The banned independence referendum carried out in Catalonia on 1-O (October 1st) is increasing social division and the level of political tension alarmingly, reaching levels unseen in Spain in the last few decades.The poll, declared illegal and showing a complete lack of democratic guarantee, has only aggravated the situation. Carles Puigdemont’s attitude and that of his political partners is arrogant, defiant and populist, taking Catalonia to the brink and insisting on illegally declaring independence despite the so-divided opinion among Catalonia’s population. His demagogic speech has been fuelled after Sunday’s police charges, which actually pushed thousands of citizens who originally were against taking part in such a farce to vote, and helped to further deteriorate the already weak image of the national government in Catalonia. That day left some powerful images.
The dispute is not only in politics: this is actually a fight within Catalans, it is causing the worst social fragmentation among families, friends, neighbours, co-workers… it is now very difficult to live in Catalonia and freely show you are not that keen on secessionism. Radicalism is out there: you have to be for or against them [secessionists], black or white, no greys. There are multiple reports of children being bullied simply because their parents are officers of the national police, Catalan hotel managers forcing them out, Piqué is being booed by Spanish fans while training with the national team…. the tension among the people is becoming unbearable. The manipulation of the masses is clear: young students at Universities dream of creating a new country where everyone is equal and has more chances to develop a new and perfect nation for them. The trouble is that Catalonia’s government has failed for years to be what they are looking for. What is crystal clear is that if Catalonia becomes independent from Spain, no one wins and it will more than likely be a disaster for all.
According to the latest polls, only 35% of Catalonia’s population would want an independent nation, which highlights how divided the Catalan population is on this matter (graphic by Kiko Llaneras):
Here we have the percentage of Catalans who do not feel Spanish:
This graphic was created by Eduardo Suárez, also the author of this worthwhile piece which explains what can happen in the next few days.
Spain’s PM Mariano Rajoy could have tried different strategies. He decided to deny any option to have a referendum (agreed by both the regional and the national governments) and to use force to stop the voting. His strategy did not work: the ‘mossos’ (regional police) ignored Madrid’s commands, and national police were compelled to use force to finally only manage to close around 14% of the polling stations — but did leave a lot of video footage, widely shared all around the globe, of police beating up citizens willing to vote. This is not the first time a government has had to deal with incidents involving alleged police violence.
In Europe, the message is clear: violence is never the answer, but it is sometimes needed in order to enforce respect for the law, and both Catalonia and Spain governments need to start a positive dialogue to solve this severe crisis. One option could be to reform Spain into a federal state in a federal Europe: see Guy Verhofstadt in the European Commission explaining this idea and giving his opinion about the Catalonia issue in a plenary speech well worth watching.
Catalan banks are moving their headquarters out of Catalonia to ‘protect their clients’ from a potential unilateral declaration of independence issued by the regional government, Banco Sabadell has already moved to Alicante, Gas Natural to Madrid, and other major brands such as Seat, Catalana Occidente, Bayer, BASF, Siemens or Evonik could follow suit. Some other companies have already done so, such as a biotech company called Oryzon, all of whom have enjoyed great benefits on the stock market. The national government is even thinking of passing a law to allow companies based in Catalonia to move to Spain more quickly. However, the situation among the citizens remains tense, the warmongering language is by far too widely used by common people as well as the politicians, and no one is sure as to what will happen in the next few days. I do not believe we really need any more flags or walls, we need to be more open and flexible instead.
This weekend thousands of citizens gathered to show they do not want Catalonia to be independent: the first time the so-called ‘silent majority’ has taken the streets to be heard. They do not stand alone: a whole movement of people, all across Spain -including Catalonia-, has been begging politicians to sit down to talk and solve this crisis in a demonstration in which most citizens were wearing white clothes rather than flags, and carrying placards asking in both Spanish and Catalan ‘Shall we talk?’. Spanish PM Rajoy is not keen to cede but he may need to reconsider the option of allowing a legal referendum; on the other side, the Catalan government is expected to declare independence this Tuesday, despite its political allies showing some disagreement, and the former Catalan leader admitting ‘we are not ready for real independence.’ Our recent history shows us the consequences of a badly managed nationalism crisis. Spain, Catalonia, we do need to talk.
