Protest Rally in Catalonia Adds a Worry for Spain
David Ramos/Getty Images
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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Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
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.
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