Autonomic Catalan elections on 27th September 2015

The date 27th September 2015, the last episode from the independentist challenge, will be decisive for Catalonia and Spain future. The independentists are agglutinated around a single list whereof they hope to get the enough Parliamentary majority which let them to unilaterally declare the independence and create a new State. In order to achieve that, Arthur Mas is advised by an “experts group”, building authentic State infrastructures straight from inside the Catalan Community and disposing of everything they need to take that goal.

The independentists have understood these elections as plebiscitary ones; despite the elections order did not mention anything about that with the purpose of avoiding an eventual complaint before the Constitutional Court. However, although from the juridical view are just an autonomic elections, these elections are crucial and mean a decisive battle in the dialectic war that the unionists have been losing for several decades. The massive vote, the not-independence victory and the independentists’ failure are crucial for changing the fracture tendency which has been imposed since 1980.

Mas has lost the control of the game that he began years ago, he is on a not-exit street, pressured by his partners and the independentists lobbies. The blackmail strategy has become in something dangerous which has led Catalonia to the border abysm. The President has seriously broken the Catalan society, dividing families and sowing the hate and radicalism seed. In addition, he has destroyed his own party, which is the result of a thirty years coalition. There are not politicians who had the enough legitimacy for causing that damage, skiving the attention from the really important issues in order to hide his miseries.

From an economic view, there are some doubts about the Catalonian State viability, due to the fact that many people affirm the separation from Spain would lead to the collapse and it would not be possible to pay the retirements, government officials’ wages and other essential spending. Moreover, we must take into account the difficulties due to the reestablish of customs houses and borders surveillance. However, the unionists should not focus all their arguments on the economy issue, because if the Catalan State was viable they would not be able to support their position. Although it is not the most common speech, the best reason for the not-independence must be historical, social, juridical and, specifically, the common sense.

Historically, Catalonia has never been an independent kingdom, but belonged to the Aragon kingdom. Neither, the Secession War supposed an independence war, but a civil war that was caused by an empty throne. Neither the Second Republic proclamation meant to ignore the entire Spain, but the establishment of the Catalan Republic inside to the Spanish Federal Republic. Essentially, people ignore that nationalism were born in the XIX century in the textile industry and foreign imports framework.

From the social reasoning, the independentism is inspired by the race purity and the prosecution of what is different. The race purity idea ignore the non-existence of pure Catalan people and the migratory movements from the South Spain during the XIX and XX centuries. The Catalan society is a mix from different origins and not a monolithic stone, just as some people pretend. In addition, despite the external appearance, the independentists do not constitute a social majority, since those who defend the stay of Catalonia in Spain are over the 50% and still are increasing, just as show some surveys made by the own Generalitat.

From a legal view, the secession is impossible although some people use the juridical framework for their own advantage, using distilled arguments. It does not exist the “right to secession”, despite some people try to hide it behind the opportunist “right to decide”. The Spanish Constitution recognize the Spanish Nation indissolubility and the legislation provide tools for defend it. The Mas behaviors constitute an attack against the legality and a seditionist punishable attitude. In this way, the Generalitat officials should disobey those orders which were clearly contrary to the legislation or constitute legal offence. The non-fulfillment of Constitutional Court awards in the linguistics or competences field, and the illegal summons of a consultation should have been stopped under that principle. However, the reality has been different.

From an international legal framework, the Catalan State would be out from the European Union, despite in fact it continued using the same currency. The independent Catalonia would have to apply for the entrance in the EU, which would require the unlike unanimity of all the Member States. According to that, the Mas international adventures have failed, due to the fact that the International Community has respected the principles of non-intervention on the internal affairs and the territorial integrity of a sovereign State. The responsible States reject the instability, the uncertainty and the recognition of a fact which could be qualified as “coup d´état”. That failure has happened despite the establishment of the wrong called “Catalan embassies”, and other actions.

However, rejecting the independence does not impede to debate about how Catalonia must fit in Spain. Neither to talk about the necessaries Constitutional and tax reforms. It is clear that something does not work in Catalonia, and the passive attitude from the Spanish Government does not help. Nonetheless, in order to debate about these socio-economic issues it is necessary to have enough and reliable data, checked by independent experts who confirm or refute the Catalan unbalanced budget. In any case, a best autonomic financing, the recognition of the Catalan singularity in an eventual Constitutional reform or the establishment of an asymmetric decentralized model will not satisfy the secessionist aims.

It is necessary to revise and reform the autonomic territorial, competence and financial model. In that sense, it should establish a clear competence distribution, transferring some essential competences to the Central State, such as Education. It should remove the uncertainty and duplicities, defending the territorial solidarity among the different peoples of Spain and claiming for responsibility and well management to every single governor.

Definitively, the common sense arguments are those which must be imposed: the union leads to the stronghold, and the disaggregation cause weakness. Spain is a great Nation and its diversity constitutes its best value. As big as the integrity among its peoples was, better and more effective will be the responses before the XXI century challenges. It should exist an open minded vision in a world where the borders are being blurred, the universality is growing and the ostracism does not fit.