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).

  • Catalan Independence Leaders Sentenced to 9-13 Years in Prison

    Oriol Junqueras
    Oriol Junqueras, the leader of Catalonia’s Republican Left, makes a speech in Barcelona, Spain, July 20, 2015 (CDC)
    • Nine Catalan separatist leaders have been found guilty of sedition and in some cases misuse of public funds by Spain’s Supreme Court.
    • Among the convicted is former Catalan vice president, and leader of one of the two largest independence parties in the region, Oriol Junqueras, who has been sentenced to thirteen years in prison.
    • The Supreme Court threw out the most serious charge, rebellion, which carries a 25-year prison sentence.
    • Demonstrations have broken out across Catalonia. Protesters are blocking major streets in Barcelona. Some are attempting to occupy the airport.
    • A European arrest warrant has been reissued for former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who denounced the verdict as an “outrage” from self-imposed exile in Belgium. (more…)

  • What Catalonia Has in Common with the United States

    Barcelona Spain
    W Hotel and Barceloneta Beach in Barcelona, Spain (Unsplash/Benjamín Gremler)

    Asked to judge such dirty tricks as spreading false information about an opponent or removing yard signs, both Democrats and Republicans in the United States are far more forgiving if their own party is to blame — and outraged if such misdeeds are perpetrated by the other side.

    Partisanship colors how we interpret events. Catalonia could be another case study. (more…)

  • Spanish Politicians Need to Come to Grips with Coalition Politics

    Pablo Iglesias Pedro Sánchez
    Spanish party leaders Pablo Iglesias and Pedro Sánchez speak in Madrid, February 5, 2016 (PSOE)

    Spanish politicians are still coming to grips with coalition politics.

    Both at the national and the regional level, parties are reluctant to make compromises and blaming each other for making deals with different parties. (more…)

  • It Will Be Hard for Catalans to Accept Supreme Court Verdict

    Spanish Supreme Court Madrid
    Seat of the Spanish Supreme Court in Madrid, November 27, 2012 (Wikimedia Commons)

    Spain’s Supreme Court will soon decide the fate of twelve Catalan independence leaders who stand accused of sedition and rebellion against the state. The verdict will be hard for Catalans to accept as fair, especially when the same court has sided with the family of Francisco Franco.

    On Wednesday, the Supreme Court suspended the planned exhumation of the dictator’s remains from the monumental Valley of the Fallen in the mountains near Madrid, arguing it would not be in the “public interest”.

    In its verdict, the court used the honorific “don” to refer to Franco and wrote that he was head of state from October 1, 1936. That is when Franco was proclaimed leader of the coup against the Republic, but his government wasn’t recognized as legitimate by most countries until after the Civil War.

    To many Catalans, especially left-wing separatists who imagine themselves heirs to the Republic, it confirms that the rest of Spain hasn’t reckoned with the past. (more…)

  • The More Things Change in Catalonia, the More They Stay the Same

    Barcelona Spain
    Buildings in Barcelona, Spain, December 10, 2017 (Unsplash/Marco Da Silva)

    There are two ways to look at the result of Spain’s general election in Catalonia. (more…)

  • Tragedy in Catalonia

    Plaça de Catalunya Barcelona Spain
    Night falls on Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, September 11, 2017 (Sergio Marchi)

    Twelve Catalans — ten politicians and two activists — went on trial this week for their role in the 2017 independence referendum and attempted secession from Spain.

    There is a good chance the defendants, who include the former Catalan vice president, Oriol Junqueras — who still leads one of the region’s two largest pro-independence parties — will be found guilty of at least some of the charges against them. The Spanish Constitutional Court had, after all, forbidden the referendum in advance and the Spanish Constitution refers to the country’s “indissoluble” unity.

    Hopefully the Supreme Court in Madrid (which is separate from the Constitutional Court) will throw out the more serious — and much harder to prove — accusations of rebellion and sedition, which carry prison sentences of up to 25 years.

    But even light sentences would be a tragedy. This trial should never have happened. The 2017 referendum, which most opponents of independence boycotted, should never have happened. The reason it did is that the Spanish government at the time, led by the conservative People’s Party, refused dialogue with an increasingly restless nationalist movement in Catalonia. (more…)

  • Spanish Right Loses Its Mind Over Concession to Catalans

    Pedro Sánchez
    Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez makes a speech in Congress in Madrid, July 17, 2018 (La Moncloa)

    From the opprobrium being heaped on Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez from the right, you would think he had just signed away half the country.

    Pablo Casado, the leader of the conservative People’s Party, has accused the socialist of “high treason” and argued Spain now faces the gravest threat to its democracy since the failed military coup of 1981.

    Albert Rivera of the liberal Citizens has called Sánchez “a danger for Spain”.

    What horrible crime has Sánchez committed?

    He has agreed to appoint a facilitator in talks with the separatist government in Catalonia. (more…)

  • A Year Has Been Wasted in Catalonia

    Sagrada Família Barcelona Spain
    Aerial view of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain (Unsplash/Carles Rabada)

    Catalonia has made little progress toward either independence or normalizing relations with the rest of Spain since its failed attempt to break away a year ago.

    Spain has returned home rule to the region, which it suspended in the wake of the 2017 referendum, and the new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, sounds more conciliatory than the last.

    But two activists and seven politicians remain in pretrial detention for their role in the 2017 vote, which the Spanish Constitutional Court had ruled illegal. Four have gone on hunger strike to protest the fact that their trial still hasn’t started after one year.

    Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and six other leaders remain in self-imposed exile in other parts of Europe, knowing that if they return to Spain they will be arrested. (more…)

  • Torra Gives Spain Ultimatum. His Position Is Weak

    Quim Torra
    Quim Torra enters the parliament of Catalonia to be sworn in as regional president, May 14 (Parlament de Catalunya/Miguel González de la Fuente)

    Catalan president Quim Torra has given the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez an ultimatum: allow the Catalans to exert their right to self-determination (which Spain doesn’t recognize) by November or lose the support of Catalan nationalist parties in Congress.

    Sánchez needs the Catalans for his majority, but Torra’s position is weaker.

    • Torra doesn’t have the unequivocal support of his base. On Wednesday, his own party, Together for Catalonia, and its ally, the Republican Left, urged the regional government in a parliamentary vote to seek a binding, internationally-recognized referendum in negotiations with the Spanish state. But, crucially, they did not set a deadline.
    • Sánchez has said he would call snap elections before giving in to Torra’s demands. Polls suggest that his Socialist Workers’ Party would come out on top. It might then be able to remain in government with the backing of the far-left Podemos and other regional parties — and without the Catalans. (more…)

  • Catalans Demonstrate for Independence on National Holiday

    Barcelona Spain demonstration
    Catalans demonstrate for independence from Spain in Barcelona, July 10, 2010 (Wikimedia Commons/Josep Renalias)
    • Catalonia celebrates its national holiday on Tuesday.
    • The date, September 11, commemorates the fall of Barcelona in 1714. Catalonia had backed the losing side in the War of the Spanish Succession. (more…)

  • Sánchez Has the Right Idea: A Referendum on Catalan Home Rule

    Barcelona Spain
    Skyline of Barcelona, Spain (Unsplash/Anastasiia Tarasova)

    Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has proposed calling a referendum on a renegotiated statute for Catalan home rule.

    In 2010, the Spanish Constitutional Court rewrote parts of Catalonia’s 2006 autonomy statute. Most of the changes were minor, except they limited Catalonia’s fiscal autonomy and took out the description of Catalonia as a “nation”.

    As a result, Sánchez said in a radio interview, “Catalonia has a statute that it didn’t vote for.”

    78 percent of Catalan voters ratified the 2006 statute in a referendum. (more…)

  • The Pettiness of Catalonia’s Unionists

    Catalan unionists, including the leaders of the region’s largest anti-independence party, Citizens, have taken to the streets to remove yellow ribbons that agitate for the release of separatist leaders.

    Some eighty people descended on La Bisbal, a small town close to the French border, last night to remove yellow ribbons from buildings, wearing white industrial suits and masks.

    The mayor, Lluís Sais, condemned the action, saying,

    When someone has nothing to hide, and has no shame, they do not cover their faces.

    Citizens party leaders Albert Rivera and Inés Arrimadas nevertheless joined the protest on Wednesday, removing yellow ribbons in Alella, half an hour’s drive north of Barcelona. (more…)

  • Spanish Right Takes Harder Line on Catalonia, Immigration

    Pablo Casado
    Pablo Casado greets members of the executive committee of Spain’s People’s Party in Barcelona, July 26 (PP)

    The new Spanish conservative party leader, Pablo Casado, is making good on his promise to move the People’s Party to the right.

    • In talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who leads a minority left-wing government, Casado refused to support dialogue with Catalan parties that want to break away from Spain.
    • Separately, he argued Spain cannot “absorb millions of Africans who want to come to Europe in search of a better future.”

    Both positions mark a hardening from those of Casado’s predecessor, and the previous prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. (more…)

  • Puigemont’s Bid for Relevance Divides Independence Parties

    Deposed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont’s bid for continued political relevance is dividing the two largest independence parties in the region.

    • The Republican Left is refusing to join Puigdemont’s latest political vehicle, the National Call for the Republic, which is meant to succeed the electoral list he led into last year’s regional election, Together for Catalonia.
    • The Republican Left also argues that both parties must respect a Supreme Court ruling and suspend from parliament those six lawmakers who are awaiting trial for their role in last year’s independence referendum. Together for Catalonia argues that Puigdemont doesn’t have to give up his seat, because — unlike the leader of the Republican Left, Oriol Junqueras — he is still a free man. (more…)

  • Catalan and Spanish Leaders Take Steps to Normalize Relations

    Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and Catalan president Quim Torra have met for the first time.

    The fact that a simple meeting is considered a step forward says something about how poorly Sánchez’ conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, managed relations between the Spanish state and its richest — and rebellious — region.

    Beyond the symbolism of the meeting, the two leaders made substantive progress. (more…)