NEW YORK TIMES: PROTEST RALLY IN CATALONIA ADDS A WORRY FOR SPAIN (11-9)

Protest Rally in Catalonia Adds a Worry for Spain

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Throngs of protestors waved striped yellow-and-red Catalan flags and signs demanding independence in Barcelona on Tuesday.

By RAPHAEL MINDER

Published: September 11, 2012

BARCELONA — Catalonia’s national day turned into a huge separatist rally on Tuesday, presenting yet another challenge to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he seeks to force Spain’s regions to enact drastic budget cuts.

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Catalonia, an economically important region, has been hit hard by the deepening recession and mounting fiscal problems in Spain. The gathering in Barcelona on Tuesday, which was to celebrate Catalonia’s national day, turned into a massive separatist rally.

As many as 1.5 million people took over the center of Barcelona around 6 p.m. The protesters, many of whom had traveled here from other parts of Catalonia, waved striped yellow-and-red Catalan flags and signs demanding independence.

Organized under the slogan “Catalonia, New European State,” the rally came as Mr. Rajoy is considering whether to seek help from a new bond-buying program that the European Central Bank agreed to last week.

On Tuesday, Mr. Rajoy was given a reason to hesitate by his Finnish counterpart, Jyrki Katainen, who suggested on a visit to Madrid that Spain should try to avoid tapping the central bank’s offer. Mr. Katainen also warned that Finland could demand that Spain take further “concrete measures” in terms of balancing its budget in return for agreeing to additional aid for Spain.

Indeed, investors remain concerned that Spain will fail to meet budget deficit targets amid a deepening recession and the mounting fiscal problems of regional governments that account for about 40 percent of Spain’s public spending.

Catalonia has been in the front line of the crisis, with its problems compounded by recent credit rating downgrades that have shut it out of the debt markets. Last month, Catalonia requested €5 billion, or about $6.4 billion, from an €18 billion emergency fund set up by Madrid to help regions service their debts and pay suppliers of health care and other basic services.

The financing crisis has added fuel to Catalonia’s longstanding demand for Madrid to grant it greater fiscal autonomy and reduce its contribution to a national system that redistributes some tax revenue to poorer regions of Spain.

“It’s absurd that we are now having to ask the government in Madrid to lend us money that should have been ours to use in the first place,” said Luis Planagumà, who was among a group of about 1,500 protesters from Santa Pau who had traveled nearly two hours by bus to join the rally.

With 7.5 million inhabitants in Spain’s northeast, Catalonia accounts for 16 percent of the nation’s population and 19 percent of gross domestic product, giving it an economy the size of Portugal’s. Catalonia’s €42 billion of debt, however, is by far the largest among Spanish regions.

Catalonia’s fiscal problems have led its regional government to make some of the deepest budget cuts in Spain, particularly in health and education, to lower the deficit from 3.7 percent of gross regional product last year to the 1.5 percent limit set by Mr. Rajoy’s government for this year.

Artur Mas, Catalonia’s leader, did not take part in the rally Tuesday but said he fully endorsed the protesters’ demands. “Never before has Catalonia been so close to national plenitude,” he said on Monday night.

Before a meeting with Mr. Mas on Sept. 20, Mr. Rajoy has sought to play down the separatist push. On Tuesday, he called on Catalans to focus instead on overcoming the economic crisis. “The challenge today for Catalonia, other regions and Spain as a whole is to grow and create employment,” Mr. Rajoy said.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 12, 2012, in The International Herald Tribune.

NEW YORK TIMES: THE SPANISH WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (20-9)

The Spanish War of Independence

By JONATHAN BLITZER

 BARCELONA — Perched high atop a building on the northern corner of the Plaza de Catalunya is a huge banner announcing, in English: “Catalonia: Next Independent State in Europe.” It was still intact on Saturday, days after Sept. 11, when  more than one million Catalans swarmed the streets of Barcelona in a remarkable show of fervor for independence. 

The Diada, as the date is known, is an annual commemoration of Catalonia and a wistful nod to its troops who were defeated in the 18th-century War of the Spanish Succession. The day’s celebrations are a habitual spur to local pride. But this year the massive turnout surprised everyone, in Spain and abroad.

The economic crisis has magnified longstanding exasperation among the residents of Barcelona and the region, who feel that the national government routinely belittles their identity. The percentage of Catalans supporting independence has doubled, to 46 percent, since 2008.

Regional leaders are in no rush to temper the sentiment. Artur Mas, the president of the Catalan government, has been playing it up ahead of a meeting on Thursday with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to discuss the terms of a pending fiscal pact.

But Mas should be more careful not to overdraw popular expectations. Catalonia is in a difficult financial position, and despite the ebullience of popular demonstrations, he is in no position to call the shots.

Catalonia, which represents one-fifth of the country’s entire economic output, is deeply in debt: it’s on the hook for 42 billion euros of the 140 billion euros — or $55 billion out of $183 billion — that Spain’s 17 regions together have run in deficits. It has asked for 5 billion euros, about $6.5 billion, in emergency relief from Madrid. And Mas, citing “fiscal sovereignty,” wants the money without strings attached.

To many locals the request is a drop in the bucket given all the tax money Catalonia has handed over. Each year the region pays between 12 and 16 billion euros more in taxes than it gets back from Madrid in public investments in social services and infrastructure.

There’s also resentment over austerity. The conservative Mas, though himself a willing budget-slasher, has loudly bemoaned the deficit-reduction targets set by the national government. While public investment by the national government has dropped by almost 25 percent across the country since 2011, it has fallen by nearly 45 percent in Catalonia.

Distress over this economic situation is key to understanding the high turnout on Diada. So is the recent fate of the hotly contested Statute of Autonomy, a regional constitution negotiated between Catalonia and the national government in 2006.

In spite of successful talks at the regional and national levels, and a subsequent approval by a regional referendum, a national constitutional court struck down parts of the deal in 2010. Those articles would have given privileged status to the Catalan language and recognized the region as a “nation”; they would also have allowed Catalonia to collect its own taxes. Though the statute remains in effect, a broad swath of the Catalan public feels it has essentially been gutted.

Disaffection among Catalans is real and needs to be reckoned with. But Mas risks overplaying his hand with Rajoy. He has already insinuated, with deliberate ambiguity, that a failure to reach a financial agreement would open the “road to freedom” for Catalonia. But for Catalonia to secede, the Constitution of Spain would have to be amended (which is unlikely) and the region’s independence would have to be approved by a popular referendum among all Spaniards, not just Catalans (which also highly unlikely).

Jonathan Blitzer

By 10:30 p.m. last Saturday, with the sign proclaiming a “Next Independent State” barely visible in one dark corner of the Plaza de Catalunya, a bus pulled up in another. It disgorged some 50 passengers — Catalans returning from a day of mass demonstrations against austerity measures in Madrid.

Many wore black shirts that read, “Without rights, without a future, I’ve got nothing.” This was not a comment on independence, one protester said.
“What happens between Rajoy and Mas,” another added, “is political theater. We just know we’re hurting.”

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Jonathan Blitzer is a journalist and translator based in Madrid.

NEW YORK TIMES (2 DE OCTUBRE): "SPANISH PRISONERS"

  Spanish Prisoners

By RICARD GONZÁLEZ and JAUME CLOTET

Published: October 2, 2012

ON Sept. 11, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona calling for Catalonia’s independence from Spain. Artur Mas, the Catalan prime minister, reacted by dissolving the regional Parliament and calling for elections on Nov. 25, which will likely strengthen his party’s position. Catalonia’s Parliament, which represents an autonomous region the size of Belgium in Spain’s northeast corner, has overwhelmingly supported holding a referendum on independence despite the Spanish Constitution’s ban on secession. So in addition to its economic woes, Spain now faces a deep constitutional crisis.

History can follow a capricious path, sometimes meandering slowly for decades only to accelerate abruptly and take a vertiginous turn. The immediate cause of Catalonia’s sudden outbreak of secessionist fever is so-called fiscal looting. The region accounts for about one-fourth of Spain’s exports. But for every euro Catalans pay in taxes, only 57 cents is spent in the region. Before taxes, Catalonia is the fourth richest of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions. After taxes, it drops to ninth — a form of forced redistribution unparalleled in contemporary Europe.

For a society suffering the acute pain of budget cuts and a deep recession, the burden of fiscal transfers, which cripple the Catalan economy’s ability to compete globally, is unacceptable. Unable to draw on its own tax base, the Catalan government recently went through the humiliation of being forced to ask Madrid for a bailout. Americans know well that an unfair taxation system can easily ignite calls for independence.

But money isn’t the only cause of secessionist sentiment. We Catalans have long been attached to our distinct identity and never accepted the loss of national sovereignty after being defeated by the Spanish monarchy in 1714. For three centuries, Catalonia has striven to regain its independence. Most attempts to establish a state were put down by force. The “Catalan question” was a major catalyst of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, and Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship harshly repressed Catalan culture.

At the core of Catalonia’s unique identity is the Catalan language, which is distinct from Spanish. Since the re-establishment of Spain’s democracy in 1977 and Catalonia’s autonomy in 1979, Catalan has been revived in the region’s schools. However, a recent ruling by Spain’s Constitutional Court threatens this policy. To most Catalans, our language is a red line. If the current system of autonomy can’t guarantee protection of it, independence is the only solution.

The independence movement is not driven by hatred of Spain. Catalan nationalism is civic and cultural, unlike the ethnic nationalism that has so often plagued Europe. Indeed, most of the two million Spaniards who migrated to Catalonia in the 1960s and ’70s are today fully integrated and many of them have embraced secessionist ideals.

The growth of the secessionist movement is also a reaction to a renewed wave of Spanish nationalism. When Catalonia passed a more far-reaching autonomy law in 2006, some political parties and media outlets unleashed a fierce anti-Catalan campaign that included a boycott of Catalan products. This campaign caused an emotional rift, and many Catalans concluded that only independence would protect them. Once mutual trust was lost, other possible solutions, like a federal state, lost their appeal. The fact that the Spanish government is now seeking to curb the powers of autonomous regions by blaming them for the economic crisis doesn’t help.

Opponents of secession often argue that Catalan independence doesn’t make sense in a globalized world where state sovereignty is progressively being eroded. However, the opposite is true: it has never made more sense — at least for small European nations. Europe’s common market and its increasing move toward greater political union enhances the viability of small countries. Small states are more competitive and tend to react faster to global economic challenges. Catalonia has a population of just over 7.5 million. Twelve current European Union members, including Ireland and Denmark, have smaller populations.

Although secession sounds drastic, it doesn’t need to be. The European Union’s internal borders are already blurred and its citizens cross them in order to travel, work and emigrate without visas. Spaniards and Catalans would continue to be members of a community of nations, and the most important economic and cultural links would be preserved.

Unfortunately, the Catalan demands for self-determination have so far been met with threats and contempt by the Spanish government. This attitude differs starkly from that of the British prime minister, David Cameron, who has been negotiating with Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, over a scheduled 2014 referendum on Scottish secession from the United Kingdom.

Spain’s Constitution may not permit regions to secede, but the principles of democracy and justice necessitate finding a political solution to Catalonia’s demands. In a world where deep-seated national grievances often lead to violence, Catalans offer the example that peaceful change is possible. Denying Catalans the right to self-determination would be an affront to the democratic ideals that Spain, and Europe, claim to embrace.

Ricard González is the former Washington correspondent for El Mundo and the Catalan magazine El Temps. Jaume Clotet is a novelist and former political editor of the Catalan newspaper Avui.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on October 3, 2012, on page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: Spanish Prisoners.

NEW YORK TIMES: 6 DE OCTUBRE

Edu Bayer for the International Herald Tribune

"Our ideal is to be part of the United States of Europe," said Artur Mas.

By RAPHAEL MINDER

Published: October 5, 2012

BARCELONA, Spain — ARTUR MAS, the leader of Catalonia, has a clear message for Madrid: He is serious about his threat to let the people of Spain’s most economically powerful region decide for themselves in a referendum whether they should remain a part of Spain.

In fact, he said in an interview this week, he would personally vote for independence if the opportunity arose. “Our ideal is to be part of the United States of Europe,” he said.

That kind of posturing has thrust Mr. Mas, 56, to the forefront of Spanish politics and made Catalonia the biggest domestic headache for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is facing troubles on all sides as he tries to satisfy demands from the European Union to straighten out Spain’s economy and from Spain’s heavily indebted regions, including Catalonia.

The question now for Mr. Rajoy, and for all of Spain, is just how far Mr. Mas, a once relatively obscure politician who was elected regional president two years ago, is willing to go in posing what may be the most serious challenge to a sovereign entity in Europe since the implosion of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Mr. Mas’s talk is not idle. With a $260 billion economy that is roughly the size of Portugal’s, an independent Catalonia and its 7.5 million inhabitants — 16 percent of Spain’s population — would rank ahead of a dozen of the 27 nations in the European Union. But like most of Spain’s regions, it is under great financial pressure and would like a better deal from Madrid.

In that respect, his threats may amount to nothing more than brinkmanship, as he applies to Madrid much the same tactic it has used to gain favorable treatment in its own dealings with Brussels: that is, that Catalonia, which has its own language and sense of identity, is simply “too big to fail” without calamitous consequences that no one wants to see. On Friday, Catalonia’s government raised the pressure, saying it would not be able to meet its September payments for basic services like heath care on schedule.

The great risk is that Mr. Rajoy’s government — squeezed as it is, itself weighing a European bailout — is hardly in a position to appease Catalonia’s demands under a Spanish tax system that redistributes revenue from the richest to the poorest regions, without also raising tensions with other struggling regions.

The grievances run in both directions. In Catalonia’s view, Madrid has drained its finances, while Madrid accuses Catalonia, like nearly all of Spain’s regions, of mismanaging its books.

In the interview on Wednesday in the Catalan government’s medieval palace, Mr. Mas was unrepentant about further unnerving investors who already question Mr. Rajoy’s ability to meet agreed deficit targets and clean up Spanish banks. Instead, he contended that it was Mr. Rajoy who had forced Catalonia down the separatist path, after rejecting its demands unconditionally.

“When you get a clear no, you have to change direction,” Mr. Mas said. Although he acknowledged that there was no guarantee Catalonia would succeed in imposing its claims on Madrid, he argued that “the worst-case scenario is not to try, and the second-worst is to try and not get there.”

HIS advice to Mr. Rajoy was to avoid further delay in tapping a bond-buying program, devised by the European Central Bank largely with Spain’s rescue in mind. European financing — in the form of billions of dollars in subsidies received after Spain joined the European Union in 1986 — had already played a major part in Spain’s development, he noted.

“The problems of Spain now supersede its capacities, so that it needs help,” Mr. Mas said. “If you have no other choice than to ask for a rescue, the sooner the better.”

Asked, however, where Spain would stand without Catalonia, its industrial engine, Mr. Mas was unperturbed. “Spain without Catalonia is not insolvent but more limited,” he said.

An economist by training, Mr. Mas comes from a Catalan family linked to the metal and textile sectors, which were at the heart of the region’s development after the Industrial Revolution. Having studied at a French school in Barcelona and then learned English, he also stands out as a rare multilingual leader in Spain’s political landscape.

He climbed the ladder of Catalonia’s politics over a long career as a public servant in the shadows of another politician, Jordi Pujol, who ran Catalonia for more than two decades. While hardly unknown in his region, Mr. Mas has surprised even party insiders this year by the way he has thrown caution to the wind in challenging Mr. Rajoy.

“We all knew Mas as an efficient technocrat and one of our very best managers, but I don’t think many people expected him to show such courage and patriotic feelings,” said Josep Maria Vila d’Abadal, a mayor and member of Mr. Mas’s party, Convergència i Unió.

Mr. Mas insisted that his separatist drive was “not about personal ambition,” saying he would retire from politics once Catalonia achieved sovereignty. He is married with three children.

Even though Catalonia would face an uphill struggle to join the European Union, particularly given Madrid’s opposition, Mr. Mas said that Brussels had shown in the two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union that it could adjust to much more dramatic and unforeseeable nationhood claims.

Mr. Mas has already put words into action. Shortly after being rebuffed by Mr. Rajoy over his tax demands, he called early elections in Catalonia — on Nov. 25, two years ahead of schedule — that could turn into an unofficial referendum on independence, after a mass rally in Barcelona on Sept. 11 in which hundreds of thousands of Catalans demanded to form a new European state.

On the heels of the rally, Mr. Mas and his nationalist party are counting on significant gains in next month’s election as they try to convince Catalans that Mr. Mas can erase their longstanding complaints about control from Madrid.

“We have created a big feeling of hope among a big part of our society,” Mr. Mas said.

SUCH comments, however, have also prompted criticism of Mr. Mas, led by Madrid politicians as well as other regional leaders, who have denounced Catalonia’s attempt to break ranks in a time of crisis.

While Mr. Rajoy has steered clear of the wrangling, some conservative politicians have warned of retaliatory measures. His deputy prime minister warned Mr. Mas last week that Madrid would use every legal instrument available to block a Catalan vote on independence, which would violate Spain’s Constitution.

Others accuse Mr. Mas of using the tussle with Madrid to shift the blame for Catalonia’s economic difficulties onto Mr. Rajoy and to distract voters from his government’s own shortcomings, including a failure to meet the deficit target that the Catalan government set for itself last year.

Last week, Pere Navarro, the leader of the opposition Catalan Socialist Party, called Mr. Mas “a false prophet,” who talked about a promised land instead of recognizing that he had made Catalonia “worse than two years ago,” when Mr. Mas took office.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 6, 2012, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Catalan Leader Boldly Grasps a Separatist Lever.