CATALONIA -- Politik in der 18. Minute - Nachrichten Print - DIE WELT - Politik (Print DW) - DIE WELT

Politik in der 18. Minute - Nachrichten Print - DIE WELT - Politik (Print DW) - DIE WELT

Policy in the 18th Minute

The Catalans enjoy independence from Spain, even in the stadium of FC Barcelona. The government in Madrid will not listen to reason - and thus heats the resistance even more

 

 

 

 The questions to its citizens have already formulated Catalonia parties. "Do you want that Catalonia is a country, if so, this country should be independent? ' To this end, the Catalans to express next November - if they can because when she leaves Madrid. "I'm going to vote as yes and yes," Artur Mas said in an interview at his office in Barcelona . The President of the Regional Government has a stated goal: an independent state Catalonia. And he wants to enforce it, now more than ever. "Independence is the natural future of an ancient nation, language, culture, has preserved its territory," he says.

In this self-understanding are already hidden all the misunderstandings between the Catalans and the Spanish government.
The desire secession of Catalonia: incomprehensible, impossible, even
illegal for the capital, seen as insubordinate attack on national unity. "As long as I am Prime Minister, it will not pass the referendum, which some want, and Spain
will not shatter, "Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said recently." So that
is quite clear. "Catalonia is not a nation, so it looks the Premier,
Spain an individual and not a federal state. All rights of autonomy of
the regions are Spanish concession, the Constitution is as it is - and
off.

This could be the end of the story.
But this time, according to Catalan era 300 years after the loss of a
once autonomy in 1714, it will absorb the Catalans with their central
government, which they feel has since pressed financially and
unappreciated in their characteristics.
Wait, they lurk, and in the end there will be a competition to see who
is stubborn: the conservative Partido Popolar under Rajoy in Madrid,
ever the political elite of the capital, or the Catalan independence
movement.

That it is the Catalans seriously, the country can watch at every home game of FC Barcelona for some time. At exactly 17 minutes and 14 seconds can happen on the field, what may. The fans chant "in-de-pen-dencia" independence. Historical consciousness in the stadium: The Catalans had fought on the wrong side in the War of Spanish Succession. On 11 September 1714 to Barcelona French and Castilian troops returned. It lost its independence and became the final Spanish, with the Bourbon besiegers as the new king. 298 years after that day and a half million Catalans marched on the streets of Barcelona for independence.

"A quarter of adults was at that time on the road," says Mas. What's a politician to do - that does not take seriously? He dissolved the regional parliament, the result of the election for him was a vote for a referendum.
"A majority of 80 percent of the new Parliament was at that time to opt
for the right of the Catalan people about their own future." On 11
September 2013 it was again one and a half million who took each others
hands to form a 400-kilometer-long human chain for independence. Mas count the annals of history as the 129th President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Catalan government. Juan Carlos is the tenth Bourbon king.
An independence movement It is easier with such a history to advertise
understanding of their concerns, lighter than the northern Italian
construct Padania, the one party has simply made up.
But good for a 300 year old history in support of secession, which
would shatter the fragile economically Spain and Catalonia with the
same, not provided for in the Constitution and constitutional law is
unclear, the most complex would be European?

In the EU, the Catalans want to remain so.
Alone: ​​The question of EU membership is now imponderable, there are
insufficient models for dealing with a secession in a Member State, but
no example.
If the EU were the Catalans, the door, as today's senior representative
utterances suggest, and thus seven and a half million people, whose
land is adjacent only to EU territory? Would you, applies to the bottom of the acquis of Community law, deprived the EU citizenship?

The country, it would be because one belonged to, mathematically at
least to the net contributors to the EU-pots, would according to
Eurostat figures in purchasing power per capita in the top ten,
according to Germany , Ahead of Finland - and more confident you will find Europeans are hardly any.
"The EU is built on cultural diversity and national identity. Has never
disregarded minorities, never interfered in matters of language," says
Andreu Mas-Colell, former Harvard professor of economics, now Minister
of Economy of Catalonia. And Mas says campaigning in the direction of Brussels: "We would be open to United States of Europe, for a true federalism."

The head of the regional government tells a story perceived as a deep
wound treatment by Spain, a story that suggests: The wounds did not beat
the Bourbon army, but the current government in Madrid. Mas has been forced to act because he fears for the living characteristic of Catalan identity, the language. Catalonia moves into its schools approach a perfect Catalan-Castilian bilingual society. Now, however, already provide jab cause for concern. If only one student calls teaching in Spanish, which must be resisted, Madrid decided.
Courts have the perspective in practice, but still: "This is an attack
on our educational system, to self-government, against our identity,"
says Mas.

Second, Catalonia is a rich region, which each year gives more to Madrid when she gets back.
In the third place of 15 regions in the ranking of tax revenue to
Catalonia is second to last place again when all the compensation fund
are only serviced, and then paid again.
The region has then nine percent fewer resources than the Spanish
average - a decline that is systemically excluded in the German
financial equalization.

Now the arithmetic and comparing begins. Eight other regions get more out of Madrid, although they collect less tax. Three others take a less, but can be found after redistribution above average. Three more get net resources by the state, although they are comparatively rich.
"We do not mind helping other Spanish regions., But submitted annually
eight percent of economic output, which threatens the present and the
future of my country," says Mas. In the summer of 2012, he wanted to renegotiate the revenue sharing with Madrid. It would have been a chance to stop the alienation and the protest to take the force. Rajoy's answer was a no.
"We have seen neither the will nor the attempt of the Spanish
government to start a dialogue," says Economy Minister Mas-Colell.

It was not the first chance to fight the rise of separatism. In 2006, the Spanish Parliament on a new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which also endorsed the Catalan Parliament itself.
Rajoy's Popular Party brought the body of law to the Constitutional
Court, which declared 2010 the Catalans important parts void. The point at which there was no turning back for the independence movement. "If we are to our wishes are only hearing no for an answer, what future may have as Catalonia in Spain," asks Mas. Mas has few illusions about the power structure. The Madrid Parliament must agree if Catalonia wants to hold a referendum. He asked Officially now. "We expect an answer in a few months, and we suspect it will be negative," says Mas.

Illegal call PP representatives wish the opposition Socialists contact
as against the referendum - a legalistic argument, not a political, but a
hitherto quite successful. And then what? "Then I'll call the Catalans to a consultation on the 9th of November," says Mas. The would not legally binding, but a political signal, it still needs one.
The most recent and representative surveys of the end of 2013 show:
More than 70 percent of the Catalans - what one is also by influx, not
only by birth - keep the level of autonomy for insufficient. Less clear is the answer to the question: What should be Catalonia? "An independent state", respond to 48.5 percent. If tomorrow would be a referendum, but nearly 55 percent said they would vote for independence.
Economy Minister Mas-Colell reads the results as follows: "., The
outcome of a referendum is very dependent on the offer of the Spanish
Government"

Rajoy will be forced to negotiate. If that does not bear fruit, just the next regional election in 2016 will serve as a referendum, says Mas. The parties who are for independence would already achieve a majority. Mas wants a political, a clean solution. "I am committed to a purely democratic struggle. We are a peaceable country," he says. His first goal is to erstreiten the right to a referendum, only the second the output for independence. Mas' poll numbers dwindle, the left radical occurring has just overtaken him.

Premier Rajoy has yet to autumn 2015 in office until the next general election in Spain. Rajoy compares the Catalan question with a family dispute, it need a little generosity and above all, patience to resolve it. He will not go down in history as the one who "under whose auspices of Spain unit is destroyed." Not in this office.