Sam Jones - Catalonia tells Spain it will push for secession with or without assent
The Catalan government
has intensified its war of words with Spain by vowing to use
its democratic mandate to forge a separate Catalan state with or without the
approval of Madrid. Catalonia is preparing
to defy Spain’s constitutional court this week by debating the conclusions of a
working group on sovereignty, nine months after the Catalan parliament put
forward a resolution calling for the “beginning of a process of the
creation of an independent Catalan state”.
Carme Forcadell, the
president of the parliament, and Raül Romeva, the minister of foreign affairs,
told the Guardian enduring hostility from Madrid had leftCatalonia with no
choice but to press ahead with the independence agenda. “The [Spanish state]
has left us feeling that we just don’t have an alternative,” Romeva said. “We
have always said that we would have preferred a Scottish-type scenario, where
we could negotiate with the state and hold a coordinated and democratic
referendum. We keep talking to Madrid, but all we get back from them is an
echo.”
Forcadell pointed to a
recent scandal as evidence of the Spanish
government’s attitude towards Catalonia. Last month, Spain’s interior
minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the head of Catalonia’s anti-fraud office,
Daniel de Alfonso, were
apparently recorded discussing possible investigations that could be
launched against pro-independence politicians in the region. Forcadell said she was
incredulous at the idea that the acting Spanish government, led by Mariano
Rajoy, could simply brush aside the alleged incident and say nothing was going
on. “How can they say that
when the interior minister, who’s meant to defend the interests of all
citizens, is caught conspiring to find evidence against citizens solely because
they think differently? How can absolutely nothing come of that? We don’t
understand it,” she said.
Romeva said the
Spanish government had two options: accept the reality of Catalan independence
or “carry on doing what it’s been doing, which is denying that reality in the
belief that it can use the constitutional court and legal processes to stop
it,” he said. The latter path,
Romeva said, would continue to prove to be counterproductive. “Every action
they take serves only to rearm us and give us greater legitimacy for what we’re
doing,” he said.
Since winning
the Catalan election last September, the government, led by theJunts
pel Sí (Together for Yes) coalition, to which Forcadell and Romeva
belong, has begun preparing legal steps for the transition and designing a tax
collection authority, a social security apparatus and a foreign affairs
department. The aim, according to
Romeva, is to have the necessary structures in place for when another
independence referendum is called, likely in a year’s time. Together
for Yes has been buoyed
by a recent poll showing that 47.7% of people in Catalonia are in
favour of independence.
Although the Spanish
state is implacably opposed to Catalonia’s secession, with Rajoy having vowed
to use “all political and judicial mechanisms in defence of the common good and
the sovereignty of Spain as
laid down in the constitution,” Romeva insists that Madrid has a democratic
responsibility to accept the will of the majority of Catalans. “The Spanish
government uses the question of legality a lot,” he said. “But legality is an
instrument; it needs to adapt to reality and to democratic will, and not the
other way round. People around the world need to understand that what we’re
doing is fundamentally legitimate and is not illegal.
“I’m being very
careful with my words: it’s legitimate and it’s not illegal. It’s true that the
[Spanish] constitution says what it says. But constitutions are texts that
exist to serve a particular moment in history and certain circumstances.” Romeva then hinted
that even if the Spanish courts ruled against independence, it would not
prevent the push for secession… read more:
