Catalonia
votes ‘no’
We
need to resist the glib conclusions of self-serving Catalan
separatists.
By RAMÓN
PÉREZ-MAURA 9/28/15, 5:23 PM CET Updated 9/29/15, 6:31 AM CET
MADRID —
Catalonia, the north-eastern region in Spain, held a regional
election on Sunday. Its legal purpose was to elect a regional
assembly that should elect a new regional government. But the
outgoing president and his political mates decided this would not be
the real purpose of the vote. It would actually be a vote on the
region’s independence from Spain.
To achieve that
goal, he decided not to run on the usual party list but, rather, set
up a coalition between his party, Convergencia — a center-right
party that has held power for 27 out of the last 35 years of regional
government — and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), a diehard
left-wing pro-independence party. The coalition was named Junts pel
Si — “Together for Yes” (to independence). And they announced
that the election wouldn’t just be a regional election, but rather
a plebiscite — an illegal one, by every measure — on
independence.
* * *
In the outgoing
parliament, the sum of both parties added up to 71 seats, the figure
for an overall majority being 68. For this election they brought into
their coalition various groups of citizens who favor a breakaway from
Spain. So the coalition looked set to attain an outstanding majority
in favor of that goal. The result was not such. They got 62 seats.
Nine seats less than they had before they set up the coalition for
independence. And they have the chutzpah to call that a huge success.
It is true that if
they add to their mix the party that came in fifth, Candidatura
d’Unitat Popular (CUP), an extreme left-wing party that got 10
seats, they will have an outright majority in favor of independence,
even though the three parties involved now have fewer seats than they
had in the outgoing assembly. But has anyone ever heard of a
plebiscite whose result is decided not on an enumeration of people’s
votes, but on a count of members of parliament?
The pro-independence
parties don’t want the actual votes counted toward the purpose of a
unilateral breakaway, and that’s understandable. They only got
47.32 percent of the vote, against the 52.01 percent that went to
parties that had clearly stated their opposition to independence.
It can be said
without doubt that if those who called the election want to claim it
was a plebiscite, they have a clear answer: Catalonia voted “no.”
Furthermore, out of the people who had the right to vote — the
total electorate, in other words — only 30 percent voted for the
parties who were calling for independence from Spain.
* * *
There is another
reading to this result, and that is that the problem of secession in
Spain probably just got bigger. Nationalist parties have one main
reason for their existence: confrontation, or a search for someone
who can be defined as “the enemy.” When these parties run their
business within a country in which they feel they are aliens, it’s
very easy to play politics. They can always blame the central power,
the national government, for their problems. They will make a living
out of asking for bigger and more outlandish concessions from the
national government.
Ever since General
Franco died in 1975 and the regional institutions of Catalonia were
established, the only goal the Catalan people have seen their parties
promote has been “what can we get Madrid to give us.”
Catalonia today is a
region with more powers than any federal state in the world. Any
comparison with the Free State of Bavaria or the California Republic
will prove that Catalonia has a bigger grip on power than them in any
area of life and governance. So, when people say more dialogue is
needed, and that a different way must be found to better fit
Catalonia in Spain, the reply should be that such a way can’t be
found with parties that reside in a cul-de-sac.
Many Catalans have
demonstrated a xenophobic attitude toward the rest of Spain. They
want to be regarded as different, a people apart, and this isn’t
possible if they only have a regional government like 16 other
regions in Spain. They don’t want to be just another region in this
Spanish lot. They have to be above the rest. But in a democracy it’s
very difficult to have first- and second-class citizens.
* * *
Over the years Artur
Mas, the current president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, has led
the region into clashes with the rest of Spain and the rest of
Europe. We have seen all relevant EU leaders proclaiming their
support for a united Spain and threatening Catalonia with exclusion
from EU institutions.
When leaders like
Juncker, Hollande, Merkel and Cameron look at what was brewing in
Catalonia, they can easily imagine what may happen with Scotland,
Bavaria or Corsica if they leave an open door for those who broke
away from an EU member state. It is a well known fact that no new
members are admitted into the EU without unanimous acceptance. Which
would, of course, exclude Catalonia for decades to come. It would be
unimaginable to think of Spain voting in favor of its breakaway
region rejoining the club.
But even though the
No vote won the day in Catalonia on September 27, this is still a
major crisis for Spain. The pro-independence parties want more
concessions from the central government and there is nothing left to
give short of independence itself.
The only reason some
Catalans have to demand secession is that they are unhappy within
their current borders. That is to say, they are the only people who
see any borders within the EU. And that’s because they have mental
borders, not physical ones. And having been led into such state of
blindness that they haven’t realized the real borders will be set
up by secession, not their current status as citizens of Spain, a
major country within the European Union.
Ramón Pérez-Maura
is editor at large of ABC, the Spanish daily.
Authors:
Ramón Pérez-Maura
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