On Wednesday, the Catalan parliament voted on a Declaration of Sovereignty that is meant as a cornerstone for a referendum on independence envisaged for 2014. It was backed by CiU and ERC, which supports the minority government, plus the eco-communist ICV. The unionist Ciutadans and the Partido Popular (PP) voted against, as did the majority of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), although five of its deputies abstained in protest against the party line.
This declaration is best defined by what it is not. It did not create a united front against Madrid. It did not garner the support of the two-thirds of the Catalan parliament necessary to change the Catalan Estatut, missing a benchmark essential for later legislating efforts. It is a document without any legal effect, even though it calls the Catalans “politically and legally sovereign”. It is not a law but a mere declaration of intent. This is not a repetition of the Basque Plan Ibarretxe, a key law of which was successfully impugned by the Spanish government before the Constitutional Court on the basis of the entire people of Spain being the sovereign.
Catalan government spokesperson Francesc Homs last year had claimed that in the case of contradicting laws, the Catalan government “will follow the legality of the Parliament of Catalonia”. He had no legal grounds then, neither are there any now. And no legal effect either. Madrid will not impugn this Catalan declaration.
It is also a far cry from past declarations of sovereignty in countries Catalan separatists regularly draw on as precedents. In an earlier article -linked-to above- we already responded to such comparisons, namely the one with Slovenia. The Slovenian Declaration of Sovereignty was not only much clearer, it also did have both a solid legal basis and very distinct legal effects: from then on no federal (Yugoslav) law was in force anymore if it was found to be in conflict with Slovenian law.
The political impact of this declaration is not necessarily positive for anybody. The rift has been deepened. It is a rift that not only divides CiU and ERC from the PSC and PP, and which can be found even within the PSC. It also runs right through the CiU bloc, with the smaller UDC party showing ever more signs of discontent with its separatist CDC companion, led by Catalan premier Artur Mas. Talk in Catalonia is about CiU falling apart. Such a rift did not exist in cases like Slovenia.
The winner is ERC, the traditionally separatist party boosted by the last elections and to which CiU keeps losing votes, according to recent opinion polls. ERC, however, has its own problem with this declaration. For this party, the “Catalan nation” is found within the boundaries of the Catalan Lands. By promoting this Declaration, ERC is showing again that it lives in Schrödinger’s Catalonia: Catalonia can be both the smaller and the bigger territory, whichever suits it at any given political moment. (On the local level, CiU too has issued calls for the “political reunification of the Catalan Lands”.)
The show that preceded this declaration was well worth watching. It took off with a CiU/ERC draft that was so amateurish one was reminded of the words of former Catalan premier Josep Tarradellas that in politics one can do anything except make a fool of oneself. This draft, under Artur Mas’s maxim of being “scrupulously democratic”, prejudged thrice the outcome of the independence referendum: “a new state”.
Moreover, it was based not only on the legally not codified “right to decide”, but also on the right of self-determination as recognised by the UN; even though the Catalan theoretician of the “right to decide”, Jaume López, had in 2011 already argued for a “paradigm shift” in favour of the “right to decide”; because, as López himself admits, the right of self-determination does not apply to Catalonia.
Such details have now been dropped. Lip-service is being paid to use “all existing legal frameworks” and to the need for negotiations with Madrid. Yet everybody has seen Mas showing little will to negotiate, while ERC boss Oriol Junqueras calls it “unnecessary”.
Catalan separatism is pitting what it calls “democratic legality” against what it sees as mere “juridical legality”. As if those were two different concepts. Such an attitude, in the words of Joseph Weiler, “disqualifies morally and politically Catalonia and the likes as future Member States of the European Union”.
The coming months will see pressure mounting on both PSC and UDC to fall into line. Words like “unpatriotic” and “traitors” will be thrown around a lot, again, and attempts will be made by CDC to absorb (more) parts of UDC and divide the PSC even further. But CDC’s grip on the media is weakening, and the businessmen that are the traditional allies and beneficiaries of this centre-right party are getting increasingly nervous. The Pequod has caught fire.
Some additional observations:
-The PSC presented an amendment to the entirety of the CiU/ERC/ICV draft declaration. It, too, speaks of the “right to decide”, and it also calls for a referendum on independence, yet it puts more emphasis on negotiations with Madrid and legality.
-In the past, the Catalan parliament has issued several declarations calling for the right of self-determination.
-Catalan separatists often angrily rebel against Article 2 of the Spanish Constitution that calls Spain “indivisible”. Article 4 of the Slovenian Constitution calls Slovenia “indivisible”.
Candide, about the only people getting excited about this are you, Mas, Junqueras and my local branch of ANC. Even the PP doesn’t really care any more. Ordinary Catalans are waking up to the fact that “Madrid ens roba” has nothing on the grand-scale larceny perpetrated by all aspects of the system, from local governments through autonomies to the guys and gals in Madrid. This coincides with a similar feeling in Spain generally. If you read my previous you’ll know that I consider a generalised uprising much more likely than a breakaway Catalonia. And a steady decline into a failed state more likely than either.
Forget about all the legal arguments – Duran has killed this thing more effectively than all the appeals in the Constitutional Court could ever do. With a two-thirds majority impossible and the CiU powers-that-be resisting any attempt to force transparency on their operations, there is nowhere left to go. The people won’t support independence if they believe it’s just an attempt to create a mini-Spain with the same institutional corruption built in to the system. And that is most assuredly what’s on the table.
This is exciting because its History in the making. It’s also quite “exciting” for the PSC, some members of which have been capable of criticising their own party for not signing up to the declaration of other parties, instead of criticising those other parties for not supporting the PSC declaration. Strange, uh?
If I understand you well, Murph, we do agree on a major point: I’d really like to see a global change in Spanish politics brought about by a popular movement that demands a better way of making politics and is, above all, against corruption and for a socially acceptable way of getting out of the economic crisis. I hope such a popular movement either finds its due place in the existing parties or forms one of its own.
Amen to that. As far as I’m concerned the Catalan independence agenda has to be parked until such a transformation takes place, though of course defensive actions such as that against the Wert educational reform are still called for.
So yeah, turns out we are substantially in agreement… who would have thought it?
Great article. Thanks!
Great analysis, man! “No hase falta desir nada más”, as they like to say.
“Candide writes the website Cataloniawatch, which offers analysis of Catalan-related issues. “-all we need to know
Thank you for your nice comments, gentlemen. But strange, I’m not used to so much agreement.