Brexit campaign resonates with Catalan separatists
While regional president Carles Puigdemont is pro-European, he knows that the turmoil caused by Brexit would boost his independence campaign
There is something familiar about Britain’s Brexit campaign, to Catalan separatists such as new regional president, Carles Puigdemont.
At play are many of the sentiments that drive this wealthy Spanish region’s independence movement: sovereignty, identity, a sense that scroungers elsewhere are spending your money and dislike of a far-off, unfamiliar metropolis. Replace the word “Brussels” with “Madrid” and some of the literature could be recycled.
Puigdemont, like the vast majority of Spaniards, is a fervent pro-European. But he sympathises with those who seek to bolster their sovereignty by demanding a referendum. And he knows that the turmoil caused by Brexit would also boost his independence campaign by obliging the EU to accept a major reconfiguration of member states. That explains why, uniquely among Spanish politicians, he is critical of the remain campaign.
“We have also suffered campaigns of fear,” says Puigdemont, a 53-year-old former mayor of Girona who was catapulted into the Catalan presidency five months ago. “I remember when the banks started issuing their opinions. They treated us as if we were not grown-ups and said a whole lot of lies.”
Those who predict that Brexit will destroy the European Union are wrong, he insists. “The EU will make an extraordinary display of political realism, and an admirable, Darwinian ability to adapt,” he says, implying that it would also adapt to Catalan independence. “It will be very interesting.”
Catalan independence is as unpopular among European Union leaders as Brexit. Yet at the last regional elections in September, a majority of the deputies sent to the Catalan parliament were separatists. Puigdemont now leads a government which he claims is already 70% of the way along the path to independence.
That may be wishful thinking. Just as Europe considers Brexit a nightmare, so Spain sees Catalan independence as a calamity. Acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People’s party, is determined to stop that happening and has blocked a referendum. This means, for the moment, that Puigdemont is driving Catalonia towards a nasty showdown with Madrid.
Puigdemont believes that the rising tide of separatism will win the day. “In 2012 there were just 14 deputies elected on a separatist ticket in the Catalan parliament,” he pointed out in an interview during a break between debating and voting at the 135-seat parliament in Barcelona. “Now we are a majority.”
Puigdemont’s government has embarked on a plan that aims to break with Spain – but, somehow, remain in the European Union – within just a few years. He does not believe warnings that Catalonia would be instantly expelled from the EU and refused to say whether he would choose independence over Europe. Like most Catalans, he finds that an impossible choice.
His task is to guide the regional parliament, governed by an unstable coalition that includes his own Convergence party and a small group of radical anti-capitalists, for an 18-month “pre-independence” period while it passes so-called “disconnection” laws to prepare for life outside Spain.
Fresh regional elections would then be called next year to choose a government charged with drawing up a constitution for an independent Catalonia. If that was approved at a local referendum, then Catalonia would deem itself independent – regardless of what the rest of Spain has to say. And Puigdemont might end up in jail.
Spain’s constitution gives Catalonia no right to self-proclaimed independence. The constitutional court’s powers were recently beefed up so that it could act against separatists. Friends and colleagues insist that Puigdemont – who still lives in Girona with his two daughters and Romanian wife – would go to jail if necessary.
He refused to confirm that to the Guardian, saying only that he had pledged – using a Catalan and Spanish expression for working hard or doing whatever it takes – to “give up his skin” for the cause. “This is a deeply serious business, and profoundly democratic,” he says. “I could not disobey the will of the Catalan parliament.”
Puigdemont’s absolute belief in independence makes him one of the more hardcore members of a mostly conservative Convergence party which only embraced the separatist cause four years ago. Unlike former president Artur Mas, he has always been a separatist. That helps explain why, when the anti- capitalists vetoed Mas, Puigdemont was suddenly elevated from mayor to president in January.
He claims that independence can happen without breaking the law, though this is largely because he has already decided that Spain’s constitutional court must be ignored. The combined will of Catalan voters and the parliament weighs more heavily on him, he claims, than the “whims of a disacredited court”.
“What is more important?,” he asks. “What the members of a politicised tribunal say, or what the citizens vote for? For me it is clear.”
There are timid signs that, after half a dozen years of effervescence and with the anti-austerity Podemos party offering Catalan voters a different kind of hope, the separatist balloon may start to deflate. The one thing certain to change that would be for Puigdemont to be sent to jail. Indignant Catalans would never forget.
At play are many of the sentiments that drive this wealthy Spanish region’s independence movement: sovereignty, identity, a sense that scroungers elsewhere are spending your money and dislike of a far-off, unfamiliar metropolis. Replace the word “Brussels” with “Madrid” and some of the literature could be recycled.
Puigdemont, like the vast majority of Spaniards, is a fervent pro-European. But he sympathises with those who seek to bolster their sovereignty by demanding a referendum. And he knows that the turmoil caused by Brexit would also boost his independence campaign by obliging the EU to accept a major reconfiguration of member states. That explains why, uniquely among Spanish politicians, he is critical of the remain campaign.
“We have also suffered campaigns of fear,” says Puigdemont, a 53-year-old former mayor of Girona who was catapulted into the Catalan presidency five months ago. “I remember when the banks started issuing their opinions. They treated us as if we were not grown-ups and said a whole lot of lies.”
Those who predict that Brexit will destroy the European Union are wrong, he insists. “The EU will make an extraordinary display of political realism, and an admirable, Darwinian ability to adapt,” he says, implying that it would also adapt to Catalan independence. “It will be very interesting.”
Catalan independence is as unpopular among European Union leaders as Brexit. Yet at the last regional elections in September, a majority of the deputies sent to the Catalan parliament were separatists. Puigdemont now leads a government which he claims is already 70% of the way along the path to independence.
That may be wishful thinking. Just as Europe considers Brexit a nightmare, so Spain sees Catalan independence as a calamity. Acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People’s party, is determined to stop that happening and has blocked a referendum. This means, for the moment, that Puigdemont is driving Catalonia towards a nasty showdown with Madrid.
Puigdemont believes that the rising tide of separatism will win the day. “In 2012 there were just 14 deputies elected on a separatist ticket in the Catalan parliament,” he pointed out in an interview during a break between debating and voting at the 135-seat parliament in Barcelona. “Now we are a majority.”
Puigdemont’s government has embarked on a plan that aims to break with Spain – but, somehow, remain in the European Union – within just a few years. He does not believe warnings that Catalonia would be instantly expelled from the EU and refused to say whether he would choose independence over Europe. Like most Catalans, he finds that an impossible choice.
His task is to guide the regional parliament, governed by an unstable coalition that includes his own Convergence party and a small group of radical anti-capitalists, for an 18-month “pre-independence” period while it passes so-called “disconnection” laws to prepare for life outside Spain.
Fresh regional elections would then be called next year to choose a government charged with drawing up a constitution for an independent Catalonia. If that was approved at a local referendum, then Catalonia would deem itself independent – regardless of what the rest of Spain has to say. And Puigdemont might end up in jail.
Spain’s constitution gives Catalonia no right to self-proclaimed independence. The constitutional court’s powers were recently beefed up so that it could act against separatists. Friends and colleagues insist that Puigdemont – who still lives in Girona with his two daughters and Romanian wife – would go to jail if necessary.
He refused to confirm that to the Guardian, saying only that he had pledged – using a Catalan and Spanish expression for working hard or doing whatever it takes – to “give up his skin” for the cause. “This is a deeply serious business, and profoundly democratic,” he says. “I could not disobey the will of the Catalan parliament.”
Puigdemont’s absolute belief in independence makes him one of the more hardcore members of a mostly conservative Convergence party which only embraced the separatist cause four years ago. Unlike former president Artur Mas, he has always been a separatist. That helps explain why, when the anti- capitalists vetoed Mas, Puigdemont was suddenly elevated from mayor to president in January.
He claims that independence can happen without breaking the law, though this is largely because he has already decided that Spain’s constitutional court must be ignored. The combined will of Catalan voters and the parliament weighs more heavily on him, he claims, than the “whims of a disacredited court”.
“What is more important?,” he asks. “What the members of a politicised tribunal say, or what the citizens vote for? For me it is clear.”
There are timid signs that, after half a dozen years of effervescence and with the anti-austerity Podemos party offering Catalan voters a different kind of hope, the separatist balloon may start to deflate. The one thing certain to change that would be for Puigdemont to be sent to jail. Indignant Catalans would never forget.
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