Raul Romeva: Catalonia’s long march to become a free state
SPAIN has been stuck in political stalemate for three
months. Acting President Mariano Rajoy and his PP Popular Party are no
longer even attempting to form a coalition government, while Pedro
Sanchez, the leader of the PSOE Socialist Party, is having little luck
in finding the necessary support to lead an alternative to the PP. This
is a measure of the lack of consensus politics in Spain.
The
ongoing threat to political stability has created growing concern that a
major EU country could see its economic recovery threatened just as
Europe faces major challenges from the unceasing refugee influx, the
humanitarian crisis in Syria, terrorism, Brexit and growing inequality
across the majority of EU member states.
With no end in sight for
Spain’s political paralysis, it has also prolonged the tensions between
Spain and Catalonia, where we have been seeking negotiations with the
Spanish government since 2010, when our home rule was dramatically
reduced by the Spanish Constitutional Court, although it had been
approved by the Parliaments of Spain and Catalonia and confirmed by the
people of Catalonia in a referendum. I became Minister for Foreign
Affairs of the Government of Catalonia in January this year following
our own parliamentary elections, which, for the first time, gave a
majority of seats to pro-independence parties and a clear democratic
mandate to advance towards independence.
The coalition I represent
ran on a manifesto that lays out a clear road-map for an 18-month
transition to independence, one that includes negotiations with the
Spanish government. At the end of this period, our citizens will have
the chance to confirm the creation of the Catalan Republic in a new
election. All this follows years of exhausting every route possible to
formally request an independence referendum like that granted to
Scotland.
Catalans are known for being people of consensus, and we
continue to seek dialogue and ongoing discussions. However we are also a
thoughtful and committed people who have been rebuffed time and time
again when we have called for change. The bridges that once linked
Catalonia and Spain have been largely burned by the PP government’s
incredible denial that there are any political problems in Catalonia,
despite millions of Catalans taking to the streets time and time again
in peaceful demonstrations calling for independence, and a permanent
refusal to even talk.
Instead the Spanish government has chosen to
hide behind a barrage of legal cases against Catalonia. The ruling
against our Statute of Autonomy by a politically motivated
Constitutional Court, recentralising long-devolved powers that had been
approved by Spain’s own Parliament, has been followed by a never-ending
flow of Constitutional Court cases against Catalonia’s legislation, and
even led to the indictment of our former President and Catalan
government ministers because they did not stop an informal referendum on
independence which took place last year with a turnout of almost 2.5
million citizens. The most recent legal attack was an attempt by the
Spanish government to make difficult the normal activity of the Catalan
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, denying the Catalan government the
capacity to establish global relations, a basic tool of any effective
actor in a XXI century globalised world.
If Spain is a true
democracy, like Denmark, Canada or the UK, there must be dialogue on a
self-determination referendum. For the next Spanish government to
continue hiding its head in the sand will only create more tension, when
what is needed are negotiations.
Catalans are used to negotiating
and to finding common ground with our counterparts. We are willing to
negotiate the how and when of a self-determination referendum. In fact,
80 per cent of the Catalan population is in favor of voting in a
referendum, and 87 per cent will accept the results of it. However if
the new Spanish government refuses to talk or grant it, then the
government of Catalonia will continue to honor the democratic mandate
given by the Catalan people in the latest election to follow the
18-month road-map to independence without violence or unrest, because we
are in the midst of something remarkable, and our whole hearts are in
this. With this consistent mandate for independence and through
democratic means, Catalonia can soon become a new state in Europe.
Democracy should prevail and the government of Catalonia can ensure that
it will occur without any political vacuum or legal uncertainty. From
vote to vote and from the existing legal framework to a new legal
framework. The time has come.
