Catalonian Independence - Politics in capital letters

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” said Emma Goldman, known as Red Emma, a century ago. As much as I have been always been inspired by her radical views and a life well worth reading about, I cannot help thinking about the Catalan referendum and how undemocratic it is to consider voting illegally.

I do, as a Spanish citizen, believe that the Catalans should have a democratic referendum to decide their future as a nation but, and this is surely a first for me, I completely agree with the Spanish PM, Mr Rajoy, when he said “What we’re seeing in Cataluña is an attempt to eliminate the constitution and the autonomous statute of Cataluña … Logically, the state has to react. There is no democratic state in the world that would accept what these people are trying to do. They’ve been warned and they know the referendum can’t take place.”

I admit it hurts me to agree with the official position, as this ongoing conflict is strongly influenced by the deafness of the Spanish conservative party and its old fashioned idea of a one and only Spain, but the referendum is illegal. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 is the current supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain and it does not allow the referendum to take place. Of course it can be changed, it has to change in order to let them have their vote, but in such a young democracy as ours and after what the country went through with Franco’s regime, it is more than understandable to see why we are so reluctant to make changes to the Constitution that brought consensus, peace and democracy to the whole country.

There are similarities between the ever so difficult Catalan issue and Brexit. The leave campaign talked much about regaining power, a sense of nationalism that the pro-sovereignty Catalan regional government of course agree with. Both have had enough of giving away so much money to their corresponding neighbours and both also think, wrongly or not, that they will be much better off if they went alone. Brexiteers put the blame on Brussels and their endless red tape and regulations just as the independents blame Madrid’s incapability of dealing with the way the nationalists are feeling. A majority of Catalans are convinced that rest of Spain hates them. They think they have been abused, exploited economically and more importantly not respected or listened too. It is an argument also heard from the Brexit side. It worked for Farage and Boris and it is working for the sovereigntists in Cataluña: the separatism movement has increased enormously in the last 20 years. Only time will tell if it has grown enough to go through with independence.

The Brexit vote was an optional one. There was no real need. If Cameron had decided not to fulfil his promise (mostly to his Eurosceptic colleagues) the referendum would not of had happened and we would all still be just the same. The Catalans need their referendum. A legal one. Let them have a proper debate and a deep discussion. The Scottish have proved already it can be done. In 1978 politicians of all colours and beliefs sat down and worked extremely hard to give the Spanish nation a book of law to start, with democracy, to recover from the horrors that Franco’s dictatorship inflicted on the whole country.

Whether the referendum happens or not on the 1st of October the important thing is that on the 2nd they all sit down and start to find a way to alter the Constitution to allow the Catalans to decide for themselves what the really want. It would be a historical mistake not to, before I fear things get even uglier. Spain should know better. We have had to fight against each other not so long ago. As with the Brexit process, we all need politicians to stop behaving like spoiled children and start doing politics in capital letters.

#InternationalPolitics