In the previous post, I went over the history of one of Spain’s most famous political events of recent years. Remembering past events of suppression and suffering from the Catalans at the hands of the Spanish nation is important in order to understand one of the keys to the whole independence movement situation. However, there is much more to the story that should be looked at in order to craft a better overall picture of the civic issue and in order to be able to comprehend what solution suits this scenario the best. In this post, I’ll briefly go over the economical reasoning many Catalan independence supporters use in their attempts to justify their desire of emancipating from the power of the Spanish nation. I will also go over a series of key events that have completely dynamited the political fragility of the issue and that have been able to nearly give birth to a new nation in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
In a similar fashion to the United States, Spain is composed of 17 autonomous communities that have some individual sovereignty. Some of these regions, such as Catalonia and the Basque Country (surprisingly the two nations that have historically always fought to become independent) have more power than others and it’s mainly due to their separatist-prone history but also with their great economic input in the overarching national economy. Spain has given these two regions a greater leeway in terms of sovereignty just to satisfy them politically knowing that it’s crucial for them to keep being a part of Spain due to their enormous economic value. Catalonia, in particular, is just the second most productive autonomous community after Madrid, but it can easily be alleged that it holds a greater value than even the nation’s capital territory. Catalonia is a gold mine for culture-related events, business, and especially tourism, the second sector in terms of contribution to the GDP. Losing Catalonia would mean losing Barcelona, a price Spain isn’t willing to pay considering the prestige of the coastal city.
Having all of this in mind, you might be asking yourself what economic struggles Catalans see in continuing to be part of Spain. Well, the answer is pretty straightforward; taxes. As the second most productive community, Catalonia also receives the silver medal when it comes to providing money to the central government. Catalans are, on average, the second group of people that more federal taxes pay just after the Madrileños. The problem… that they’re the ones that then receive the least back from the Spanish government. The Catalan independence movement has always used this to argue that Spain doesn’t care about Catalonia or that Catalans aren’t as valued as they should be. However, what these nationalists never mention is that, on the other hand, their region is the one with the greatest number and highest local taxes. In fact, when put into perspective, more money is lost to the Catalan government than to the Spanish, but skewing this reality is one of the most effective strategies from the separatists and one of the greatest priorities for the defenders of Spanish-Catalan unity. In recent years, there have been proposals to grant Catalonia even greater sovereignty with respect to other autonomous communities, and give them the possibility of paying less federal taxes. On one hand, Catalans would benefit from having to give up less of their net worth and “share” it with less-privileged compatriots, as they always say, but on the other hand, it’s hard to believe Spain could come out unscathed from this situation. Spain needs money from its northeastern community just as it does from its poorest regions because the economic harmony of the country is dependent on the income all of the regions input proportionally. Having said this, Catalonia would perhaps benefit from a more American-style system of state and federal taxes.
Stemming from these major issues that have already been discussed are some of the most recent chapters of this complex political tale. After decades of fighting for independence, Catalan separatist leaders in charge of the region’s government called for a referendum of auto-determination on October 1st, 2017. Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan president at the time, and his ministers called for the over 7 million inhabitants of the autonomous community to vote either yes, no, or no preference for Catalonia to become its own independent state. The referendum was deemed illegal by the Spanish government, following what the nation’s Constitution says, and therefore ordered both the Catalan police and the Spanish police forces to prevent people from voting. The former never obeyed and allowed people to enter electoral colleges, while the latter decided to ruthlessly open their way through barricades and human barriers to literally destroy the voting urns. As many Catalan nationalists attempted to prevent Spanish police forces from ruining their illegitimate referendum, there were many events throughout the entirety of the region’s geography where the police aggressively charged against civilians. Images from this dark day in Spanish modern history circled around the world viciously and resulted in the auto declaration of independence from the Catalan government just 10 days after. For a couple of hours, the region was its own independent state before the Spanish government applied the 155th article of the Constitution that grants them the power of overthrowing the community’s government and restoring Spanish control.
During these highly-emotional days of massive political instability, the crescendoing hatred from Catalan nationalists towards Spain skyrocketed dramatically. Many people questioned whether it was a smart move from Spain to send its police forces to Catalonia in order to prevent a referendum that was already deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The results would have had zero value regardless of the outcome, so why take the risk of dynamiting the conflict by aggressively powering your way towards the epicenter of electoral colleges. In my opinion, the battle was more symbolic than any other thing. The central government wanted to consolidate and demonstrate its power over that of its most rebellious community. Nonetheless, the debate relies on the idea of voting. After the October 1st incidents, balconies all across Catalonia were dressed with signs that said “Yes for Democracy” or “Let Us Vote.” Nationalists were complaining about the fact Spain was not allowing them to vote for their independence democratically and were again being suppressed politically by the central government. Should independence-related referendums be considered legal? The Spanish Constitution says they shouldn’t, obviously with certain nuances, but it would be interesting to discuss how a country could modify these “ancient” laws in order to favor democracy. At the end of the day, if a whole group of people is in agreement with something (this is not the case though as it has been proven that more than 50% of Catalans are now against the split) then they should be able to express their will.
Sources:
https://www.france24.com/es/20171220-momentos-clave-movimiento-independentista-catalan
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-41541093
https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2019/08/29/companias/1567086634_731386.html