The root of the Catalan problem

Anton Costas 

Professor of Economics at the University of Barcelona

 It seems as if we are engaged in a recurrent suspension of self-government. This hopeless vision comes from a possible vicious circle. Let us imagine that, according to what some political leaders are proposing, the implementation of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution was once again agreed upon. As it would not be possible to permanently maintain this exception regime without putting the autonomy state at risk, at some point elections would have to be called.

The result would probably be similar to that of 21-D in 2018. The pro-independence parties would get around 47% of the vote. Point up point down, that is the vote that nationalist parties have had since the first regional elections of 1980. With that result, and while the current electoral law is not changed to make it more proportional, those parties would have a parliamentary majority again. That new government would probably be tempted to transgress legality. The vicious circle would start again.

We must fight against this fatalistic logic. The starting point must be the acceptance that there is a political problem in Catalonia. This may seem like a truism, but it is not. Those who defend the application of the 155 permanently deny the existence of any problem other than unilateral independence. If there is not, they say, nothing should be done, except the strict application of the law.

In this position there is an important diagnostic error. In my opinion, the unilateral independence movement is a consequence, not the cause. The real root of the problem is that Catalonia is the only autonomous community that does not have its Statute approved by referendum of its citizens.

The reason is well known. The ruling of the Constitutional Court of 2010 left the 2006 Statute in no man's land. The great political error was not the sentence itself, but the TC intervened after the people of Catalonia had spoken. There is no democratic basis for that action. The word of the people can not be amended. That left a wide and deep feeling of discomfort with self-government and with the functioning of the autonomous State.

Probably this discomfort is the best explanation for the fact that, in a recurrent and stable manner, about 80% of the people consulted express the desire to participate in a consultation. A larger percentage than the independence vote. Without responding to this political demand, we will continue to be exceptional.

The ANC, which arose precisely in 2011, at the time when this political malaise coincided with the explosion of social indignation against austerity measures, was able to take advantage, very effectively, that discomfort to bring those waters to its mill. And did so by raising the banner of the utopia of unilateral independence, dragging the old nationalist parties into that path.

But the underlying problem is still to respond to the fact that Catalonia is the only community that does not have its Statute approved by its citizens. It is necessary to carry out a consultation. Naturally, not everyone understands it in the same way. Many want it to be about independence. But I think that a large number of people agree that before one has to reinstate the right of all Catalans to have a new Statute. In this way you can also check the breadth and strength of the independence will. Above all, it will allow us to open a calm debate that will allow the restitution of the wounds opened in the year that we have just left behind.

Possibly a new Statute, with the rank of "basic institutional norm" of the Generalitat in all areas of its exclusive competences, requires a limited reform of the Constitution that clarifies, once and for all, which competences are of the State and which are exclusive of the Generalitat. Something that is also necessary for the benefit of the rest of the communities. A reform that will have to be submitted to a referendum among all Spaniards.

This double proposal, a limited reform of the Constitution and a new Estatut, is what the Cercle d'Economia did last May, and that it has reiterated this past week. It is a moderate proposal that I think is worth considering. Possibly it is the only way to find a reasonable solution to the Catalan problem and to conjure up the fatalism that leads us to permanent confrontation.

https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20190123/454268737214/la-raiz-del-problema-catalan.html