Don't forget we have a Storify covering the
latest tweets, pictures, blogs and news on the Israel-Gaza conflict. You
can find it here: http://amn.st/1zzn2yA
Amnesty calls for immediate release of Chesea Manning and the prosecution of those whose crimes were revealed
Chelsea Manning has spent the last year as a convicted criminal after
exposing information which included evidence of potential human rights
violations.
These kids are enjoying fresh water brought to them by a solar-powered pump.
Solar energy is bringing reliable electricity to an entire village in
India, which the central grid-based system had failed to provide for the
last 30 years. And that's just amazing.
"I do my work during the day and do not think
about the night until it comes, otherwise I will remain worried. What is
important is that my family and I all wake up safe. In any case, we
have nowhere to go; we can only remain in my home...What happens here is
not only about Palestinians, it is about the whole human race." - A
human rights fieldworker in Gaza.
Breaking News: An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has criticized
the agency for looking at servers used by the Senate Intelligence
Committee for a report on the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation
program.
CIA Director John O. Brennan in March. Credit
Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
L’expédition punitive de l’armée israélienne à Gaza a réactivé l’une
des aspirations les plus spontanées du journalisme moderne : le droit à
la paresse. En termes plus professionnels, on appelle cela l’« équilibre ». La chaîne de télévision américaine d’extrême droite Fox News se qualifie ainsi, non sans humour, de « juste et équilibrée » (fair and balanced ).
Dans le cas du conflit au Proche-Orient, où les torts ne sont pas également partagés, l’« équilibre »
revient à oublier qui est la puissance occupante. Mais, pour la plupart
des journalistes occidentaux, c’est aussi un moyen de se protéger du
fanatisme des destinataires d’une information dérangeante en faisant de
celle-ci un point de vue aussitôt contesté. Outre qu’on n’observe pas ce
même biais dans d’autres crises internationales, celle de l’Ukraine par
exemple (lire « Médias français en campagne ukrainienne »),
le véritable équilibre souffre pour deux raisons. D’abord parce que,
entre les images d’un carnage prolongé à Gaza et celles d’une alerte au
tir de roquettes sur une plage de Tel-Aviv, une bonne balance devrait
pencher un peu... Ensuite, parce que certains protagonistes, israéliens
dans le cas d’espèce, disposent de communicants professionnels, tandis
que d’autres n’ont à offrir aux médias occidentaux que le calvaire de
leurs civils.
The administration in Singrauli is cracking down on voices opposed to Essar’s coal mine at Mahan. In a shocking case of intimidation, policemen entered Greenpeace’s Waidhan guesthouse near Mahan without any search or arrest warrant and arrested two of our Greenpeace colleagues a little after midnight on July 30.
The police also seized all communication equipment from our office and solar panels from Amelia village needed to keep our team in Amelia connected to the outside world the afternoon of July 30.
These attempts to silence and isolate MSS and the people of Mahan
who are fighting to save the forests, their homes and livelihoods are
outrageous. More repression is sure to follow as the companies try and
suppress any dissent before the Gram Sabha, and try and prevent the
outside world from knowing what is unfolding in the forests of Mahan.
We need you to urgently write to Jual Oram, the Minister of Tribal Affairs at the Centre, and ask him to intervene to stop threats to and repression of people’s movements! Demand that the Minister ensures that the Amelia Gram Sabha is conducted fairly and that it is open to external observers.
The
crackdown on forest rights activists continues in India. Yesterday, two
Greenpeace campaigners were arrested and their communication equipment
was seized. http://grnpc.org/Ig047
Indian coal company, Essar, wants to build a mine that would destroy
1,000 hectares of the Mahan forest, which the local communities rely on
for their livelihood.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."
NOW is the moment to raise your voice: demand that Jual Oram, the
Tribal Affairs Minister, ensures that a free and fair community vote
(Gram Sabha) is held: http://grnpc.org/Ig047
“PER un país de tots, l’escola en català,” reads the sign on the
Barcelona schoolhouse gate: “For a country for everyone, school in
Catalan.” It is a pointed and, to some, ironic symbol of two very
different views of language in Spain.
An Israeli soldier has published accounts of Israeli soldiers being authorized by their commanders to carry out revenge attacks against civilians in the Gaza Strip “to enable the soldiers to take out their frustrations and pain at losing their fellow soldiers”.
Parents grieving the loss of their children at the attack on a UN School on Monday
The Ebola virus poses “a serious threat” to Britain, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has warned.
The statement came as
the foreign secretary was to chair an emergency COBRA meeting on
Wednesday to discuss the crisis.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Hammond said that COBRA would
assess the situation and “look at any measures that we need
to take either in the UK, or in our diplomatic posts abroad in
order to manage the threat."
“We are very much focused on it as a new and emerging threat
which we need to deal with," he added.
Doctors work in a laboratory on collected samples of the Ebola virus (Reuters / Edward Echwalu)
"Although it is talked about little, torture is the Phillipines’ dirty,
open secret. It is endemic. Even though banned in Philippine law, and
even though the country has signed up to all the right international
treaties on ending torture, this has amounted to little more than paper
promises," saidHazel Galang-Folli, Amnesty International’s Expert on the
Philippines
Israel mobilised 16,000 additional army reservists on Thursday to
bolster it ground forces fighting militants in Gaza. The call up
followed another day of heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip in which more
than 100 Palestinians were killed.
Los Angeles Times "Catalan #PresidentMas
traveled to Madrid for a 2&1/2 -hour closed-door session with Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy at Moncloa Palace, where Mas said he found "a
climate of open dialogue" despite what looked like an icy, awkward
handshake between the two men. They had not formally met since August
2013."
Le Monde.fr "Le chef du gouvernement espagnol, Mariano Rajoy, et le président de la #Catalogne, Artur Mas, se sont rencontrés mercredi 30 juillet, au palais de la Moncloa, à Madrid, après huit mois de relations gelées."
euronews: "#PresidentMas
justifie cette initiative en mettant en avant le droit légitime de la
population à décider de son avenir. Sauf que pour Madrid, un tel
référendum est anticonstitutionnel. Le Premier ministre l’a redit à son
interlocuteur. Mariano Rajoy se pose ainsi en défenseur de l’unité de
l’Espagne."
MADRID — The leader of Catalonia, the region that accounts for one-fifth of Spain’s economy, told Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy during a meeting on Wednesday that he would go ahead with a vote on independence in November that the central government in Madrid has vowed to block.
The meeting, in Madrid, was the first between Mr. Rajoy and Artur Mas, the head of the Catalan regional government, since Catalonia’s governing coalition agreed in December on the timing and format of an independence vote.
For that reason alone, the meeting was considered something of a breakthrough. But afterward, Mr. Mas told reporters that his secessionist plans remained on track and that there was “no proposal on the part of the state to resolve this political conflict.”
Supporters of an independent Catalonia gathered at a soccer stadium in Barcelona last year. Credit
Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
The New York Times: "Rajoy insisted the referendum was unconstitutional and he would block it, while #PresidentMas said he would go ahead with the vote.
"My message is the same as it was a year ago. We are absolutely decided
to continue with this consultation," Mas told reporters following the
two-and-a-half hour meeting."
ABCNews.com
"Pro-independence sentiment in Catalonia has grown greatly in recent
years, fueled by a sense that the region deserves better economic and
political treatment from Madrid. The surge stems from June 2010 when the
Constitutional Court struck down key parts of a groundbreaking charter
that would have granted Catalonia more autonomy and recognized it as a
nation within Spain."
Catalan Leader Vows to Press Ahead with Referendum - #PresidentMas Said That Meeting With Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Had Not Led to Agreement The Wall Street Journal Europe
The Independent #PresidentMas:
“We understand that in the situation in which relations between
Catalonia and the rest of the state have come to, either it is solved by
a consultation or there won’t be a stable solution” Mr Mas added
that he had hoped for a “British solution”, in a reference to the
Scottish referendum on independence in September.
Germany has a moratorium on the use of fracking technology to extract
unconventional fossil fuels but the method is not banned, something the
country's Federal Environment Agency (UBA) hopes to change with swift
regulation. EurActiv Germany reports.
At least 17 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a packed Gaza market on Wednesday that followed soon after Israel said it would observe a four-hour humanitarian ceasefire beginning at 12pm (GMT).
Thick black smoke billowed over the site, located in the Shejaiya neighbourhood, as at least five ambulances raced to the scene where bodies lay strewn on the ground, an AFP correspondent said.
At least another 200 people were wounded, medics said.
The four-hour truce was supposed to allow Gaza's battered population of 1.8 million to go out in safety to stock up on goods, and for medics to evacuate the dead and wounded.
Instead, there was further bloodshed, with Israeli tank shelling and air strikes killing 106 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more on Wednesday, medics said, hiking the overall death toll in Gaza to 1,336.
The Israeli army said three of its troops had also been killed in Gaza, raising the number of soldiers killed to 56 since the operation began on July 8.
Israel had said its truce would not apply in places were troops were "currently operating", hours after the army made what it called a "significant advance" into the narrow coastal strip.
Hamas denounced the four-hour lull as a publicity stunt, saying it had "no value
Ending the
blockade is the key to a just ceasefire, says Congressman Keith Ellison.
Let's urge Jewish community leaders to match Ellison's moral and
pragmatic clarity: http://bit.ly/1trTeTT
Security
Council Calls on Ceasefire – International Gaza Aid Blocked By Turkish
Manipulations - Dr. Christof Lehmann | Contributor, The US Independent
The UN Security Council, in an emergency session at 4:00 am, called for
an immediate and unconditional ceasefire” to allow for the delivery of
urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
International aid can’t rea... | Dr. Christof Lehmann | Read It Now: http://bit.ly/1uH1GAn
Signatory Bill Binney – the former senior technical director at the NSA,
and a man who battled the Soviet Union for decades – tells Washington’s
Blog: In my analytic efforts to predict intentions and capabilities
down through the years, I always made sure that I had multi-factors
verifying what I was asserting. So far, I don’t see that discipline here
in this administration or the IC [i.e. the United States intelligence
community].
Palestine Symphony (Filistin Senfonisi) - First Part 1/4 (Introduction)
With the partial attendance of Istanbul Symphony Orchestra
Music composed by Murat Malay - Orchestration by Tuğrul Karataş
Produced & Published by MEM Music / Recorded in Istanbul
PALESTINE SYMPHONY: FROM TURKEY WITH LOVE
Dear Readers,
On December 27, 2008, Israeli began its one-sided war on the isolated and besieged Gaza Strip. The Palestinian people in Gaza, although fell in the thousands, exhibited legendary resistance and courage; their steadfastness in the face of that brutality, which continues until this day, deserves to be honored, and always remembered.
Some wonderful independent Turkish musicians (Murat Malay & Tuğrul Karataş) from Istanbul have attempted to do just that: remembering Gaza and Palestine through this very beautiful Palestine Symphony, which comes in four part.
Please click HERE to listen, and please remember Gaza and Palestine in every possible act of solidarity:
ABOUT "PALESTINE CHRONICLE": A LEADING ONLINE NEWSPAPER ON THE MIDDLE-EAST (GLOBAL VOICES FOR A BETER WORLD)
"The Palestine Chronicle has been an invaluable source of information and analysis about Palestine and related issues, drawing from a wide range of sources, including many that are otherwise inaccessible to the concerned public. An independent voice, it has been trustworthy and reliable." -- Noam Chomsky, a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"In the midst of an institutional media bias against telling the searing truth about Palestine, the Palestine Chronicle is a beacon. History, witness, analysis and ways forward are here, written with authority and humanity. Long may it publish." -- John Pilger, a world-renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker.
"The Palestine Chronicle presents independent commentary on crucial issues. The editors and their work constitute a sign of hope for a better future." -- Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
"The Palestine Chronicle is an essential publication for keeping up with the big picture in the Middle East." -- James Petras, Professor Emeritus, Binghamton University; author of many books.
"The Palestine Chronicle is proof positive that there is hope, that alternative media can one day overpower the corporate mainstream." -- Joshua Frank, co-editor of DissidentVoice.org.
Over the new year 2009-2010, an international group of 1500 men and women from 42 nations went to Egypt to join a Freedom March to Gaza. They did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza. To protest the fact that the people of Gaza live in a virtual prison. To protest the fact that a year after the terror attack by Israeli armed forces destroyed most of their homes, hospitals, schools, and other public buildings, they have no possibility to rebuild because their borders are closed. The would be Freedom Marchers wanted to peacefully draw attention to the predicament of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Egyptian government, (funded to the tune of $2.1 billion a year, by us, the US tax payers), would not allow the marchers to approach Gaza. How lame is that? And how predictable! I live in the USA and during this time Dec 25th 2009-Jan3rd 2010 I saw no reference to Gaza or the Freedom March or the multi national protesters gathered there. Anyway I was moved, in the circumstances, to record a new version of "We shall overcome". It seems appropriate. (Roger Waters)
Rajoy doesn't offer an alternative and Catalan President will call self-determination vote anyway
CNA
Barcelona (ACN).- The President of the Catalan
Government, Artur Mas, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy,
finally met this Wednesday in Madrid to talk about the
self-determination process and also about economic, social and
institutional issues. Neither of them changed their stance. On the one
hand, Mas will continue with the plan agreed among a majority of Catalan
parties to organise a legal self-determination vote on the 9th
of November. Mas emphasised that "an agreement with the Spanish
Government" on this issue would be "better" in order to do things "the
British way", but if Rajoy continues to reject to negotiate about such
an agreement, the self-determination vote will be called using the
Catalan legal framework. On the other hand, Rajoy repeated that such a
vote is "illegal" and therefore "it cannot take place and will not take
place". In addition, the Spanish PM rejected making any concession and
did not present any alternatives to improve Catalonia's accommodation
within Spain in order to reduce support for independence, such as
offering a better fiscal deal. In fact, Rajoy has always excluded this
possibility and has even rejected to talk about the mild Constitutional
Reform proposed by the Socialist Party (PSOE), which does not recognise
Catalonia's nationhood status and its right to self-determination.
However, during the meeting Mas presented Rajoy with a list of 23 issues
that should be addressed in the next few months which are not directly
related to the self-determination, such as the funding of basic public
services in Catalonia, funds for active employment policies, paralysed
essential infrastructure projects, the recentralisation of powers in
Spain or the Spanish Government's Education Reform that damages the
Catalan language. In a press release issued after the
two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Rajoy stated he would study the 23-point
document "with a constructive spirit". He also offered a "sincere and
loyal" cooperation in any matter that might "benefit Catalan citizens",
while stressing the unity of Spain. Meanwhile, Mas held a long press
conference in which he answered questions from journalists and stated
that there is "a dialogue open" with Rajoy. It was the first time the
two politicians had held a meeting since August 2013, and since then a
majority of Catalan Parties have agreed on an exact question wording and
date to hold a self-determination vote in December 2013.
Finally, after one year without talking to each other besides a few
protocol greetings in events they both attended, the Spanish Prime
Minister and the Catalan President met. Mas asked for the meeting in
early July, after weeks of controversy about who should call each other
to ask for a meeting, although both of them had been repeating for
months they were willing to talk. However, Rajoy also repeated that he
was open to talk about everything except the self-determination vote,
which is precisely the main issue that Mas wanted to discuss and is the
main issue in Catalan and Spanish politics at the moment.
Rajoy's single argument has not changed over the past few months: a
self-determination vote is illegal according to his interpretation of
the Spanish Constitution and the interpretation made by the Spanish
Parliament and Constitutional Court, which are both controlled by the
People's Party (PP), chaired by Rajoy. In fact, a few Constitutional
experts – most of them from Catalonia, but a few from other parts of
Spain – have been arguing that such a vote would be possible with the
political will to make it possible. This means that it would be legal by
making an open interpretation of the Constitution or by passing a small
amendment to the Constitution to make its validity more explicit. The
Spanish Constitution was already modified in a hurried way in September
2011, in just two weeks, to include limitations to the public deficit
and debt levels. Such an agreement was negotiated only between the PP
and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), excluding the rest of parties
who had participated in the Constitutional Pact from 1978.
Jordi Pujol and Pedro Sánchez fuelled the meeting's intensity
The meeting between Mas and Rajoy arrived in an intense political
moment due to the self-determination debate and the closeness of the 9th
of November day, when a consultation vote is scheduled. However, it
also arrived a few days after the historical leader of Catalan
nationalism, Jordi Pujol, confessed to fiscal fraud, and after Rajoy and
the new leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez,
drew an alliance against self-determination.
The Mas-Rajoy meeting came five days after it was known that the
historical leader of conservative Catalan nationalism, and Mas'
political father, Jordi Pujol, had hidden more than €4 million in an
Andorran bank for almost 35 years without reporting it to the tax
authorities. Pujol, who had been President of the Catalan Government
between 1980 and 2003, gave up all his honorary titles, posts, pension
and office on Tuesday, the day before Mas met Rajoy. Many media outlets,
mostly from Madrid, interpreted that the Catalan President would meet
with Rajoy with a weakened political position due to Pujol's fiscal
fraud. When he was asked about it in the press conference, Mas stated
that his "strength is given by the Catalan people", since "the strength
of a country goes way beyond a single person".
Around 80% of Catalans want to vote
Opinion polls over the past 2 years have shown that between 75% and
80% of Catalans want to hold a self-determination vote in Catalonia,
regardless of whether they would vote for independence or not. In
addition, in the last Catalan Parliament elections held in November
2012, 80% of the elected MPs supported the organisation of a legal
self-determination during the campaign. Therefore, there is a clear
democratic mandate to organise such a vote in Catalonia, which the
Spanish establishment, including the PP and the PSOE, have been
ignoring. Polls also indicate that between 45% and 55% of Catalans would
vote for independence while between 20% and 25% would vote against it
and the rest is still undecided.
Besides, the meeting also arrived two days after the Spanish PM met
on Monday with Pedro Sánchez, who was officially elected as the PSOE's
new Secretary General this last weekend. After talking about the current
political and economic situation in Spain, the two politicians only
agreed in a single point: their views regarding Catalonia's
self-determination, which they totally oppose and consider a vote on the
issue to be "illegal". During his acceptance speech as Secretary
General, Sánchez read that "we have to eradicate from our vocabulary
words such as crisis, unemployment, inequalities, violence against women
and pro-independence", grouping all these concepts altogether.
Therefore he was putting in the same bag a crime with a legitimate
political option in a plural and democratic state. The day after,
Sánchez recognised that the comparison had been inappropriate.
Mas was interrupted by extreme-right shouts
In the press conference after meeting with Rajoy, Mas was interrupted
by a group of people shouting that Catalonia was part of Spain. Mas
held the press conference in the Catalan Government's offices in Madrid,
the same place where a group of Fascist and Spanish nationalists also
interrupted a welcoming drink offered on the Catalan National Day in
September 2013. Back then, a group of people pushed assistants and
reached the stage. This time, only a single person was able to access
the edge of the press conference room and shout, while the rest of the
group was kept outside the offices. After a few seconds of confusion,
the Catalan President proceeded with his explanations about the meeting
with the Spanish Prime Minister. The youth section of Falange, which was
the only party during Franco's Fascist and Spanish nationalist
dictatorship – a far-right party still legal in Spain – claimed
responsibility for the action.
The Catalan President highlighted 4 main messages
During the press conference, Mas wanted to highlight 4 main messages.
Firstly, that the "dialogue is open". The Catalan President stressed
that "today is not the end of anything" and "not all the doors have been
closed", he added. Secondly, Mas presented Rajoy with a document with
23 issues "not directly related to self-determination" but also
important, such as Catalonia's under-budgeted public services, pending
infrastructure works and the Education Reform that aims to decrease the
presence of Catalan language. This document is "not a list of
grievances", but of legitimate proposals and issues that have to be
addressed.
Among these issues, they discussed the funding scheme of the Catalan
Government and the rest of the Autonomous Communities, which provokes a
fiscal deficit that damages the competitiveness of the Catalan economy
and the effectiveness of its public services. This inter-territorial
fiscal transfer scheme should have been modified more than 7 months ago,
since the Spanish law ruling it establishes that a new system had to be
in place by the 1st January 2014. Despite the law obliges to
review it, the Spanish Government refuses to do so this year and in
2015. In addition, it rejects giving more funds to the Autonomous
Communities, despite the fact that they exclusively manage essential
Welfare State services such as healthcare and education. In exchange,
the Spanish Government offered to review the conditions of the loans
given to the Autonomous Communities through the Liquidity Fund (FLA).
These loans are the only access to credit that the regional government
currently have, since Rajoy banned them from accessing international
financial markets. According to Mas, Rajoy proposed a revision of the
interest rates to be paid back, as the only financial concession.
The third message refers to the self-determination vote. Mas told
Rajoy that a majority of the Catalan Parliament plans to hold a
self-determination vote on the 9th November, following a
clear electoral mandate. "We have the democratic base and majority, the
parliamentary base and majority, and the social base and majority" to do
it, said Mas. However, the Catalan President insisted that they want to
do it "reaching an agreement with the Spanish Government and within the
legal framework". However, if Rajoy rejects negotiating such an
agreement, they will use the Catalan legal framework to organise a legal
vote anyway. "We would like to do it [the organisation of a
self-determination vote] the British way", said Mas, but "we are totally
determined" to go ahead. "There will not be a stable and good solution
[for the Catalonia-Spain conflict] without a consultation vote",
stressed the Catalan President. In one way or another, Catalans will
vote. Mas was asked about whether he has a plan b if the consultation
vote is blocked in November. At this point, the Catalan President
emphasised that "there is only a single plan: to vote". Mas explained
that this plan "has stages" and "currently we are in the stage of
[preparing] the 9th of November". If, in the end, the Spanish
Government manages to block it, the self-determination process will
carry on anyway, said Mas, but he refused to disclose any further
initiatives.
Rajoy did not offer any alternative way out
Finally, the fourth message, is Rajoy's refusal of the
self-determination vote once again and his refusal to present any
alternative. During the meeting, Rajoy emphasised that the consultation
vote "is not legal" and "will not be legal", indirectly rejecting the
Catalan legal framework to organise it. According to him, "it cannot
take place and it will not take place". However, the Spanish PM did not
put any other offer on the table to modify the current status quo
and to try to find a better accommodation for Catalonia within Spain.
Regarding this point, Mas admitted he was curious to see whether Rajoy
would make a move or not to launch what is has been called "the third
way", between the current situation and independence, which would keep
Catalonia within Spain but with greater powers. The Catalan President
reminded that Catalonia has been "proposing third ways our entire life".
"We have been proposing third ways on manifold occasions in the
previous years", pointed out Mas, "and yet we are in the current
situation" because "the Spanish State has rejected them". Therefore, at
this point, if a third way has to be put on the table, it has to come
from the Spanish authorities in order to be credible, argued Mas;
otherwise is only a trick to gain time.
Rajoy doesn't offer an alternative and Catalan President will call self-determination vote anyway
CNA
Barcelona (ACN).- The President of the Catalan
Government, Artur Mas, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy,
finally met this Wednesday in Madrid to talk about the
self-determination process and also about economic, social and
institutional issues. Neither of them changed their stance. On the one
hand, Mas will continue with the plan agreed among a majority of Catalan
parties to organise a legal self-determination vote on the 9th
of November. Mas emphasised that "an agreement with the Spanish
Government" on this issue would be "better" in order to do things "the
British way", but if Rajoy continues to reject to negotiate about such
an agreement, the self-determination vote will be called using the
Catalan legal framework. On the other hand, Rajoy repeated that such a
vote is "illegal" and therefore "it cannot take place and will not take
place". In addition, the Spanish PM rejected making any concession and
did not present any alternatives to improve Catalonia's accommodation
within Spain in order to reduce support for independence, such as
offering a better fiscal deal. In fact, Rajoy has always excluded this
possibility and has even rejected to talk about the mild Constitutional
Reform proposed by the Socialist Party (PSOE), which does not recognise
Catalonia's nationhood status and its right to self-determination.
However, during the meeting Mas presented Rajoy with a list of 23 issues
that should be addressed in the next few months which are not directly
related to the self-determination, such as the funding of basic public
services in Catalonia, funds for active employment policies, paralysed
essential infrastructure projects, the recentralisation of powers in
Spain or the Spanish Government's Education Reform that damages the
Catalan language. In a press release issued after the
two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Rajoy stated he would study the 23-point
document "with a constructive spirit". He also offered a "sincere and
loyal" cooperation in any matter that might "benefit Catalan citizens",
while stressing the unity of Spain. Meanwhile, Mas held a long press
conference in which he answered questions from journalists and stated
that there is "a dialogue open" with Rajoy. It was the first time the
two politicians had held a meeting since August 2013, and since then a
majority of Catalan Parties have agreed on an exact question wording and
date to hold a self-determination vote in December 2013.
Finally, after one year without talking to each other besides a few
protocol greetings in events they both attended, the Spanish Prime
Minister and the Catalan President met. Mas asked for the meeting in
early July, after weeks of controversy about who should call each other
to ask for a meeting, although both of them had been repeating for
months they were willing to talk. However, Rajoy also repeated that he
was open to talk about everything except the self-determination vote,
which is precisely the main issue that Mas wanted to discuss and is the
main issue in Catalan and Spanish politics at the moment.
Rajoy's single argument has not changed over the past few months: a
self-determination vote is illegal according to his interpretation of
the Spanish Constitution and the interpretation made by the Spanish
Parliament and Constitutional Court, which are both controlled by the
People's Party (PP), chaired by Rajoy. In fact, a few Constitutional
experts – most of them from Catalonia, but a few from other parts of
Spain – have been arguing that such a vote would be possible with the
political will to make it possible. This means that it would be legal by
making an open interpretation of the Constitution or by passing a small
amendment to the Constitution to make its validity more explicit. The
Spanish Constitution was already modified in a hurried way in September
2011, in just two weeks, to include limitations to the public deficit
and debt levels. Such an agreement was negotiated only between the PP
and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), excluding the rest of parties
who had participated in the Constitutional Pact from 1978.
Jordi Pujol and Pedro Sánchez fuelled the meeting's intensity
The meeting between Mas and Rajoy arrived in an intense political
moment due to the self-determination debate and the closeness of the 9th
of November day, when a consultation vote is scheduled. However, it
also arrived a few days after the historical leader of Catalan
nationalism, Jordi Pujol, confessed to fiscal fraud, and after Rajoy and
the new leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez,
drew an alliance against self-determination.
The Mas-Rajoy meeting came five days after it was known that the
historical leader of conservative Catalan nationalism, and Mas'
political father, Jordi Pujol, had hidden more than €4 million in an
Andorran bank for almost 35 years without reporting it to the tax
authorities. Pujol, who had been President of the Catalan Government
between 1980 and 2003, gave up all his honorary titles, posts, pension
and office on Tuesday, the day before Mas met Rajoy. Many media outlets,
mostly from Madrid, interpreted that the Catalan President would meet
with Rajoy with a weakened political position due to Pujol's fiscal
fraud. When he was asked about it in the press conference, Mas stated
that his "strength is given by the Catalan people", since "the strength
of a country goes way beyond a single person".
Around 80% of Catalans want to vote
Opinion polls over the past 2 years have shown that between 75% and
80% of Catalans want to hold a self-determination vote in Catalonia,
regardless of whether they would vote for independence or not. In
addition, in the last Catalan Parliament elections held in November
2012, 80% of the elected MPs supported the organisation of a legal
self-determination during the campaign. Therefore, there is a clear
democratic mandate to organise such a vote in Catalonia, which the
Spanish establishment, including the PP and the PSOE, have been
ignoring. Polls also indicate that between 45% and 55% of Catalans would
vote for independence while between 20% and 25% would vote against it
and the rest is still undecided.
Besides, the meeting also arrived two days after the Spanish PM met
on Monday with Pedro Sánchez, who was officially elected as the PSOE's
new Secretary General this last weekend. After talking about the current
political and economic situation in Spain, the two politicians only
agreed in a single point: their views regarding Catalonia's
self-determination, which they totally oppose and consider a vote on the
issue to be "illegal". During his acceptance speech as Secretary
General, Sánchez read that "we have to eradicate from our vocabulary
words such as crisis, unemployment, inequalities, violence against women
and pro-independence", grouping all these concepts altogether.
Therefore he was putting in the same bag a crime with a legitimate
political option in a plural and democratic state. The day after,
Sánchez recognised that the comparison had been inappropriate.
Mas was interrupted by extreme-right shouts
In the press conference after meeting with Rajoy, Mas was interrupted
by a group of people shouting that Catalonia was part of Spain. Mas
held the press conference in the Catalan Government's offices in Madrid,
the same place where a group of Fascist and Spanish nationalists also
interrupted a welcoming drink offered on the Catalan National Day in
September 2013. Back then, a group of people pushed assistants and
reached the stage. This time, only a single person was able to access
the edge of the press conference room and shout, while the rest of the
group was kept outside the offices. After a few seconds of confusion,
the Catalan President proceeded with his explanations about the meeting
with the Spanish Prime Minister. The youth section of Falange, which was
the only party during Franco's Fascist and Spanish nationalist
dictatorship – a far-right party still legal in Spain – claimed
responsibility for the action.
The Catalan President highlighted 4 main messages
During the press conference, Mas wanted to highlight 4 main messages.
Firstly, that the "dialogue is open". The Catalan President stressed
that "today is not the end of anything" and "not all the doors have been
closed", he added. Secondly, Mas presented Rajoy with a document with
23 issues "not directly related to self-determination" but also
important, such as Catalonia's under-budgeted public services, pending
infrastructure works and the Education Reform that aims to decrease the
presence of Catalan language. This document is "not a list of
grievances", but of legitimate proposals and issues that have to be
addressed.
Among these issues, they discussed the funding scheme of the Catalan
Government and the rest of the Autonomous Communities, which provokes a
fiscal deficit that damages the competitiveness of the Catalan economy
and the effectiveness of its public services. This inter-territorial
fiscal transfer scheme should have been modified more than 7 months ago,
since the Spanish law ruling it establishes that a new system had to be
in place by the 1st January 2014. Despite the law obliges to
review it, the Spanish Government refuses to do so this year and in
2015. In addition, it rejects giving more funds to the Autonomous
Communities, despite the fact that they exclusively manage essential
Welfare State services such as healthcare and education. In exchange,
the Spanish Government offered to review the conditions of the loans
given to the Autonomous Communities through the Liquidity Fund (FLA).
These loans are the only access to credit that the regional government
currently have, since Rajoy banned them from accessing international
financial markets. According to Mas, Rajoy proposed a revision of the
interest rates to be paid back, as the only financial concession.
The third message refers to the self-determination vote. Mas told
Rajoy that a majority of the Catalan Parliament plans to hold a
self-determination vote on the 9th November, following a
clear electoral mandate. "We have the democratic base and majority, the
parliamentary base and majority, and the social base and majority" to do
it, said Mas. However, the Catalan President insisted that they want to
do it "reaching an agreement with the Spanish Government and within the
legal framework". However, if Rajoy rejects negotiating such an
agreement, they will use the Catalan legal framework to organise a legal
vote anyway. "We would like to do it [the organisation of a
self-determination vote] the British way", said Mas, but "we are totally
determined" to go ahead. "There will not be a stable and good solution
[for the Catalonia-Spain conflict] without a consultation vote",
stressed the Catalan President. In one way or another, Catalans will
vote. Mas was asked about whether he has a plan b if the consultation
vote is blocked in November. At this point, the Catalan President
emphasised that "there is only a single plan: to vote". Mas explained
that this plan "has stages" and "currently we are in the stage of
[preparing] the 9th of November". If, in the end, the Spanish
Government manages to block it, the self-determination process will
carry on anyway, said Mas, but he refused to disclose any further
initiatives.
Rajoy did not offer any alternative way out
Finally, the fourth message, is Rajoy's refusal of the
self-determination vote once again and his refusal to present any
alternative. During the meeting, Rajoy emphasised that the consultation
vote "is not legal" and "will not be legal", indirectly rejecting the
Catalan legal framework to organise it. According to him, "it cannot
take place and it will not take place". However, the Spanish PM did not
put any other offer on the table to modify the current status quo
and to try to find a better accommodation for Catalonia within Spain.
Regarding this point, Mas admitted he was curious to see whether Rajoy
would make a move or not to launch what is has been called "the third
way", between the current situation and independence, which would keep
Catalonia within Spain but with greater powers. The Catalan President
reminded that Catalonia has been "proposing third ways our entire life".
"We have been proposing third ways on manifold occasions in the
previous years", pointed out Mas, "and yet we are in the current
situation" because "the Spanish State has rejected them". Therefore, at
this point, if a third way has to be put on the table, it has to come
from the Spanish authorities in order to be credible, argued Mas;
otherwise is only a trick to gain time.
