sedition charges for a number of pro-secessionist Catalan police officials and politicians as they press ahead with their plans to break away.

It's not clear at all what an unilaterally “independent” Catalonia will look like, but the move toward it will be profoundly messy. “We know that there may be disbarments, arrests,” said pro-independence Catalan politician Mireia Boya in a message posted on Twitter. “But we are prepared, and in no case will it be stopped.”

The irony is that many Catalans aren't on the same page as secessionist leaders and believe their region has been hijacked by politicians pushing a narrow, uncompromising agenda.

“We are completely silenced,” filmmaker Isabel Coixet told my colleagues. “They have created a climate of tension in which anyone who doesn’t agree with them doesn’t exist and is discredited. And, honestly, there are so many people keeping quiet. The biggest problem I see is the double fracture that has been created — the division with Spain and the division between the Catalans.”

Meanwhile, the head of a union that represents the Guardian Civil, the national paramilitary police force involved in the Sunday crackdown, bemoaned the harassment his comrades are facing on the streets of Catalan cities and urged that reinforcements be sent from the rest of the country. A speech delivered Tuesday by King Felipe VI, Spain's head of state, echoed Madrid's position that the Catalan independence move was “outside the law” and a display of “unacceptable disloyalty.” The following night, the Spanish government rejected a Catalan call for negotiations.

Amid a crackdown by Spanish security forces, Catalonians went to the polls Oct. 1 to vote on an independence referendum. Catalonian leaders vow to move ahead with independence
despite Madrid's claim the vote is illegal.  (The Washington Post)

All of this is only giving Catalan secessionists more ammunition. “Catalonia is divided. Spain is divided. King Felipe VI’s speech was inadequate,” noted Federiga Bindi, a senior fellow
at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “He should have spoken in both languages — after all, he is fluent in Catalan and Prince of Barcelona.

He should have called for dialogue and negotiations between both parties, but instead he stood firmly on the side of the Moncloa Palace” — a reference to Rajoy's residence.

Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia's regional president and a leading advocate for secession, addressed the king Wednesday night, saying the monarch “disappointed many people in Catalonia who appreciate you and are expecting a call to dialogue.” In earlier remarks, Puigdemont cast his region's plight as that of an oppressed fledgling democracy chafing against repression.

“The Spanish government is letting political opponents be arrested, it is influencing media and blocking Internet sites. We are under observation day and night,” said Puigdemont.

“What is that other than an authoritarian state?”

Speculation now moves to whether Rajoy will invoke what's seen as a “nuclear option”: Invoking Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which would give Madrid the authority to
dissolve the Catalan parliament now led by Puigdemont.

But in doing so, Rajoy risks his own political future: His fragile minority government could face a backlash and potentially lose a vote of confidence in parliament. Catalonia's silent majority of people who aren't necessarily in favor of independence could start changing their minds.

At this point, EU should not try to meddle in Catalonia. This is what separatists hope for as it would elevate their position. But Madrid is firmly against it & EU can't insert itself without Madrid's backing. EU will first have to see how things play out over the next days.

The crisis is being closely watched elsewhere in Europe. Various politicians have already sided with Madrid or have referred to the matter as a purely Spanish affair. But as the showdown intensifies, they may not be able to look the other way should chaos break out in one of the more beloved corners of the continent.

“If this were Crimea, say, or friendless, penniless Greece, Angela Merkel would be in full mediation mode by now,” wrote Guardian columnist Simon Tisdall. “But when it comes to Catalonia, Germany’s chancellor, whose [own party] is allied with Spain’s ruling party, is otherwise engaged.” So, too, is French President Emmanuel Macron, who, in a major speech last week, energetically championed a more “integrated Europe” — a call echoed by Catalonia’s secessionists, who are fiercely pro-Brussels  — yet said he supported Spain’s “constitutional unity” this week.

To be fair, no Western European leader is going to speak up for separatists in another Western European country. But the standoff between Barcelona and Madrid betrays the complex tensions boiling within Europe — a mess of cosmopolitan ideals, nationalist agendas and regional aspirations for more direct governance.

“The Catalonia has deepened cracks in the E.U.’s plan for greater integration, driving debate around identity across the continent,” noted economist Franz Buscha.

“The E.U. has set itself the goal of countering rising illiberalism and nationalism, and it’s struggling,” wrote French journalist and commentator Natalie Nougayrède. “The Catalan crisis exposes its political limits and its difficulty in making citizens understand how it functions. For Europe, as for Spanish democracy, this is a major test.”


Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.  Follow @ishaantharoor

Win or Die Dont Surrender - Omar Al Mukthar