On the origin of the sovereignty process in Catalonia

Deputy Editor-in-ChiefEight years ago today, twelve Catalan newspapers published a joint editorial, "The Dignity of Catalonia", warning of the disastrous effects for the constitutional system that began in 1978 if the Constitutional Court ruled against the Statute approved in referendum three years earlier. The editorial denounced that "there are those who dream of drastic surgery to ruthlessly uproot Spain’s complexity". And it ended up warning the public opinion and the Spanish political class: "We are not facing a weak society, prostrate and willing to stand by impassively and witness the deterioration of its dignity". It is worth noting that among the newspapers that ran the text, which caused a huge upheaval in Madrid, were La Vanguardia and El Periódico.

Two years earlier, in November 2007, then-President of the Generalitat José Montilla had warned in a conference in Madrid that there was a growing emotional distance in Catalonia with respect to Spain. "I believe that the first test of institutional loyalty is to warn of the severe political consequences over the medium and long-term of the serious emotional disaffection in Catalonia towards Spain and the common institutions", he said in a speech that has gone down in the short history of the pre-process for sovereignty.

The conclusion is that during the 2006-2010 period everyone was aware in Catalonia that any ruling that disfigured the Statute would have catastrophic consequences for the relationship with Spain. And huge efforts were made to warn Madrid of this danger. From the socialists to business organizations, which in 2007 had called for the management of El Prat Airport, everyone knew that if the Statute failed, something serious would follow. It was on everyone's tongue. Alarm reached an all-time height over maneuvers to influence the Constitutional Court, which were not concealed, and for leaks to the media, which increasingly added more ominousness to a newborn Statute that at that moment was in full force.

A double pact

But the Spanish government didn't pay heed, and applied its legal mechanisms without a second thought, humiliating Catalonia by amending a text that was the result of a double political pact (the Catalan Parliament and the Spanish Congress), and had been approved by the people in a referendum. In these circumstances, would it have been possible for any other result than something similar to the sovereignty process that we have come to know so well? It would have been very difficult. The nature of Catalan society has certain characteristics (a strong national identity, deep feelings for self-government, etc.) that led to this kind of reaction to recover its lost dignity. Montilla was right, as was the joint editorial.

But things got even worse after the ruling. The power transfer process ground to a halt when the bilateral commission was allowed to wither (a few days ago Mariano Rajoy boasted in a radio interview that he had never transferred any powers to Catalonia). The third additional provision on infrastructure investment was ignored, and since 2014 Spain’s regional financing system, which has been the umpteenth deception, has expired. And on top of everything, the PP has begun a process of recentralization that has made the Statute moot...

Catalonia’s independence movement was born on the grave of the Statute agreement. That was the origin, as everyone knows, and nobody did anything.

Now imagine that the ruling on the Statute had been different: that it had ruled that the text was fully constitutional; that the financing system should respect the criteria of order and position; that infrastructure investment should be set on the average of Catalonia's share of GDP; that the Catalan Taxation Consortium had been put into effect; that the Catalan Justice Council foreseen in the Statute had been implemented; that Catalan could be the "preferential language" of the administration and schools without a hitch. And the most important piece: that the Spanish government was loyal to its commitment to the application of advanced autonomy.

The errors of the Catalan sovereignty movement

Without all that, how could you not expect a part of Catalan society to revolt? The sovereignty process and its leaders could be accused of many things —of lacking realism, of naivety, of having hidden their own weaknesses, of having been victims of a kind of mirage tied to the gigantic demonstrations that made them think that they had more support than they did-- but in no case could it be argued that the movement is an invented phenomenon or promoted by spurious interests.

It has been the response from a specific society, that of Catalonia, to a specific offensive by a homogenizing Spanish nationalism that is now trying to blame the victim and present itself as a solution before those same businesspeople who 10 years ago demanded that Barcelona’s El Prat airport be managed locally and who today applaud those who then turn them down.