Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Catalonia

Analysis and commentary about the independence crisis in Catalonia by Nick Ottens (based in Barcelona) and Ainslie Noble (an expert in Basque and Catalan identity issues).

  • Catalans, Kurds, Given No Other Choice, Announce Referendums

    Barcelona Spain
    View of the Palau Nacional from downtown Barcelona, Spain, December 29, 2013 (CucombreLibre)

    Both the Catalans and Iraq’s Kurds have announced independence referendums this week over the objections of their central governments.

    The two might seem a world away. Catalans have virtually no security concerns. The Kurds are waging a war on two fronts: one against Turkey to the north and another against the self-proclaimed Islamic State to the south.

    Yet they have things in common.

    Both are economic success stories. Catalonia has only 16 percent of Spain’s population yet accounts for a fifth of its economic output, giving it an economy the size of Denmark’s. Kurdistan has Iraq’s lowest poverty rates and, thanks to its oil reserves, is increasingly self-reliant.

    Both have desired more autonomy for years and both have been rebuffed by their national authorities, leaving them with little choice but to press for unrecognized votes on independence. (more…)

  • Why Spain’s Podemos Now Supports Catalan Referendum

    Spain’s Podemos party has come out in favor of a Catalan independence referendum, making it the first major national party to break with the government of Mariano Rajoy on the issue.

    The anti-establishment movement remains opposed to Catalan independence and argues that a referendum should not be legally binding, but the new policy is a win for Catalonia’s separatists all the same.

    It’s probably not for them that Podemos has changed their minds, though.

    Party leader Pablo Iglesias coupled the announcement with a warning to the mainstream Socialist Party, saying he would only do a deal with them to unseat Rajoy’s minority right-wing government if they support a referendum too.

    He knows the Socialists won’t — and that’s the point. (more…)

  • Rajoy’s Attitude Makes Catalan Secession More Likely

    Mariano Rajoy
    Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy is about to deliver a news conference in Madrid, July 13, 2016 (PP)

    Whatever happened to Mariano Rajoy’s willingness to talk?

    In February, he offered to hear out Catalan demands for self-government except one: holding a binding independence referendum.

    Now instead of sitting down with Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan president, Rajoy has avoided meeting him in Madrid and challenged him to what could only be a fruitless debate in the national parliament.

    While Puigdemont was giving a speech across town, Rajoy dismissed all his plans as “political, juridical and social nonsense.”

    “I can tell Spaniards not to worry,” he told reporters on Monday, “because this will not come into force and the national sovereignty will keep being the national sovereignty as long as the majority of Spaniards want it to be.” (more…)

  • Catalonia’s Marriage of Convenience on Edge

    Artur Mas Oriol Junqueras
    Catalan party leaders Artur Mas and Oriol Junqueras attend a rally in Castelldefels, September 3, 2015 (CDC)

    Catalonia’s ruling left-right coalition looks close to collapsing.

    The northeastern region of Spain is governed by three parties: the center-right Catalan European Democratic Party and the pro-independence Republican Left, united in the electoral alliance Together for Yes, plus the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP).

    The marriage has been one of convenience. Little unites the parties except their shared desire to break away from Spain. (more…)

  • Rajoy’s Offer to Talk May Be Too Little, Too Late for Catalans

    Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy is finally willing to talk and hear Catalonia’s demands, but it may be too little, too late for the independence movement in the region.

    Spanish media report that Rajoy has reached out to Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, to discuss his terms.

    The two leaders have met only once, in April of last year. On that occasion, Puigdemont handed Rajoy a list of 46 Catalan demands, ranging from power-sharing to tax policy. Rajoy is reportedly ready to discuss all but one of those points: Catalonia’s desire to hold a binding independence referendum.

    Rajoy told a congress of his conservative People’s Party in Madrid earlier this month that he could not allow a referendum that is forbidden under the Spanish Constitution. (more…)

  • Puigdemont Stares Down Catalan Far Left, Calls for Referendum

    Catalonia’s regional president, Carles Puigdemont, survived a confidence vote on Thursday he had called in July, when a small far-left party in his coalition rejected his budget proposal for 2017.

    Puigdemont came to power in January under a deal with the anticapitalist Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP).

    Puigdemont’s own party, Together for Yes, has 62 out of 135 seats in the regional legislature against 63 for the parties that oppose independence. With ten seats, the CUP holds the balance of power.

    Although Puigdemont and the CUP agree on breaking away from Spain, they have little else in common, as I wrote here this summer. The CUP would pull an independent Catalonia out of the European Union and NATO, for example, whereas Together for Yes wants membership of both. The CUP’s economic program is basically Marxist whereas Puigdemont’s is middle-of-the-road. (more…)

  • Is Spain About to Break Up? Geopolitics of the New Europe

    Barcelona Spain
    Basílica de Santa Maria del Pi in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, Spain (Egor Myznik)

    First it was Great Britain, now it’s Spain: the devolution of once all-powerful nation states continues. On Monday, Spain’s Catalonia region’s autonomous parliament voted to secede from Spain by 2017, having won elections in September promising to do just that.

    Why is Europe breaking up? And what does this mean for Spain? Let’s get super. (more…)