News Catalonia

Roundup of articles about Spain's blame of Catalonia for debt crisis

2012-01-12T12:53:00.000-05:00

Spain and Catalonia have been appearing in the International news a lot lately. Here's a roundup, collected by the folks at Fundació CatDem.

New York Times

Article in the New York Times by Suzanne Daley, December 12, 2011, "As Spain Acts to Cut Deficit, Regional Debts Add to Woe"

- Reply from macroeconomist Edward Hugh: "The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Journalists, It Seems" published in Economonitor.com

- Reply from the Minister of Economy and Knowledge of Catalonia, Andreu Mas-Colell, published in the New York Times on January 10: "Spain's Debt, The View From Barcelona"

- Reply from the Col·lectiu Emma [Emma Group]: "A Public Reply to the New York Times (IV)"

Financial Times

Editorial in the Financial Times January 6, 2012, “Madrid’s hard road to fiscal credibility”

Article de Victor Mallet al Financial Times 10-1-12 “Rajoy warns of more austerity for Spain.”

Article de Victor Mallet al Financial Times 5-1-12 : "Catalonia rejects Madrid Budget Controls"

Article de Victor Mallet al Financial Times 4-1-12: "Spain sees €50bn of new bank provisions"

Article de Victor Mallet al Financial Times 4-1-12: "Madrid targets regions in austerity drive"

- Reply from Col·lectiu Emma [Emma Group]: "A Public Reply to the Financial Times (VII)"

Interview with Luis de Guindos in the Financial Times by Victor Mallet January 4, 2012: "FT interview transcript: Luis de Guindos"

San Francisco Chronicle

Article by Angeline Benoit published in the San Francisco Chronicle 11-1-12 : "Spain May Need Back-Door Bailout for Region Rescue: Euro Credit"

In addition, CatDem also pointed out their own Editorial, from January 11, 2012, with the title, “Catalonia Abroad”, in which the foundation highlights the mentioned articles and talks about the visit of Presdient Artur Mas to London, last January 9. The current flurry of press makes it very clear how important it is for Catalonia to have decent tools with which to explain its situation to other countries. Just as President Mas said in the English capital, “the news that makes it abroad has little to do with reality”.

Google Maps invents own Spanish names of Catalan streets, rendering the program useless (and incredibly offensive)

2011-12-16T13:43:00.000-05:00

This morning on Twitter, I saw that Google had decided to replace Catalan placenames with crazy, sometimes random, translations into Spanish. The hashtag #googlecat has quickly become a TT (trending topic) on Twitter as people around Catalonia are outraged that Google has decided to call Catalan places however they like.

Pretty incredible. You, dear non-Catalan reader, might think it's much ado about nothing, really, how much difference is there between "Plaça Catalunya" and "Plaza de Cataluña"? Who cares? But there are very large issues here, which I hope to address one by one.

First, the names of streets, squares, and roads are all in Catalan in Catalonia. If you're looking for a street, the only street sign you will find will be in Catalan. Google Maps won't do a fat lot of good to you if it's giving you a translation into Spanish. For example, one of the streets near my apartment is “Carrer de Sant Domènec" (or Saint Dominic street) but Google has it labeled as "Calle de San Domingo".

(Then, there's the added weirdness that you can't actually say "San Domingo", it would be "Santo Domingo".) There are many, many other bizarre translations. Things like "Verga María" [Cock Mary] (and I don't mean roosters) for "Verge Maria" [Virgin Mary]. Or changing the name of the town, “Sant Boi de Llobregat” into "San Baudillo de Llobregat".

Think it won't matter, that Catalan and Spanish are "close enough"? Try "Calle del Oxidado" instead of "Carrer Rovellat". Or "Rambla de la Colina" instead of "Rambla del Turó". Let's just say I wouldn't rely on Google Maps to get around Catalonia any more.

Vilaweb was finally able to get a first explanation from Google Spain about the problem. “The problem has to do with a database that was supplied by a third party and the technicians are working on updating it."

Ultimately, to Catalans who are continually feeling mistreated by the Spanish government, who will not stand up for the Catalan language in Spain, the European parliament or anywhere else, it feels like a crass political move by Google. Perhaps it's just a technical error, but I just don't have that faith anymore.

Interesting that names in English have not been translated into Spanish, as in Plaça John Lennon, which turned into "Plaza John Lennon" but not "Plaza Juan Lennon".

Check into Twitter and follow #googlecat to see egregious examples and anger. Follow Vilaweb for the latest news.

Catalan Government to bring Spain to court

2011-12-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

The “Generalitat” or Catalan Government is insisting that Spain pay the 759 million euros ($1 BILLION US) in promised infrastructure budgets now refused by the Zapatero government

The spokesperson for the Catalan government, Francesc Homs, announced that the Generalitat will take the Spanish government to court for not paying the 759 million euros in infrastructure that it owes Catalonia, that is part of the Third disposition of Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy and was included in this year's budget, prepared by José Luís Zapatero's government. It is an extraordinarily grave issue, one of the gravest of the democratic era concerning the institutional relationship with the State. "This is an unprecedented situation," declared Homs.

Today, Homs, in a morning interview on Catalunya Ràdio, explained some of the "grave consequences" that not paying the 759 million euros would engender. Homs has had to ask for “understanding and confidence” to the administration's suppliers and workers, due to a possible delay in paying bills and salaries. “It's not going to be clean and up-to-date like in years past," Homs said.

“This is a clear attack against the self-government of Catalonia, because they know how much it will hurt us. They're not paying, not because they can't, but because they don't want to," complained Homs. According to the spokesperson, there is an air of "vendetta" towards Catalonia. And he wondered, “Why are they doing this? Haven't we kept our commitments more than anyone?"

Salgado says Spanish government has no obligation to pay the 759 million euros

The Spanish Vice-president for Finance, Elena Salgado, says that the state budget includes the payment of 759 million euros in keeping with the third disposition of the Statute of Autonomy, but that it is not required to pay it. Thus, she says the Generalitat has no good reason for bringing the state to court. Originally published in Vilaweb, Tuesday, December 13, 2011, Translated and republished with permission.

Association of Municipalities for Independence to Hold Constitutional Convention Wednesday

2011-12-08T09:59:00.001-05:00

Note: I have not posted news articles for many months, but things really seem to be shifting in Catalonia, and as much as time permits, I will do my best to translate the news here for English speakers.

More than 100 towns have already signed up.

The "Association of Municipalities for Independence" [Associació de Municipis per la Independència], spearheaded by the mayor of Vic, the Christian-Democrat Josep Maria Vila d'Abadal, will hold its constitutional assembly on December 14, in Vic, the capital of Osona. So far, 116 municipalities have joined this initiative that seeks to bring together that greatest number of Catalan towns in favor of independence and to create the foundation of an upcoming official referendum on sovereignty, from the city government.

On December 14, an executive board will be proposed for the association, as well as statutes that will govern it, the content of which will be ratified in a second assembly that will take place two or three months later. In addition, it foresees the possibility of bringing the proposal to the city government of Barcelona, who rejected entering into the association a few weeks ago, as well as to the Generalitat.

Among the municipalities that have already joined are several county seats, including Vic, Manresa, Olot, Berga, Ripoll and Banyoles. In addition to Vic, the first towns to join were Arenys de Munt, the first town to celebrate a referendum on independence, and Port de la Selva, who was the first to declare itself "morally excluded from the Constitution". Important towns like Girona have also expressed a wish to join the movement.

Vila d'Abadal and the leader of UDC, Josep Antoni Duran, have always disagreed on the independentist question, and the mayor of Vic even acused Duran of exaggerating his rejection of independence "because of his friends in Madrid", as well as not relying on those people who don't share his ideology.

Originally published in Vilaweb, Thursday, 8 December, 2011

A normal country

2011-01-19T13:04:00.000-05:00

Editorial originally published in racócatalà on 19 January 2011

When the debate is centered on the cost of doing what is just, then you know it is irrevocably twisted.

In the Spanish Senate, one can now use Catalan in an official capacity. Not to mimize its importance, which is notable even though it's more symbolic than useful, it's pretty frustrating that it is now easier to get someone to understand you in Catalan in the highest Spanish chamber than in many stores, just to give a single example. Meanwhile, the “Spanishists”, led by Mariano Rajoy (PP) and seconded by the Spanishist media, have called into question the agreement because of the additional cost it will suppose. The leader of the PP even went so far as to say that using Catalan in the Senate "does not belong in a normal country". Yowza. But as others have already responded, what is not normal is precisely Spain, given that in countries with similar linguistic situations, like Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, they've been letting people use whatever official language they liked in their legislative chambers for many years without worrying about the cost.

But how do those "normal countries" do it? Well, for example in Switzerland, a real federal state, each canton dictates its own linguistic policies without interference. And of course, in the federal Swiss Parliament, you can use any of the four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. It's been a while since the official Swiss money, the Swiss Franc, has been printed in all four official languages. It's been a while since each canton has used its corresponding language as the language of instruction in their schools, whether it be German, Italian, French, or Romansh. Or take Belgium, where in Flanders school is taught in Flemish and in the Walloon Region, it is taught in French (in addition to the other language being taught as a secondary language). And in the Belgian Parliament one can naturally speak in Flemish or in French without anyone wondering how much it will cost.

Because if we're talking about money and normalcy, what is the cost at the European Parliament of having 23 official languages, where every speech in a session by a European MP may be made in any one of these languages, while there are 22 teams of translators simultaneously converting that speech into the other 22 languages? And the cost of having to translate all of the documents generated by the European Union into 23 official languages? 23 languages that, one should add, are limited by state, creating cases as absurd as Maltese, with only 330,000 speakers and which is official, and Catalan, which with 11.5 million speakers (according to Ethnologue in 2009) is not.

Would Spain be disposed to renounce that its European Parliament members participate in Spanish in order to reduce costs? No answer is needed, it's so obvious that they would not. Why don't they do everything in English at the European Parliament? Wouldn't it be more practical and wouldn't it reduce translation costs considerably? Or even just English, German, and French, the three majority languages? But which states in the EU would accept that their language be the one neglected one for the "good" that such a savings would suppose? Would Italy accept such a thing? Spain? Portugal? Poland? The Czech Republic?

That out of certain newspapers and certain Spanishist sectors the "quid" of the debate is the cost of the translations and not if it is "fair" to be able to speak in any official language in the legislative chambers indicates to what point the argument is ideologically perverted. A cost that by the way is 11,950 euros each week, which was not added to the cost of the Senate, but rather was obtained after distributing the total yearly budget of the Spanish high chamber.

The debate is then the cost or whether something is fair? Because if the debate is the cost, then we could get rid of the whole Senate and then we'd sure save a bunch! And the Congress. On a demagogic roll, we could get rid of the health care system and public transportation and we'd save a bundle more. But now, what would be fair?

Is it fair that the Head of State in Spain is a monarch, and that the Royal Family in Spain has a yearly budget of nearly 9 million euros? Not to mention that if the Spanish state became a republic instead of a monarchy, the cost of electing a Head of State and all of the cost associated with a President of the Repubic would probably be higher than that of the current Royal Family. Would that mean that it would be preferable having a monarchy over a republic because "it would cost less"? Obviously, no.

Well, then, what are we talking about? Spain is going broke over 12,000 euros a week? The economic crisis takes the blame for being able to speak in Catalan in the Senate? Look, actually, Catalonia could perfectly well take on that budget item of 144,000 euros per year if, in exchange, the fiscal deficit [difference between taxes paid to Spain and services rendered in Catalonia], disappeared. 22,000 million euros. 22,000,000,000 euros in exchange for taking on the 144,000 that it would cost to translate the Senate speeches into the 3 official languages.

Just to be clear, if Catalonia didn't lose those 22,000 million euros each year due to the fiscal deficit, it could pay those 144,000 euros 152,777 times a year.

And meanwhile, that guy is saying speaking Catalan "isn't normal". What's not normal, sir, is Spain.

Flood them with signatures

2010-06-09T12:05:00.000-04:00

[By Vicent Partal. Originally published in Vilaweb on 9 June 2010]

Less than a year has passed since the referendum in Arenys de Munt and yesterday the Parliament of Catalonia has, for the first time ever, initiated the process that can lead the Principality to an official referendum on independence. There are those who are very pessimistic and who say it won't happen, but that's not important right now. Now what is our responsibility is what is on the table. It's time to flood Parliament with signatures.

We have arrived further than ever before. The IP [People's Initiative] for the first time opens a clear and clean way toward a referendum. The more signatures that get to Parliament, the more difficult it will be for them, all of them, to say no. It's true that the declarations yesterday made by CiU don't encourage euphoria, exactly. (I think they made a grave mistake, just the same.) It's also true that Esquerra's attitude these last years has also made for incertainty. And it's true that within Iniciativa, there are those who don't like what they see. It's clear, in conclusion, that the Spanish Government will try to keep it from happening.

But all of that is just part of the process. Soon we will be able to gather signatures to ask Parliament to hold this referendum. And we will have to do it not only with the idea that Parliament will vote on it, but also that Spain will have a hand, and above all, what Europe will think.

This IP is well thought out. It has been designed so that the expected 'no' from the Spanish Government will have to be a political one and a challenge to democratic norms. It is very important, with an eye toward Europe, that the support for the initiative be massive and heterogeneous and that Spain be unable to point out any legal or procedural flaw. Because then, if we make it, the game will change definitively, and the European Union will not be able to look the other way ever again.

Let's imagine that instead of 300,000 signatures we actually gather 500,000. Imagine if we collect a million. It depends solely on what we are capable of doing. Now, a situation like this would make it very hard for our parties to oppose this and it would be a defeat for the Spanish Government, within the European context. If it goes through, let it go through, but if it doesn't, let it not be because we didn't do our part. It would be unpardonable given how far we've come already.

Spanish National Court Engineer also Demands Halt to TGV Tunnel Construction under the Sagrada Família

2010-06-08T09:19:00.002-04:00

[Originally published in racócatalà on 8 June 2010]

He wants the construction to be halted in order to analyze if the current route is the "most appropriate" for the Sagrada Familia, since it creates an "unnecessary risk" for the temple

Only four days ago, we said that the Unesco had suggested modifying the route of the TGV tunnel that goes very near the Sagrada Familia and the Pedrera in Barcelona, and yesterday it was reported that the engineer from the Spanish National Court, who has to evaluate the risk of the construction, sent a letter to the judge in charge of the case, recommending that the construction be halted. Manel Melis, who is a railway and geotechnic engineer, and professor from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, considers it essential that the construction be stopped in order to analyze if the current route is the most appropriate for the Sagrada Familia, given the unnecessary risk that it creates for the temple.

In the text of the expert, dated May 26, it says "the most important thing is to see if there is an alternate route besides that which was chosen and to carefully study the motives for which the alternate was not chosen" and demands that "instructions be given to whomever necessary in order to stop the machines until further notice". In addition, it sidesteps responding to the 32 technical questions that are currently before the judge because in his opinion, it is necessary to first see if there is an alternative that does not risk any buildings in the city, in order to avoid events like that which happened in the neighborhood of El Carmel.

As a possible alternative, the Madrid-based engineer proposes studying the route that would bring the tunnel along Valencia and Consell de Cent Streets, a route that in its day had been looked at and discarded because it required either a change in Line 2 of the subway system or a turn radius not recommended for a high speed train. With respect to the protection screens recommended by the technicians from Unesco, Melis said that "sometimes they work and sometimes they don't" because "the calculation of subsidence (shifting of the earth) and estimates frequently fail".

UNESCO advises against routing the TGV underneath Gaudí's Sagrada Família

2010-06-08T09:05:00.000-04:00

[Originally published in racócatalà on 4 June 2010]

A report by Unesco's Council on Monuments declares that the temple "is not prepared to withstand with any confidence any unforeseen disasters"

Unesco has advised that the route of the TGV tunnel that currently passes close by both the Sagrada Família and La Pedrera in Barcelona be modified. The International Council on Monuments affirms that the high-speed train tunnel "fulfills the typical requirements" but that the temple "is not prepared to withstand with any confidence any unforeseen disasters, like the sudden collapse of the structures next to the tunnel". Per the visit last February to Gaudí's works, the experts Rolf Katzenbach and Wolfgram Jäger propose a "preferred solution" of modifying the route and moving it farther away from the Sagrada Familia and the Pedrera, or to prepare more safety fallbacks for the route (like a double protection wall) so that the temple is not affected. Another proposed measure is freezing the area when the tunneling machine goes through so as to avoid water filtration.

Despite the publication of this report, the definitive position of the Unesco will not be official until the end of July, when the committee meets that is in charge of following the World Heritage Sites.

Parliament accepts submission of a People's Initiative for an Official Referendum on Independence

2010-06-08T07:07:00.000-04:00

[Originally published in Vilaweb, 8 June 2010]

The organizers need to gather at least 220,000 signatures within six months so that the Parliament will vote on the convocation of a referendum

The plenary of the Parliament of Catalonia accepted the submission of the People's Initiative (IP) for an official referendum on the independence of Catalonia, thanks to votes in favor by CiU, ERC, and ICV-EUiA. Uriel Bertran, one of the organizers of the IP remarked on the "historical transcendence" and declared his satisfaction. Now that the proposal has been accepted, the organizers have six months to gather the 220,000 signatures needed to convene a full parliament which will vote on the convocation of an official referendum on independence.

Once the organizers get the necessary amount of signatures, the Parliament will have to convene a session, and it will be then that the Members of Parliament will decide whether to approve the convocation of the referendum. La referendum question will be "Do you agree that the Parliament of Catalonia should take the necessary measures in order to effect the popular will, so that the Catalan Nation becomes a democratic, independent, and social Legal State, and a member of the European Union? And voters will have to choose between 'yes' and 'no'.

Of course, the Spanish government has the last word, and "would have to say whether it will let people vote or if it will deny us that right," as Alfons López Tena said in his presentation of the IP to Parliament.

Wow!

2010-05-26T09:57:00.001-04:00

by Vicent Partal. Originally published in Vilaweb 26 May 2010

Zapatero says (audio) that the era of self-government is over. That we have reached the end. Wow! And who decided that? Him? Have we returned to an era of absolute monarchy and I didn't get the news? And in Zapatero's case, maybe he will change his mind again, but wow, wow, and wow...

What an attitude—that of the Spanish government's president—for the love of God. He says that the era of self-government is over, that it has reached its peak, and I suppose he hopes that his wish comes true. Just like that. Maybe he doesn't know that that's how emperors and absolutists monarchs worked in the past, but that Paris' guillotine ended that joke and the people became the sovereigns, little by little, and thus, the ones who called the shots.

Zapatero can not say this. Because it is up to us to decide if the era of self-government is over or not. When all is said and done, if he is now the president of the government it's because we voted him into office, and if we want to remove him from office, that's what we'll do. But who does he think he is? In a democracy, these big decisions are proposed and the people vote on them, they accept them, or they don't, but they are not announced as if it were a decree that must be followed. That is just not OK.

But perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised because, really, it's just like old times. Joan Fuster used to explain years ago the weariness with which a member of the anti-franco opposition received, in the middle of one of Raimon's concerts in Madrid, the claim to Valencian autonomy, made by the writer himself. "Come on, we'll give you autonomy one of these days..." he said, as if he could take it out if his (opposition) pocket and make us a present of it. They have no options, that's clear.

Catalan News Agency

2010-04-16T07:34:00.000-04:00

I've just noticed that Saul Gordillo's Catalan News Agency is publishing much, if not all, of their news in English. Excellent! I've been swamped so am happy to point you there instead.

An economic model for a developing country

2010-03-11T10:09:00.001-05:00

Albert Montón is a producer and screenwriter of documentary films. This originally appeared on his blog.

Making a country starts with making companies in your country: globalization is comprised of people and companies that share globally but live locally. —Manuel Castells

From Thursday to Sunday. It's already been 4 days and you can still hear the clamor of the economic data, the clarifying explanations, the suggestive ideas, and why not say it?, the indignant evidence of the plundering of Catalonia and the (alas!) Catalan Countries. The presentation by the Cercle Català de Negocis (CCN) [Catalan Business Circle] gives us a lot to sink our teeth into.

The first surprising thing is the absolute lack of any mention of identity. It was all figures and objective economic data and thus, as equally contested as it could be accepted. That shouldn't be surprising—it is the Catalan Business Circle, right?—but it turns out that they are in favor of an idea, independence, that in this country has only been discussed to date as a sort of folkloric and emotional pie in the sky.

As Ireland and Finland, among others, have shown in this globalized world, countries prosper if they have a clear economic model to apply. A State, therefore, has the obligation of guaranteeing the resources for its own development. And that is exactly what is keeping Catalonia from becoming a developing country, because the foundation of the incompatibility between Spain and Catalonia is the economic model itself.

Let's be clear: Catalonia has been good at taking advantage of certain values like work, effort, savings, entrepreneurial spirit, risk and innovation, all mixed together with a dash of creativity that has resulted not only in material but also cultural and artistic wealth. It's not peculiar then, that the country went through the industrial revolution at the proper time and forged an economic fabric—that continues to this day—woven from small and medium businesses.

Can we say the same thing about Spain?

Spain didn't even have an industrial revolution, has not benefited from the agrobusiness sector, doesn't know how to take advantage of the privileged geographic position that it occupies. Instead, it is currently looking to lead a great European bank—a strategy which is more monetary than entrepreneurial—and continues to congratulate itself on its past tied to Latin America, by attempting to be a service provider (of telecommunications, energy...). Spain is a country that makes misfortune out of virtue: in the corner of the world that it is, with all of the advantages that come from belonging to the Mediterranean, it's content to be nothing more than a sunny beach resort for retired folks.

Why then, should we sacrifice ourselves to a model that doesn't satisfy our needs?

The day that Catalonia becomes independent, the day that we can bet on favoring the strong points of our own economy, that day we will develop the model that we should and we will become a developing country. Catalonia is prepared to convert itself, taking advantage of the geostrategic position that it occupies, in the doorway to Europe from Asia and Africa. We will be able to develop a logistical sector that allows us to receive components from the Orient, transform them with a high added value, and send them on to the European Continent. It must be our goal to convert the Catalan business community into a world leader in the biotech, pharmaceutical and agrobusiness sectors, among others. And, then, in addition, we will be able to compete in the new market of cultural and high quality tourism.

Can anyone doubt which of these two models will favor the Spanish State?

Only if we are independent will we be able to develop ourselves. And it's starting to become urgent, because the current Spanish economic situation in Europe is deplorable, and Catalonia resents it. Businesses at home, that were already hurting, cannot support very many more years of the weight of a State that strangles its potential and refuses it any support. It's not the threat of a boycott that should worry us. In fact, the boycott of 2006 against Catalan Cava was barely felt, and in the end, the rise in exports finished off the whole exercise with a rise in sales. It's also not very likely that any of the large Spanish companies in the strategic sectors (telecommunications, energy, etc.) would be willing to forego Catalonia as a market.

The real boycott is not against cava, it's that of a State that cruelly tries to squash the Catalan economy, that doesn't allow us to have a decent network of infrastructures, that gets in the way of our needs, that prioritizes Madrid as a center of communications, that keeps the Barcelona Airport from becoming the hub of the Mediterranean that it is destined to be, that trades—with Maragall's complicity—the high-speed train for an Olympic Games that, let us say again, chains us to fiscal deficit.

With just the 22,000 million euros that Madrid steals from us every year, the country would rise to take the fourth position on the list of GDP in Europe. And that would only be the beginning.

That said, the question has already shifted from "why are you an independentist?" to "why the hell aren't you an independentist?"

P.S. This article was written collaboratively with Montserrat Badia i Capdevila, who scolded me for not adding to my earlier post the rich presentation of the CCN. Even though I haven't yet finished with this theme, I have to agree that two heads think better than one.

Catalan Reality versus Spanish Spin

2010-03-04T17:43:00.001-05:00

Albert Montón is a producer and screenwriter of documentary films. This originally appeared on his blog.

The 28th of February has gone by, the second wave of referendums on independence with a slightly lower turnout, and the Spanish media—the media, not the State, which has decided to be symptomatically quiet—has come back again with their habitual litany of slights and sarcasm. "Emaciated" and "ridiculous" are the kindest adjectives that the turnout received in the headlines (!) They even dared to declare that the turnout had reached just 21%, "despite the fact that anyone over 16 and even registered immigrants could vote". As if the fact that making the census bigger would facilitate a bigger percentage, which of course, is always relative. It's obvious that allowing immigrants to participate must always bring with it a lower turnout by percentage, since their connection with the country is lower. But this is the level of discourse that the brunete* offers its disciples.

What it seems that they don't get is that comparing the turnout of the referendums with any election promoted by the State and then boasting about data pre-cooked to their taste is nothing more than an exercise in self-delusion that can be very dangerous for those who practice it. And it is then that the Spanish spin differentiates itself slowly from the Catalan reality. A reality that is light years away from a supposed radical minority that throws bricks and burns dumpsters and pictures of a Borbon. In that sense, this documentary that we will premiere soon called “Vilafranca says YES” about the referendum on December 13 in Vilafranca del Penedès, shows the reality of a socially diverse independence movement that is nourished by the most prepared and involved members of society.

That the Spanish spin resists looking at the reality in Catalonia without prejudice needn't worry us unduly, rather the reverse. Each time more Catalans will find the version of events that arrives from Spain so distorted and offensive that it will be hard not to end up embracing the sovereigntist path. I said, though, that the State has been quiet, because there are people there thinking, and a lot at that. And they see that in a series of referendums organized with not a few well-known problems, that one of every four Catalans still said yes, without reservations, to independence. Not even the most optimistic polls have given results like these in the past five years. And the movement is growing by leaps and bounds, because the people feel assailed by the Spanish spin.

In Valencia, during the last 30 years, a saying has been going around that Eliseu Climent—as the principal representative in the media of Catalanism—made 100 blavers for every Catalanist that he converted, they call them "valencianistes", without blushing, despite the fact that they rarely speak in Valencian. And although it's a bit of an exaggeration, the refrain holds a grain of truth. Throughout the twentieth century, Catalan consciousness in Valencia Country has been rather meager. It was pretty easy for the Spanish to scare the people with the specter of Catalan imperialism. Many Valencians—or "valencianos"—felt assailed, in the same way that Catalans now feel attacked by Spanish spin. All things considered though, the difference is that in the Valencian case the supposed aggressors were in the right and in the case of the Catalans, it is the other way around.

It's for that reason that I always like to remember an article by Joan Francesc Mira—even though I don't know where I found it—where he detailed one of the realities that most affirm the "everything's fine" attitude of the valencianos: 60% of Valencians consider Valencian and Catalan to be different languages. And Mira had another piece of data: 100 years ago, except for a few intellectuals, almost all Valencians lacked a consciousness of linguistic unity. In fact, they had never even thought about the problem. Despite the lack of resources and political power a century later, concludes Mira, he would be more worried about Valencian nationalism if he was a blaver*. Reason wins out in the end, sooner or later.

In Catalonia right about now, we're counting on reason, and with the natural reaction of one who feels attacked. And the State is quite worried. In Spain, though, the common folk, and the media that feeds them, act like they don't get it, or that they don't want to get it. It's easier to hunker down in their prejudices. We shouldn't be worried. The fall will be worse. We're doing fine.

Parliament approves giving support to the referendums of April 25

2010-03-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

Originally published in directe.cat on 3 March 2010
By a resolution of ERC • With votes in favor from the Republicans and CiU, the abstention of ICV, and votes against from PSC, PP, and C's

The committee on Institutional Affairs of Parliament approved today a bill presented by Esquerra on the right to self-determination and about the recognition of the popular referendums on independence. The bill, that in the end contained a few amendments from CiU, had votes in favor from Convergència and ERC, abstention from Iniciativa, and votes against from PSC, PP and Ciutadans

The spokesperson for Esquerra in Parliament, Anna Simó, denied the declarations of some opposing parties that "this does not trivialize self-determination, just the contrary. We believe that the exercise of democracy is not trivial and the desire of the people to participate politically that has been demonstrated by the referendums is not either."

"Achieving a state of its own for Catalonia"
The approved text states: "On December 13, 2009, 166 municipalities of Catalonia were host to the celebration of popular referendums, organized by local civic organizations, in which citizens of these communities were asked their opinion on the constitution of Catalonia as an independent, democratic, social state, integrated into the European Union.

"These activities, in accord with the existing rules, were able to achieve a resounding effect and high turnout, given the fact that out of 700,000 people called to participate, close to 200,000 actually did. This is an important result given the non-offical nature of these referendums, the fact that they were organized by grassroots, civic organizations and not by the government, and their non-binding status.

"In addition, the fact that participation was open to youths between 16 and 18 years of age and to people who did not have the right to vote in other electoral contests shows the will of incorporating all of the citizenry in a civic, democratic, and inclusive process.

"The wide participation and majority vote in favor of independence among the participants shows that a growing part of Catalan society desires the constitution of an independent state for Catalonia. Additionally, these referendums that have been organized by the grassroots are a remarkable exercise in civic participation and demonstrate a profound interest in the questions that affect all of our citizenry.

"This process should encourage our public institutions to reflect on the future of our national liberties, the reach of democracy, and the participation of our citizens in public affairs."

Having presented these thoughts, the text approved by Parliament establishes:

1. The Parliament of Catalonia confirms once more the validity of Resolution 98/III, on the right to self-determination of the Catalan Nation, adopted on 12 December 1989, as well as Resolution 679/V, adopted on 1 October 1998, which ratified the previous one.

2. The Parliament of Catalonia declares its recognition of the referendums celebrated on 13 December 2009 and 28 February 2010 in more than 250 municipalities as an expression of the will of the citizenry to participate politically in the configuration of the future of Catalonia and in the reaffirmation of its national reality, and is grateful for the work of volunteers in those municipalities in which referendums have been organized and to all those who participated.

3. The Parliament of Catalonia encourages the grassroots organizations, the local officials and the individual citizens in the municipalities which will hold referendums on April 25 and June 20 of 2010 to work together so that they can again count on the sizable participation of the people.

4. The Parliament of Catalonia supports the will of using all of the judicial and political tools available in order that the people of Catalonia may exercise their right to decide.

The first point also received a favorable vote from Iniciativa and an abstention from PSC.

Barça president Laporta aspires to a central role in Catalan politics

2010-02-03T09:43:00.000-05:00

Originally published in Vilaweb on Wednesday, February 3, 2010

By Pere Cardús

The jump into politics by the president of F.C. Barcelona shakes up the current political map • Laporta's advisers study their options for success and prepare an effective strategy • He might present himself as a candidate on a "Laporta List"

The participation of Joan Laporta in the fall parliamentary elections, although still an unconfirmed hypothesis, may unleash a seismic shift in power between the current political parties. The difference between this case and those that have tended to appear on the edges is that Joan Laporta has the capacity to take center stage in the Catalan political spectrum, especially in terms of issues of sovereignty. The strategic key that his advisers and inner circle are studying is a platform of centrality that remains profoundly transforming. The fear of the traditional politcal parties is that his popularity will allow him to attract followers from every corner.

Laporta has said explicitly on more than one occasion that he would like to lead a new campaign that is the spearhead of the emerging expression of modern and unabashed independentism. This new sovereigntist movement has showcased itself these last few years with grass roots mobilizations that culminated last year in the referendums for the independence of Catalonia. Up to now, the blaugrana [blue-and-red*] president has resisted joining any political option with parliamentary representation and has partied with Joan Carretero's new Reagrupament [Regrouping*]. A radio appearance on RAC1 by Carretero (àudio) and declarations by Laporta in certain media make one think that this alliance is getting stronger and may begin to crystallize.

Joan Laporta will make the jump into politics after finishing his time at FC Barcelona, including renewing Coach Pep Guardiola's contract, setting the election date of June 13th for the new president, and presenting his successor, Alfons Godall. This has been made evident as the current Barça president has been dropping clues that are more and more clear, now that he has been able to put these three affairs in order which had been making it difficult for him to focus his attention on politics, and is advised by Joan Oliver and Xavier Sala-i-Martin of the Fundació Catalunya Oberta [Foundation for an Open Catalonia] and colleagues in the Barça front office.

On one hand, Laporta's strategy might point to grabbing followers of Convergència i Unió [Convergence and Union*]. Showing off his image of efficiency and professionality of the lawyer cum successful sporting club president would let Laporta seduce a significant portion of CiU's traditional base. The executive tone and the presentation of his successes managing Barça might attract many of those who earlier relied on Pujol* and Mas* for their managing skills. But he might also get support from CiU's base, which has evolved toward a sovereigntism that is expressed openly in favor of independence and that has participated in the referendum movement without the presence of Mas or his team.

The Laporta option also has possibilities of getting support from ERC* voters who have been disillusioned with the Republican role in the tripartit* [tri-party coalition]. An openly independentist stance that opts for a schedule of emancipation in the short term may well call the attention of Esquerra's base that just four years ago gave its support to Carod and to Puigcercós, but for whom the luster has dimmed somewhat given the long horizon in which this party situates Catalan sovereignty. After some years of speeches about balance and calls for small incremental changes*, an unabashed Laporta might pull a good portion of weary ERC voters to their feet.

Without parliamentary representation, the CUP* may see that a good portion of its municipal voters will now opt for supporting a choice headed by Joan Laporta. The CUP decided not to present its party in the parliamentary elections and has left its supporters without any political direction, and these may now feel attracted by the direct and simple talk of Laporta.

Surprisingly, Laporta may also erode some of PSC* and ICV's electoral base in the metropolitan area.
Sovereigntism has always had difficulties attracting significant support in Barcelona and especially in the metropolitan area. But the popularity and leadership of Joan Laporta may be key in entering this area in which PSC has had almost exclusive control for decades.

Finally, Laporta may collect the support of the majority of platforms and grass roots organizations that have taken the initiative in the struggle for independence. You only need to remember the reaction the blaugrana president received upon going to the September 11 demonstration in Barcelona last year. In this area, Laporta can use his image as a "political outsider" as well as his widespread appeal in order to offer a political choice to a constellation of entities, platforms, and groups that have appeared in the last few years. The president of FC Barcelona can also get the attention of the motivated sovereigntist citizen who has abstained in the last few elections and who can see confiding in a breakaway option that has emerged from the civil society where he had taken "refuge".

Politics is not a completely new business for Laporta. Note that he already participated in the adventures of Àngel Colom and Pilar Rahola's Partit per la Independència (PI) [Party for Independence], in the 90's. Laporta joined PI through Albert Perrin, with whom he also coincided on the Board of FC Barcelona.

*blue and red are the colors of F.C. Barcelona, Barcelona's premier football team.
*Reagrupament is the new independentist political movement/party headed by Joan Carretero
*Convergència i Unió (CiU), often abbreviated as just Convergència, is a federation of two political parties: Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya i Unió Democràtica de Catalunya
*Pujol is Jordi Pujol, long time leader of CiU, retired in 2003
*Artur Mas is the current leader of CiU.
*ERC is Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, a leftist independentist party
*tripartit is the coalition of PSC (Socialist Party of Catalunya), ICV-EUiA (itself a coalition of Initiative for Catalonia Greens Party and United and Alternative Left Party), and ERC, formed in order to take the presidency of the Generalitat, despite that fact that CiU was the party with the most seats.
*This strategy in Catalan is called "fine rain"... like a mist that gently creeps into your bones without drenching you all at once, ERC's strategy is to pursue small, incremental changes that in the end add up to fundamental differences.
*CUP - Candidatura d'Unitat Popular, or Popular Unity Candidates party, a Catalan Indendentist party
*PSC - Socialist Party of Catalonia
*ICV - Initiative for Catalonia Greens

Germà Bel: "There's not a bit of difference between this plan for managing the [Barcelona] airport and nothing."

2010-01-14T13:37:00.001-05:00

Originally published in Vilaweb on January 13, 2010

The economist Germà Bel examines the airport management model proposed by the Spanish government

Germà Bel, economist who forms part of a group of business leaders and experts that asked that Catalans be allowed an individualized and territorial management of their airports, spoke very negatively in this interview with VilaWeb about the proposal put forth by the Minister of Public Works and Transport, José Blanco. He argues that "this maintains the centralized system" that we have now. And he believes that now is the moment for a reply by the Catalan political establishment, that needs to show whether it will accept that it be treated like a "purely symbolic element" or not.

How do you see the airport management proposal suggested by Spanish Minister José Blanco?

That which was explained today, consists basically in maintaining a centralized and unitary system that controls the strategic decisions about the management of the airport, while introducing the word "individualized". Indeed, the system has been defined with rather unexpected clarity. It's quite clear that it consists of a change of nomenclature, and in a very few modifications of some very minimal points, in relegating the territorial parts to a position of "no, no, and no" and basically maintains the existing system.

Do the changes in nomenclature, the appearance of subsidiaries and the influx of private capital in the overseeing company translate to more eficiency with respect to the current management?

You have to keep in mind that the majority of subsidiaries will still belong to AENA and that the territorial parts will be able to say "no" to the price of parking, Coca-Cola, newspapers, and baggage service. And they will only be able to say, "no". That is, they can only veto. The territorial parts will not end up even using their veto because you can't construct an airport project on the foundation of a veto. In the end, and in reality, negative vetoes are not exercised because they destroy the company.

Would the territorial committee on the development of routes that Minister Blanco is proposing help to make Barcelona airpot (El Prat) an intercontinental hub?
There already was a Routes Committee working in Barcelona and doing a reasonable job. But, if the airport of Barcelona cannot make decisions about investments, taxes or commercial policies in general, and instead AENA must manage those tasks, the committee will have no mandate and whatever powers they do have won't be worth the paper they're printed on, since they won't have the resources to bring them to fruition. In fact, the Routes Committees are a peculiarity of Spain. In normal countries, there are no Routes Committees because the management of the airport itself makes its own commercial policy. This is a clear demonstration of the absolute ridiculousness of the Spanish system which imposes Routes Committees when there is already a manager in place.

Can the system made public today be compared to that of any other country?
It continues to be comparable to the management system of Romania, although, probably, from a technical point of view, it's a bit more complex. Obviously, we're talking about big countries. In the case of small countries where all the air transit is concentrated in a single airport, like Finland, then the system is centralized. But, if we are talking about France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands or Australia, it's not comparable. In other words, it continues being as incomparable as before. In short, the airport of Marseilles is managed in Marseilles, the Lyon airport is managed in Lyon, the Paris airport in Paris. Here, the big fundamental decisions continue to be made by this centralized system, and on the minor decisions, AENA would still have the majority vote.

Does the Spanish system differentiate between airports that are "complicated to manage" and airports that are "more simple to manage"?
That's ridiculous. Those are words that were invented and put on the table in order to keep from having to broach the subject of how many and which airports will be managed by subsidiaries of AENA. There is no substantive difference in managing an airport with 2 or 3 million passengers than in managing one with 8 million, at least from the point of view of a non-centralized system. This is terminology that doesn't exist in the rest of the airport world; it is Spanish terminology created expressly for use in the Spanish political debate.

What steps should citizens who mobilized for that demonstration* at IESE take, now that it is clear that the Spanish government refuses to accept its demands?
My opinion is that now, the answer should be given by our Catalan elected representatives. In whatever case, the society will express its opinion. My personal opinion is that if this is the best system they can offer, it'd be better not to accept it and instead wait for other circumstances in order to achieve a better result. Because between this option and nothing, there is absolutely no difference. Now, Catalan politicians should speak up, because if they want to be treated like a completely symbolic institution, they will get their wish by letting themselves be treated in this way.

*Demonstration at IESE: Meeting proposed by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and others, in conjunction with all of the major business members in Catalonia, to discuss the future of the Barcelona airport, with the title, "Barcelona airport: Key infrastructure for the future of the Catalan economy"

40 More Towns to Vote on Catalan Independence

2010-01-12T06:49:00.000-05:00

Originally published in Vilaweb on 12 January 2010

The secound round of referendums on independence for Catalonia will attempt to improve on the turnout from December 13

The referendums on independence in Catalonia will arrive in 40 more towns on February 28. This second round of referendums will not have the same territorial coverage as that of last December 13. On that day, there were 167 municipalities that held a referendum, but to date, only 38 have confirmed the elections on this upcoming February 28. One of the objectives of this new wave of referendums is to get an even higher turnout than the last round did.

The referendums scheduled for the first months of 2010 will occur on two days, on February 28 and on April 25. 40 odd towns have confirmed that they will give their citizens the vote on the political future of Catalonia on February 28. In total, and without counting last-minute additions, the referendums will have been able to be celebrated in 240 municipalities since Arenys de Munt first took the initiative on September 13th of last year.

The municipalities that have confirmed their intention to hold the referendum on February 28 are: Agramunt, Alella, Alforja, Alp, Begues, Bellpuig, Bescanó, la Bisbal d'Empordà, Breda, les Cabanyes, Cabrils, Caldes de Montbui, Cardona, Castellterçol, l'Escala, l'Espluga de Francolí, Gelida, Llinars del Vallès, Llorenç del Penedès, Maçanet de la Selva, Moià, Molins de Rei, Montblanc, Palamós i Sant Joan, Palau-Sator, la Pobla de Lillet, Riells i Viabrea, Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Sant Feliu de Codines, Sant Quintí de Mediona, Sant Quirze del Vallès, Teià, Torrelles de Llobregat, Vidreres, Vilassar de Mar, Vilobí d'Onyar, Salitja i Sant Dalmai, el Vendrell and Xerta.

The Wrong Road, by Alfons López Tena

2010-01-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

Originally published in Avui.cat and indirecte.cat on January 8, 2010

by Alfons López Tena

The experience of having coordinated a referendum on independence for Catalonia in Osona, where 42% of the 120,000 citizens with the right to vote actually exercised that right, despite being organized with absolutely no institutional support nor public funds, being under the constant vigilance and yet boycotted by the Spanish and Catalan governments as well as the PSC*, with the silencing of the media by the pro-Spanish and PSC-controlled media outlets, counting only on the strength of the grass-roots, from the base and with the base, engenders so many emotions and reflections, so many and such a variety of feelings, that it's difficult to describe them in a single article.

We were successful because we didn't know it was impossible, as was often said about those who struggled for the independence of the United States of America, and because we didn't listen to the know-it-alls, to the sensible, and to those who use rose-colored glasses to justify inaction. We trusted the people, and the result has been wonderful. This is the first lesson that the more than 2000 of us who volunteered have learned: without the trust of the people, without their collaboration, nothing is possible. You need organization, you need to know what you want and to never lose site of your goal, you need to work beyond tirelessly, but none of that matters if you don't trust the people, if you don't earn their trust by trusting them first.

Today, however, we must also speak of the conclusions that can be gleaned from this experience and of the repeated meditations on the history of the Nation. Those of us who have or have had a notable presence in Catalan public life—in whatever aspect: social, political, cultural, etc.—have the obligation of speaking clearly and with complete frankness, of proclaiming the truth that comes from the experience of more than a century of pro-autonomy Catalanism.

The conclusions about the national and political path that Catalonia has followed between the end of the 19th century and the present can be summed up in this opinion: Catalonia has gone down the wrong road and is now, to a great degree, a victim of her own blindness. This wrong road is "Catalan Autonomy", that is, the search for self-government by way of fitting in or with Spain.

While Catalanism bullheadedly insisted, from Almirall to Carod, from Prat de la Riba to Maragall, from Macià to Pujol, from Cambó to Porcioles, in achieving self-government within the Spanish state, one nation after another in Europe and in the world was obtaining their independence. More than 150 States in the world today did not exist when we started out on the wrong road of Catalan Autonomy. The vast majority of the States of Europe were created while in Catalonia we have only fallen again in again into the Spanish trap.

*PSC - Partit Socialista de Catalunya, Catalan wing of the ruling center-left party in Spain, PSOE.

Pep's Way

2009-12-21T23:57:00.001-05:00

Vicent Partal is the director of Vilaweb. This article originally appeared on Vilaweb's editorial page on 21 December 2009.

When a country needs leaders, it doesn't always find them in the political arena. Often they are found in culture, in business, and in sports. We have one that is unstoppable, whose name is Pep Guardiola. Beyond soccer, Pep is a clear example of how we should behave as a country. We're lucky to have him.

The victory in the Club World Championships has completed a season that has not only crowned this Barça as the best in history, but has also established that this Barça, without argument, is the best team in the world.

We are all conscious of the fact that what they did was not simple and may not even be repeatable. But the secret of their success is no secret: humility, thinking more about the group than the individuals, ambition, style, elegance, creativity, awareness of where you come from and never thinking about the opponent.

This last point is particularly interesting. Guardiola's Barça doesn't change strategies depending on who they're playing, or even worry about how their rivals are playing. They worry (and how!) about themselves. How many times have we heard Guardiola say: "we're going to play our game and our opponents can play how they want..."

And that is what we have begun to do with the referendums. Let them play the game they want. When they strip apart the Estatut [Statute of Autonomy], when they threaten us with all manner of calamities, when they send us the Falange, when they yell, we must concentrate on our own strategy, we must play our game with ambition and patience, with creativity and elegance, we must be conscious of where we come from and we must put, please, the group before the individuals.

If we play Pep's way, as we have already seen with Barça's incredible soccer, the victory may not be assured, but it's always a lot more than probable. And it deserves the respect and admiration of the entire world.

director@vilaweb.cat

Proposal of #visca to mark tweets about Catalan Independence

2009-12-21T23:27:00.001-05:00

(traducció al català abaix)
I have been translating into English news articles and some editorials about the movement toward Catalan independence for several months now, and I habitually tweet the headline with Twitter to help people find the articles. The problem is deciding what tags to add to the tweets so that people can find them. Should I add #catalonia? #catalunya? #cataluña? #català? #Catalan? What about #independència or #independence? There's not room for all of them, and even just one would be so long that it wouldn't leave much room for actual content.

Last week, using #13d was clear and concise, but now that we're moving on to future dates, it doesn't make much sense to keep on with an old date.

So, I propose using #visca to mark all tweets about the Catalan independence movement. It's short and clear. Although it does turn up in tweets about the Barça football team, it has not been used as a tag hardly at all (with #).

-------
He estat traduint a l'anglès articles de notícies i alguns editorials sobre el moviment cap a la independència de Catalunya durant uns quants mesos, i típicament poso un missatge a Twitter amb el titular per ajudar a la gent a trobar les traduccions. El problema és decidir quines etiquetes hauria d'afegir per facilitar que la gent les trobi.

Hauria d'afegir #catalonia? #catalunya? #cataluña? #català? #Catalan? O seria millor #independència? #independence? No hi ha prou espai per tots i fins i tot un de sol és massa llarg i no deixa massa espai pel contingut de veritat.

La setmana passada fer servir #13d va ser clar i concís, però ara que anem cap a futures consultes, no té gaire sentit continuar amb una data antiga.

Aixì que proposo utilitzar #visca per marcar tots els tweets sobre el moviment per la independència de Catalunya. És curt i clar. Encara que es faci servir força sovint en tweets sobre el Barça, no s'ha utilitzat gairebé gens com a etiqueta (amb la #).

ERC will make a motion of support for a referendum on independence in Barcelona

2009-12-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

Originally published in Vilaweb on 21 December 2009 at 17:00 GMT+1

Portabella thinks that there should be as many polling places open as in regular elections

Esquerra's [ERC] municipal group in the Barcelona city government will present a motion of support for the celebration of a referendum on independence in the city. It will not do so in the meeting this Wednesday, which is the last of the year, but instead will probably wait until next month, "when we see that it will go somewhere," said Jordi Portabella. He thinks that it will be almost impossible to hold the referendum properly on April 25th but did not discard September 13 as a possibility.

Some of the organizers of the referendums of this past December 13, like Carles Móra, have proposed, though not formally, that the referendum in Barcelona be held on September 13, which will be the first anniversary of the first referendum. That would allow more time for organizing and would also have added symbolic value. That possibility is looked upon favorably by Portabella, who insists that "any date with an added value, as long as the process is well defined, will be welcome. But we are not yet ready to set the date."

During the same week that the December 13 referendums were held, the group Barcelona Decideix [Barcelona Decides] presented its initiative of holding a referendum in Barcelona on April 25th, but the criticisms from groups and organizations who had not been previously consulted eventually made the date conditional.

Portabella thinks that for the referendum to work, and for the turnout to be high, it's important there there be as many polling places open as in regular elections.

Winning, on the EU's terms

2009-12-18T00:06:00.000-05:00

Vicent Partal is the director of Vilaweb. This article originally appeared on Vilaweb's editorial page on 17 December 2009.

The results of December 13th should not be lightly extrapolated, that much is clear. The number of towns and cities where voting took place numbered in the tens, and even if they were very representative, they do not give a full portrait of the country. That said, the definitive data indicates for the first time that we could win a referendum on the terms set by the European Union.

The terms for recognizing independence, that the European Union defined after the referendum in Montenegro, imposes a qualified majority, not a simple majority. A qualified majority is defined by two parameters: at least 50% of the population must vote and the vote in the affirmative must be, at least, 55%.

So fine, in the case of Montenegro, the result of the referendum was accepted by the EU with 47% of the total voters in favor of independence. Because (and it's important to insist on this point) the condition is not that 55% of the census* vote in favor, but rather 55% of those who vote, as long as the number of voters is at least 50% of the census. And that is a much lower bar than it seems. For example, suppose that exactly 50% of the census votes (and by doing so, completes the first condition), there would be enough if just 27.5% of the census voted in favor of independence, since this is the quantity of necessary Yes votes that would represent 55% of the total votes in order to complete the second condition.

(We should also mention another important number in passing: in the 166 municipalities in which the referendum was held, the total number of votes in favor of independence was 182,625. In Montenegro, for their referendum on independence, the votes in favor numbered 230,661 in total.)

Back to it, at any rate. To begin, the final returns from Sunday indicate that 26.01% of the total number of registered voters opted for Yes. Said in another way: we know that 26.01% of all of the citizens of at least 16 years of age included in the census of the municipalities where the referendums were held said Yes to independence. But you have to keep in mind that the census that was used is not the census that the European Union would accept, but rather is larger, since it includes immigrants and 16 and 17-year olds. And an analysis of the data indicates that, especially among the immigrant population, abstention was very high, a fact that lowers the weight that affirmative votes would have in an official referendum.

It is clear, then, that setting aside the vote of immigrants and youths of 16 and 17, the affirmative vote would easily rise as high or higher than 30%. And that would mean, simply, that if 50% of the census voted, instead of 27.5%, even if all the other votes were negative, that the referendum would have been successful, conforming to the terms set by the European Union. Because if there had been 50% turnout, I'll say it again, only 27.5% need vote in favor of independence in order to comply with the conditions imposed by the European Union and pass the referendum.

The problem, then, is abstention. Because to get to a 50% turnout, which is absolutely necessary for the European Union to accept the results, we need 23 points. Those 23 points could be found if 3 out of 10 abstainers from Sunday went to vote, which doesn't seem impossible at first glance. Sunday wasn't even an official election and the boycott by No supporters was obvious. Would they dare to boycott an official referendum? It would be a big risk for them...

The data is, without a doubt, insufficient and incomplete. But it indicates one thing that is completely new in the political history of our country: today we have plenty of indicators that lead us to believe that winning a referendum on independence in the Principat is no fantasy. And that's no joke.

-----
Translation notes:
*census - In Catalonia, you register yourself ("empadronar-se") with the census when you move to a new residence. You must be listed in the census to be able to vote, marry, enroll your children in local schools, etc. You do not have to be a legal resident of Spain to register yourself with the census. Note that in contrast with the system for example in the US, there is no separate registration specifically for voting.

*Principat - refers to the four counties of the Principat de Catalonia: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. "Països Catalans" or "Catalan Countries" is comprised of the Principat, Valencia (including the counties of Alacant and Castellò), and the Balearic Islands (and sometimes more).

13D: The Myth About the Low Turnout

2009-12-17T08:35:00.004-05:00

Albert Montón is a producer and screenwriter of documentary films. This originally appeared on his blog.

We didn't have to hold a referendum to see that the turnout would be "low". And I write it in quotation marks because, even though that's what everyone said, that's not what I say, not by any stretch. The Spanish press had their headlines written long ago: pantomime, ridiculous, witchcraft... a smattering of independentists. I'm sorry to have to go back to Brunete*, but it seems to me that it is a demonstration of the fact that independentism here still needs to get past a certain colonization — not political, economic, or cultural — but mental. We still think too often in the terms and language that Spain sets for us.

A turnout of 27% is really low, they say. And we accept it. Sunday, it was barely 8 pm, the polling places in Vilafranca were filled with sad faces like poems. Hardly anyone came, only 23%, they said.

But you just can't compare it with official elections. First, because this one wasn't official. And second, because one of the choices, the No vote, was totally boycotted, on purpose, to make it fail, to make it look bad. They're not comparable. A non-official referendum, organized completely at the grassroots level with spare change — and they didn't even spend it all —, and with an explicit boycott of one of the options, that received a 27% turnout, is a robust success, as was pointed out in the international media. Indeed, to compare what was said in the international papers to what was written in the Spanish press is like comparing what the world says about a banana republic with what the current dictator's loyal outlet dishes out.

And keeping in mind that almost all the votes cast were for Yes (95%), we can say that one out of every 4 Catalans invited to the polls gave their explicit support for independence. It's important to note that one out of 4 Spaniards votes for PP in the legislative elections and one out of every four votes for PSOE. The two together make up the "two Spains", or so they tell us as well. So, we can affirm that independentism has the same prevalence in Catalonia as either one of the two Spains on their home turf. Not bad at all, because in addition, the referendum was not even official in contrast with the legislative elections which most certainly are.

However with those results, I would dare to say that counting all the municipalities in an official referendum, the No vote would hardly have a chance of winning. It's clear that the 73% that didn't vote wouldn't all vote No, as the Spainist propaganda implies. With a turnout of 70%, the Yes vote would win handily, and you'd have to get to about 85% for the No votes to even have a chance, although it's hard to imagine how they'd mobilize the votes for that option, without any grassroots support.

It's obvious that neither can we extrapolate the results to the rest of Catalonia. How areas like Barcelona, the metropolitan area that surrounds it, or Tarragona would act is anyone's guess. But it's also true that we are at the beginning of everything. And the conclusions must be positive. In Spain, the media has to give their clients what they ask for, but those that are in the know are worried. With reason.

--------
Translation Notes:
*Brunete - Is the name of an armored tank division of the Spanish Army, named in honor of the Battle of Brunete in which the Fascists inflicted heavy casualties on the Republicans. Here it refers to the conservative Spanish press: the "Brunete mediàtica" translates (very) roughly as the "tanks of the Spanish Nationalist press"...

Catalonia will be independent or it will not be

2009-12-16T09:50:00.000-05:00

Editorial from directe!cat on 16 December 2009 at 05:00h GMT+1

We want to express our solidarity with all of people who suffer in order to defend the freedom of expression, attacked by a Spanish State that is incapable of accepting the democratic path to liberty. Egunkaria Aurrera!

'Catalonia will be independent or it will not be.' With these words, the executive director of Osona Decideix, Alfons López Tena, closed his presentation in Vic after announcing the definitive results of the referendums on independence this Sunday. A proverb adapted to perfectly capture the meaning of the moment that we are living.

Almost 200,000 people stood up and participated in a set of referendums organized by the grassroots with the absolutely necessary collaboration of thousands of people and various distinct political parties — to varying degrees — with a hugely successful turnout. With errors and viewpoints of all hues, but no-one can deny that what happened on the 13th of December was an exceptional example of political participation.

Only the enemies of Catalonia can dilute our victory. No-one has the right to spoil our happiness in seeing thousands of people who voluntarily and forcefully exercised their right to decide. Now we need a unifying force to achieve independence. As we said on Sunday, if we want to, we can, and that is a clear conclusion.

All we Catalans are independentists, even those who don't yet know it. Explaining the advantages of independence to open their eyes is the work of more than a million Catalans (between 25 and 30% of the population) who are already cognizant of it. To get there, we need less individual posturing and more unity of action. The powers that be and the "Spains" have trembled, now we cannot let ourselves fight useless battles that go nowhere. The enemy is without, not within.

Among are true enemies, there are those that quietly curtailed the success of these referendums. Like the MP from PSC Joan Ferran who pressured TV3 to silence its coverage, Josep Mª Sala (accused in the Filesa case) and the manipulation of the Regional Houses, the MP from PSC Mohammed Chaib who instead of defending Human Rights and worrying about the freedom of the activist Aminatu Haidar, spent his time pressuring Moroccan imams to repress the vote in immigrant communities, or the organization secretaries of PP and PSC who moved heaven and earth so that their members would not partipate in the referendums, especially those who expressed a certain affinity. We independentists are a majority, the Spaniards know it and they don't waste time fighting each other.

Only by explaining the truth will we be convincing. Does anyone have a doubt that if we were independent, the Line 9 of the Metro would already be completely ready, the trans-highway widened and improved, the salary and pensions of all Catalans would be higher, we wouldn't have to play sidegames with our National sports teams, we would have complete management of our airport, we would decide with whom we wanted to express solidarity and support and we would even bring to justice our own criminals? Can anyone doubt that, even if we make mistakes, all citizens, from wherever they come, would live better and would be happier? Isn't it worth it to fight democratically for the right to be normal?

Let's stop messing around and start working together for independence.

Leaders of Catalan Independentist Organizations Make Peace

2009-12-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

The mayor of Arenys distances himself from the ILP [Iniciativa Legislativa Popular, something like California's propositions] and from the declaration that will be made tomorrow, that could be the embryo of a new independentist party

The coordinator of Osona Decideix [Osona Decides], Alfons López Tena and the leaders of the Coordinadora de Consultes [Referendums Coordinator] Uriel Bertran and Carles Móra, made the peace on Wednesday after two days of slinging accusations. Today they demonstrated the new unity of independentism in front of the Parliament of Catalonia and looked toward the next referendums on independence. This morning, López Tena and Móra breakfasted together in Vic where the jurist [López Tena] explained that the strategy to follow should be that of Osona, looking for the maximum consensus and avoiding parallel initiatives like the ILP. Móra accepted Tena's reasoning and has already announced that he will distance himself from the independentist declaration that will be presented tomorrow, and that he will also disconnect himself from the ILP that is hoping to force a binding referendum on independence.

As reported by 9Nou [the new 9], this Wednesday morning the mayor of Arenys, Carles Móra and the coordinator of Osona Decideix, Alfons López Tena, had breakfast togeether in the 'La Terra' [The Land, could even be translated as the 'Catalan Land'] club in order to demonstrate the now peaceful relations between the two organizations. This midday the jurist [López Tena] and the MP for ERC Uriel Bertran will have lunch together and then will hold a press conference together in front of Parliament in order to speak about the organization of future referendums on independence.

Originally published in directe!cat on 16 December 2009 at 12.24h GMT+1