catalan way

The leader of the People’s Party, Mariano Rajoy, lost two confidence votes in the Spanish Parliament this week with 170 votes in favour and 180 against. Spain will therefore continue to have an interim government after eight months of political standstill and amid growing speculation over a possible new election on Christmas Day. “I am not asking you to form a coalition, I am asking you to let me govern”, said Mariano Rajoy to the Socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez during a debate in Madrid. The PSOE, the radical left-wing coalition Unidos Podemos and the Catalan and Basque nationalists voted against the PP government plans, which had the support of liberal Ciutadans (C’s). But despite calls from Podemos´ leader in favour of an alternative left-wing coalition, the PSOE is unlikely to accept, as such a government would need the support of pro-independence parties in Catalonia.

The leader of the People’s Party (PP) stressed in Parliament that he represents the only “viable” option to form a “stable” government in Spain. “It is urgent for Spain to have a government as soon as possible, a government ready to act, to put an end to this democratic anomaly”, he said referring to the eight-month period of political deadlock in Madrid. The PP has the support of Ciutadans (C’s) and the Canary Islands nationalists, but their 170 seats fall short of the majority needed to form a government. The main opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) will vote ‘no’ in the confidence vote scheduled for Wednesday, and so will Podemos and pro-Catalan independence parties ERC and PDC. As things stand, the PP does not have enough support for Rajoy to pass the confidence vote this week and Spain will continue without a functioning government.

The leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) described as a “waste of time” his meeting on Monday with conservative leader Mariano Rajoy. In a press conference in Madrid, Sánchez said that the Socialists will vote against a new Rajoy-led government. The People’s Party (PP) and Ciutadans (C’s) agreed on Sunday a 150-point plan to form a new Spanish government, but they do not have enough support in parliament. Rajoy will face a confidence vote on Wednesday, and a second one on Friday if the first ballot fails. According to Sánchez, the socialists cannot be blamed for the expected failure of Rajoy.

The Catalan government spokeswoman, Neus Munté, criticised on Monday the agreement between the conservative People’s Party (PP) and liberal Ciutadans (C’s), which includes a compromise to exchange the immersion education system in Catalonia, in place since the regaining of democracy, for a trilingual model. In a TV interview, Munté said that Catalonia won’t change “a single comma” of its school system, which she reminded is entrusted by law and attracts a “very broad consensus” in the country. According to Munté, C’s “changes its principles depending on which way the wind blows” in Spain, but has always kept intact its aim to “kill the immersion system” in Catalonia.

The conservative People’s Party (PP) and liberal unionist Ciutadans (C’s) are negotiating in order to form a stable majority for a new government in Spain and Catalonia is one of the main issues on the table. The MP from Ciutadans Jorge Soler has confirmed that the so-called ‘Catalan package’ of demands from C’s to the PP includes changing the school model, even though education is a devolved power in Catalonia. The current school model has been in place for more than 30 years and is widely recognised by school teachers unions, associations and experts, as well as families. In Catalan schools, Catalan is the language of instruction in order to guarantee that all pupils end their studies knowing both Catalan, which not everyone learns at home, and Spanish, which is widely used both in the media and on the street. However, C’s has always campaigned against this system, saying that it discriminates against Spanish families that want their children to be taught in the Spanish language. That’s why they’re asking the PP to scrap the system and introduce a trilingual model with Spanish, English and Catalan. Some of the other ‘Catalan-package’ demands of C’s is a new fiscal system and the prioritisation of key infrastructure projects such as the Mediterranean Corridor. Both PP and C’s frontally reject a referendum on independence in Catalonia.

The spokesman in the Catalan Parliament of the liberal and unionist party Ciutadans, Carlos Carrizosa, said in an interview with the CNA that voters in Catalonia will have to go to the polls next year because, according to him, the current government will collapse. “This very unstable government has the support of an unreliable and dangerous ally, the CUP, and it will not be able to survive beyond 2017. There will be elections and their result will worsen”, he stated. In September last year, Junts pel Sí and CUP together achieved 48% of the vote. According to Carrizosa, they won’t be able to improve this result in a new election, and this will mark the beginning of the end of the independence process. The Catalan government roadmap towards independence, led by President Carles Puigdemont, already foresees the call of an early constituent election next year.

He was the president of the left-wing pro-independence party Esquerra Republicana (ERC) between 1996 and 2004 and a renowned Catalan philologist. Carbonell was responsible for the first four volumes of the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana (the ‘Big Catalan Encyclopaedia’), that he compiled between 1965 and 1971. During the Franco dictatorship he was incarcerated twice because of his anti-fascist and pro-Catalan language activism. One of the more famous sentences of the pro-independence movement is his: “Que la prudència no ens faci traïdors”, (“Don’t let caution turn us into traitors”, in English). He pronounced it on the 11th of September 1976, during the first Catalan National Day demonstration after the death of the dictator.

The president of the civil society organisation Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Jordi Sánchez, stated on Sunday that the process towards independence has to be completed and a binding referendum needs to be called by the Catalan Parliament this autumn. Otherwise, he admitted, Catalan independence supporters might not achieve their goal. “We either start to complete this process (towards independence) or it will finish us off”, he said, admitting a certain fatigue amongst pro-independence groups. The ANC, together with Omnium Cultural and other civil society organisations in Catalonia, have for many years been organising massive pro-independence demonstrations every 11th of September, the Catalan National Day. In 2013, for example, they made a human chain from the North to the South of the country inspired by the Baltic Way, and in the last two years more than 1.5 million people demonstrated in Barcelona. The ANC is planning a new rally in 2016, this time with five different events across Catalonia.

The pressure radical left pro-independence CUP have put to meet with Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, in order to tackle the vote of confidence he will submit himself to on the 28th of September hasn’t been well-received by the Catalan Government’s spokeswoman. According to Neus Muntéit is “inappropriate for CUP to set the pace and conditions of the vote of confidence” since “confidence is non-negotiable”. Muntémade this statement this Wednesday in an interview with RAC1 radio in relation to CUP’s demands to agree with President Puigdemont the next steps in the pro-independence roadmap before the vote of confidence and also before negotiating the budget bill for 2017. In this vein, Muntéaccused CUP of being responsible for the present ‘stand-by’ situation that the Catalan Government finds itself in, since the radical lefties refuse to pass the bill for 2016.

Radical left pro-independence CUP have insisted on the “need” to meet with Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, before he submits to a vote of confidence, on the 28^th of September. The Government’s partners aim to discuss the pro-independence roadmap first, which was ratified two weeks ago by the Catalan Parliament and suspended a few days afterwards by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). Regarding the debate on the budget for 2017, which became an essential point after CUP refused to pass the bill for 2016, the radical lefties insist that approval is not guaranteed and that the draft for 2017 will have to be designed according to the roadmap. “It would be nonsense if the bill for 2017 didn’t foresee an allocation for the unilateral referendum on independence”, CUP pointed out.

The first medal for the Spanish delegation at the Rio Olympics was brought this Saturday by Catalan swimmer Mireia Belmonte. The record holder from Club NatacióSabadell came third in the women’s 400-metre individual medley, behind Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, who obtained the gold medal, and Maya DiRado from the US, who obtained the silver. The Catalan winner’s registered time was 4:32:39. Thus, Belmonte added a third medal to the two she obtained at the London Olympics in 2012, a silver medal in the 200-metre butterfly and another silver in the 800-metre freestyle. However, Belmonte couldn’t qualify for the 400-metre freestyle. Another Catalan swimmer, Jessica Vall, did classify for the 100-metre breaststroke semi-final. There are 97 Catalans sportsmen and women participating at the Rio Olympics, which represents the highest figure ever, being only higher for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

The Catalan Government and Barcelona’s City Hall will join efforts to house those companies which want to leave the UK due to Brexit. “We will specifically address entrepreneurs, start-ups and ICT companies”, explained Catalan Ministry for Business and Knowledge Jordi Baiget.“We to want tell British entrepreneurs and multinational companies that Barcelona and Catalonia are a great destination”, added Barcelona’s deputy Mayor, Jaume Collboni. More than 2,000 Catalan companies regularly export to the UK and 22.4% of Spanish exports to the state are from Catalonia. Regarding imports, the Barcelona area received 2.2 billion euros from UK-based companies in 2015, 5.8% more than the previous year. In June the Catalan Government also offered to host the headquarters of the European Medicines Agency, which is currently in London.

The Catalan Government Spokeswoman, Neus Munté warned this Tuesday that the “Spanish Constitution can’t be understood as a Criminal Code” and insisted on the Government’s commitment to “obey the democratic mandate of the 27-S Elections” and launch the pro-independence roadmap. She made these statements one day after the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) decided to suspend Catalonia’s plan to disconnect from Spain and opened the door to applying criminal charges to the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, for allowing the approval of the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process. According to Munté, the TC should be “a referee” in charge of settling “the constitutionality of the laws” rather than “an executor court”.

The Spanish Parliament’s Bureau, headed by the Conservative People’s Party (PP) decided this Tuesday to integrate the Catalan Democratic Party (PDC), former liberal Convergència, into the Mixed Group rather than allow them to be constituted as a parliamentary group. Thus, the PDC will see its influence in the Chamber much reduced and its interventions will have to be shared amongst the other minority forces in the Mixed Group. The decision, which comes just one day after the PDC was denied its own group in the Senate, is regarded by the PDC as a political reprisal for the Parliament’s approval of the pro-independence roadmap. This will be the first time since 1977 that the former Convergència party, the party which ruled in Catalonia for more than 20 years in coalition with Christian Democrats ‘Unió’, won’t have its own group in the Spanish Parliament. 

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) decision to suspend Catalonia’s roadmap towards independence, which was ratified last week by the Catalan Chamber, won’t stop the launching of the Constitutive Process of the Catalan Republic. This is what radical left pro-independence CUP stated this Monday. Moreover, Regarding the possibility that the TC may suspend the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell as well, CUP MP Anna Gabriel warned that this would represent “a point of no return”for the Spanish state and that this would require “a countrywide response”. “We will remain faithful to the Parliament and if we have to disobey we will do so”, stated pro-independence left wing ERC’s spokesman in the Spanish Parliament Joan Tardàand lamented the “authoritarian way”and the “judicial violence”used by the Spanish state.