catalan way

The leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) and candidate for re-election to be President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, stated that he will keep the offer he made to the other parties supporting the celebration of a self-determination vote to join the government open until the end of the legislative term. The offer is due to “the hardness of the situation and the magnitude of the challenges to be faced”. The challenges are “the worst part of the economic recession”, “the crisis of public finances” and “the country’s greatest political operation of the last three centuries”. He also called for a summit to agree on the “impassable limits” of the Welfare state, as further budget cuts will be required.

Nissan is considering allocating the production of a new sedan car to its Catalan plant: a €130 million investment creating 1,000 direct and 3,000 indirect new jobs. However, the company is asking for salaries and working conditions to be adjusted in order to increase competitiveness. Barcelona hosts one of the main factories the Japanese automotive company has in Europe and in May it allocated the construction of a new pickup model, after a previous modification to the working conditions. The talks for the new adjustment have been ongoing since the summer but now they are at a crucial moment, since Nissan is about to make its final decision. The company has just made a counter-offer based on a minor and more progressive salary drop. In addition, it warns unions that without the new model, the company will have to lay off 600 workers as from next year.

The Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, refuses to modify his Education Reform that will relegate the Catalan language in schools and re-centralise power. However, “technical improvements” could be included during the parliamentary debate. The Catalan Government “totally rejects” the current proposal as Wert “has not changed a single comma” despite the talks. Wert, famous for stating two months ago that he wanted “to Hispanicise Catalan pupils”, is pushing for a reform that will break Catalonia’s education model, which has been in place for more than 30 years. The Catalan school model guarantees knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan and it has been praised for fostering bilingualism and social cohesion by international organisations. The reform faces strong objections in Catalonia.

Artur Mas, the leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), and Oriol Junqueras, President of the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC), have signed the parliamentary stability agreement, which includes the call for a self-determination vote by citizens and the modification of taxation in order to increase revenue. Mas will be re-elected President of the Catalan Government and the ERC will not sit in the Executive but will offer parliamentary support on the agreed issues. The CiU and the ERC are asking for other parties to add their support to the self-determination vote. In addition, they have stated that the taxes created with the sole aim of collecting more money will be temporary. Despite the electoral mandate, the Spanish Government totally opposes the referendum and is threatening the Catalan Executive with economic asphyxia.

The Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, refuses to modify his Education Reform that will relegate the Catalan language in schools and re-centralise power. However, “technical improvements” could be included during the parliamentary debate. The Catalan Government “totally rejects” the current proposal as Wert “has not changed a single comma” despite the talks. Wert, famous for stating two months ago that he wanted “to Hispanicise Catalan pupils”, is pushing for a reform that will break Catalonia’s education model, which has been in place for more than 30 years. The Catalan school model guarantees knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan and it has been praised for fostering bilingualism and social cohesion by international organisations. The reform faces strong objections in Catalonia.

The Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) and the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) have reached a definitive agreement ensuring the next Catalan Government parliamentary stability to approve the main laws. The CiU leader Artur Mas will be re-elected President of the Catalan Government with the ERC’s vote in the Catalan Parliament by the end of the week. However, the ERC will not sit in the Cabinet and will only offer support on the agreed issues. The last point blocking the agreement was the CiU’s refusal to set a specific date for a self-determination referendum. Finally, they have agreed on calling for a citizen vote on Catalonia’s independence from Spain in 2014. However, the CiU has managed to include a clause postponing the voting call if both parties explicitly agree to do so.

With this decision, the Catalan Government wants “to safeguard” its power to adopt this type of tax or the equivalent revenue, after the Spanish Government announced the creation of its own tax while keeping it at 0% to prevent the Autonomous Communities from approving it. The Constitutional Court has already backed the taxes on bank deposits created by Extremadura, Andalucía and Canarias. Catalonia’s tax will not affect clients but only the banks. It will affect all banks operating in Catalonia, independent of where they are based. In addition, it will have retroactive effects as from the 30th of November. The Spanish Finance Minister warned that the Spanish Government will fully oppose it.

Banc Sabadell and Banco Mare Nostrum have reached a definitive agreement over the transfer of Caixa Penedès’ territorial network and business in Catalonia and Aragon to the Catalan bank. After this has been completed, Banc Sabadell will strengthen its retail banking activity and will have the fourth largest network of branches in Catalonia. The bank will increase its commercial network in Catalonia by 92% and will incorporate 462 branches, 900,000 clients and 2,000 workers. Caixa Penedès was a medium-sized savings bank in Catalonia. In 2010 it took part in a ‘cold merger’ with 3 other Spanish savings banks and in 2011 they created Banco Mare Nostrum.

The defender and midfielder have renewed until 2016, while the Argentinean will stay until 2018. Over the next few weeks, all of Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández and Leo Messi will be signing their respective new contracts.

A study undertaken by the Catalan Association of Public Universities shows that 64% of all funds for research came from public or private competition processes. This shows the Catalan university system’s capacity to attract this type of funds, which leads the study to conclude that the system is “solid”, “at the forefront” in Spain and “comparable” to the university systems of the most advanced EU countries. In 2012, the total budget for research in Catalonia’s public universities was €346 million, which represented 20% of their total budget.

The 10th legislative term of the Catalan Parliament kicked off with the election of the chamber’s Bureau, a preliminary step before voting for the President of the Catalan Government. The Speaker will now hold talks with party leaders to analyse support and designate a candidate for Catalan President. Following last week’s agreement among 5 of the 7 parties sitting in the chamber, Núria de Gispert, from the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), has been re-elected as President of the Catalan Parliament. The CiU, the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC), the Catalan Socialists (PSC), the People’s Party (PP) and the Catalan Green Socialists and Communists (ICV-EUiA) have split the rest of the Bureau’s offices. The two smallest parties, the anti-Catalan nationalism ‘Ciutadans’ and the radical left-wing and independence party CUP have been left out of the Bureau.

Holding the self-determination referendum before 2015 and certain aspects of the fiscal policy are the final obstacles to a definitive agreement between the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) – which won the elections but lost support – and the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) – which is the second largest party now, having doubled its support. After two and half weeks of negotiations, the ERC will vote for the CiU leader, Artur Mas, to be re-elected as President of the Catalan Government. However, the ERC’s stable parliamentary support – since it will not directly be part of the Cabinet – is not granted yet. Party leaders met on Friday to seal the agreement, but differences persist and the date for the re-election debate is approaching.

The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, sees the appeal as “a sabotage of Catalonia’s public finances” with the objective of making the deficit targets harder to reach and then greater control mechanisms can be enforced from Madrid. If the Constitutional Court accepts the Spanish Government’s appeal, the drug prescription and judicial fees approved by the Catalan Executive will be stopped. Mas-Colell explained that this would represent a loss of €140 million per year. The Spanish Executive justifies the appeal because Catalan citizens would have to pay more than those in other parts of Spain. For Mas-Colell, this justification is “sarcastic” and “populist” as it is decided by the same government that “has not increased pensions”.

Cristian Tello has extended his contract with FC Barcelona until June 2016. The release clause has been fixed at €10 million. Tello, born in Greater Barcelona, is a product of the Catalan club’s school and youth system. He debuted with Barça’s first team in November 2011 and from 2002 and 2007 he played in the club’s youth ranks.

The parties supporting the current school model, representing 80% of the new Catalan Parliament, and Catalonia’s School Council – with all the stakeholders – have met to decide upon a consensual answer to the Spanish Government’s Education Reform relegating the Catalan language and centralising competence. The meeting ended with a consensual decision to stick to the current Catalan Education Law if the Spanish Executive does not change the spirit of its reform and continues to insist on breaking up the school model that has been in place for more than 30 years. Cancelling the linguistic immersion model would mean splitting Catalan society into two language communities, which is absolutely not acceptable to the wide majority of Catalans. The current model has been validated twice by the Spanish Constitutional Court and is based on Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy which was approved via referendum.