Spain needs a coalition of the sober To thwart a resurgent populist party, Spanish moderates should make common cause

LOOKED AT FROM outside, Spain appears to be doing pretty well. Its strong economic recovery from the euro crisis continues, albeit at a slower pace than in the past. Unemployment, though still high, is down to almost half its peak. Bars and restaurants heave with tourists and with Spaniards who once again have cash to spend. Despite that, the country has just been proclaimed the world’s healthiest. Yet as the campaign gets under way for a third general election in little more than three years on April 28th, Spain’s underlying strains should give the voters cause for concern, even alarm.

The first worry involves Catalonia and the aftershocks from the unconstitutional drive for independence by the regional administration there in 2017. This was contained, partly by judicial overreach. A dozen separatist leaders, nine of whom have been in jail for up to 16 months, are now being tried in the Supreme Court on charges potentially punishable by long prison terms. The trial has reinforced tribal loyalties. Polls suggest that some 2m Catalans still want to leave Spain. To many other Catalans and Spaniards, the separatists’ antics constituted an attempted coup that posed a deadly threat to their country. Catalan nationalism has thus revived its Spanish equivalent, largely dormant since the transition to democracy in the 1970s.

The ugliest manifestation of this, and the second worry, is Vox, a previously insignificant ultra-conservative party which rode anger about Catalan separatism and illegal immigration to win 11% of the vote in a regional election in Andalucía in December. Polls suggest it will do at least as well nationally in April. Nationalist and dismissive of gay and women’s rights, a little like the ruling Law and Justice party in Poland, Vox has pulled the mainstream conservative People’s Party (PP) and Ciudadanos, an ostensibly liberal outfit, to the right. Both Pablo Casado, the PP’s new leader, and Albert Rivera of Ciudadanos threaten to impose direct rule on Catalonia, which is only likely to increase support for independence. They have formed a coalition government in Andalucía that depends on the support of Vox.

Vox is also a manifestation of a third concern: the increasing fragmentation of what was a stable two-party system. It is almost inevitable that Spain is heading for a third successive hung parliament. The problem is that the country still needs a strong, reformist administration. Little has been achieved since the PP lost its absolute majority in 2015. To sustain economic growth and social progress, Spain needs to reform education, training and the welfare state. Once the Catalan trial is over, Spaniards also need to rethink the vexed issue of how power should be divided between the centre and the regions.

These problems would test even experienced statesmen. But all the main political leaders are young and relatively green. Though not faultless, Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist prime minister since June, has at least tried to ease the tensions in Catalonia. That, however, prompted howls of outrage on the right and ultimately helped bring down his government.

The biggest worry is that the three largest parties—and especially the PP and Ciudadanos—are expending more energy on squabbling among themselves than in confronting Spain’s problems. Emotion and short-term electoral calculation are trumping the national interest. Given that the PP is still rebuilding itself after a long period in office, Spain’s best hope of reform lies in a coalition between the Socialists and Ciudadanos. It is disturbing that as the campaign began Mr Rivera ruled that out (see article). If the numbers prove not to add up for the Andalucian-style right-of-centre coalition Mr Rivera hankers after, his sectarianism risks prolonged political paralysis in Spain. And if he really believes that Mr Sánchez is a bigger threat to Spanish democracy than Vox, he should think again. The sleep of reason, as a Spanish artist once noted, brings forth monsters.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/02/28/spain-needs-a-coalition-of-the-sober

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A pregnant merchant faces a strike picket line of the CDRs in Barcelona

The clerk argued with a group of protesters who were pressuring her to close her shop

Grego Casanova

Barcelona 21 FEB 2019 - 19:44 CET

Carolina Castillo, 35, and pregnant for four months has starred in one of the images of the strike of February, 21. A video shows how this Honduran saleswoman faces a picket line from the CDRs attacking her establishment in Terrassa (Barcelona), pressing her to close down her store.

"I had to come out because I saw that they wanted to break the glass", said Castillo about the incident. According to her version, a group of CDR approached his premises demanding and shouting her to close the store. It was then when Castillo decided to intervene and go out to the landing, where the demonstrators were crowded, to make them retreat. "When I went out the door they took my magazine rack and started throwing the advertising brochures. Do you know how much each of these magazines costs me?", Castillo lamented.

Then came the scene that shows the video: Castillo, alone, facing a group of young people, some of them hooded, breaking and throwing away the advertising magazines of her store. "Here ends your right, the store is mine and you do not pay the rent, and I have to pay if I close". Castillo has been in charge of this telephony franchise for five years; she has also said she can understand the causes of the protesters but that does not require them to decide whether she has to close or not. "I have another child to take care of, who will pay me the losses for a day without work?"

Castillo also commented that what most impressed her about the incident was the hatred shown by the picketers when she told them she was not going to close. "I have come to work even if I am myself a little bit ill to attend my clients; and then it is outrageous those four children who have never worked in their lives coming to tell you that you have to close", said Castillo.

https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/02/21/catalunya/1550761326_727680.html

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Borrell warns that secessionism "builds a new black legend"

Lucía Abellán

The independentist movement is "committed to building a new black legend" of Spain. 

The Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell, has warned on Wednesday of the scope of the independence speech and has advocated to curb its credibility abroad. "It is in danger no more or less than the territorial integrity of the State," he warned at an information breakfast held in Madrid. On the occasion of the start of the trial of the procés, his ministry has intensified the diplomatic offensive that has been rehearsing for some time to counter the messages of the Catalan independence movement. Borrell met Tuesday with all the ambassadors of EU countries in Spain and his number two was met with representatives of the EU institutions in Strasbourg. There were also information sessions in the main Spanish embassies.

The Government emphasizes that the Catalan secessionism has not harvested a single institutional support in the world. Neither the European organizations nor the government officials of any State have extended their hand to the Catalan representatives since they undertook the path of independence. But its speeches do make a dent in different forums of public opinion. Borrell appealed this morning to what he called Spanish civil society to ask for collaboration. "Help us. Do not fall into that Spanish attitude to talk about what we do wrong to gloat, "he said during the presentation of an act of New Economy Forum in which Irene Lozano, Secretary of State of Spain Global.

In addition to asking citizens for their efforts, the Foreign Minister has stepped on the accelerator coinciding with the start of the trial. Borrell had lunch on Tuesday, the day of the first session of the case, with all the ambassadors from the EU countries highlighted in Madrid. On the same day, six of the main Spanish embassies abroad (including Berlin, London, Rome and Washington) organized informative meetings to defend the democratic credentials of Spain. And the Secretary of State for the European Union, Marco Aguiriano, has traveled to Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament and meeting place this week of the three community institutions, to convey a similar message. There he has met with the heads of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council.

Borrell lamented the "ferocious attacks" and "the fake news" that, in his opinion, propagates the independence world. "The independence movement is desperately looking for international mediation in Spain. They want to give the impression that it is a problem that affects the whole EU, which is why they discredit the image of Spain. That path will not take you anywhere, "he predicted.

Irene Lozano, whose portfolio has as its main mission to defend Spanish reputation abroad, has also recently traveled to Geneva, Brussels and London to reinforce the message that Spain is a credible country endowed with solid and democratic institutions. In a few weeks she will begin another tour that will take her to the United States, among other territories. Asked about the possible erosion that the trial of the procés may cause to the Spanish image, Lozano replied: "The trial gives the image of a country where the rule of law exists. It is a court with all the guarantees and in which the presumption of innocence applies. "

https://elpais.com/politica/2019/02/13/actualidad/1550057377_092938.html

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The independentist movement does not know what it has done

Manel Manchón


Pati dels Tarongers. Palau de la Generalitat. Jordi Pujol, surrounded by journalists, lectures. Let's say they are the 90s, mid or late. A first reflection: José María Aznar is accused of many things, but we must listen to him. It is solid. There is Castilian substance. Thought hard and internalized readings. You have to know the history. "Do you read, you already know the history, of Spain and of Europe? Never stop doing it, "insisted Pujol.

Decade of 2010. A new generation gains power. Pujol should not have insisted too much on the national councils of Convergència on these necessary readings, because it does not seem that the new leaders have learned anything. Pujol knows Spain. And Catalonia. And he knew that, with the impetus of a new Estatut, starting in 2004, things could get very complicated. He was not mistaken, although some told him that the bad procedure could be fixed later with good will and wisdom, of one and the other.

But that did not happen. And an unexpected thing happened: the arrival of a huge economic crisis, systemic, that disrupted vital projects and when that happens it is usually appealing to dreams and chimerical projects. But, did anyone really think that everything done was for free? Not Artur Mas, who now looks like a little de Gaulle waiting to be picked up by Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, or of course Carles Puigdemont, an activist with no idea of ​​what political responsibility means, nor Oriol Junqueras, even if he wanted now to rectify.

The independence movement has played too much. And in Spain a civic substratum gains strength, which can be manipulated or agitated by the parties - as is happening - but which is prior, exists. Is a reality. The Spanish flags on the balconies in Madrid appeared not by any indication of the PP, or Citizens, or an incipient Vox. It is explained by the philosopher Marina Garcés, in her book Ciudad Princesa: her Madrid friends are surprised by these flags, which, they admit, had never been politicized.

It is important for the independentists to understand that comment: "They had never seen it used as a protest flag. At most, as official flag or flag of the national team. But politicized, from the anonymity of the street, had not yet appeared.

That is to say, there has not been a Spanish nationalism, determined to destroy what Catalonia represents.

But now ... Now yes. That substrate has come out and what it can propose is to rethink things, to negotiate again on the rules of the game, and here Catalan nationalism has the power to lose.

Play, stress, explain things that are not, distort, exaggerate, leave in the corner lifelong Catalans, just because those have dared to say that in that way nothing is possible, that without counting the other half of Catalans better do nothing, and, much less, to break the law. That is what has been happening during these last years.

The debate in Madrid is very interesting, but scares in Catalonia. It should be known in depth. This Sunday there will be many people in the streets, protesting against an image, against the perception that only a part speaks and complains, that the political agenda is marked by the independence movement, that the blame is always on the other side. That the Spanish citizens and the non-independent Catalans seem to be at fault of the judgment, as of this week, of some political leaders who crossed the line of legality. And that they should suffer insomnia thinking about the young children of those leaders, because their fathers and mothers are in prison. That is regrettable - the prison - but it must be settled by justice, they do not decide it, nor is it in the hands of Catalan citizens who are not independentists.

What is at stake is that in order to arrive at a real negotiation framework, the other part will take to the streets, exaggerate and demand accounts. And that in this framework, a Spanish Government and a Catalan Government will rethink everything: regional, Catalan and Spanish funding in schools, plurality in public media, own and shared competitions, representation in European institutions ... Everything. And that has a danger: even the Generalitat will lose some feathers along the way.

Really, all that was not thought by the Rulls, Turull, Puigdemont, Junqueras, Comín, and the advising friends, - perhaps the most responsible - like David Madí or José Antich?

Then, the manifestation of PP, Ciudadanos and Vox has no name. It is an aberration, to fan the fire, to take advantage of the moment to charge Pedro Sánchez. Yes, that is true. But the substrate exists. The anger is real.

The independentist movement does not know what it has done.

Pujol did not leave his history books. Or maybe, actually, he did not want them to read them.

https://cronicaglobal.elespanol.com/pensamiento/zona-franca/independentismo-hecho_220629_102.html

 

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After the trial, negotiation - To leave the Catalan labyrinth, the only way offered by democratic politics is to debate to transact. Advancing in stages will be more useful than aiming for a fulminating arrival

JOSEP M. VALLÈS 

 Josep M. Vallès is Professor Emeritus of Political Science (UAB).
 

The frustrated attempt to establish a space for dialogue between the State Governments and the Catalan Generalitat demonstrates the enormous difficulty of overcoming the current deadlock. Within a few days the oral trial begins in the process against the political and social leaders of the independence movement. After its conclusion and whatever its outcome, the conflict that has caused it will remain pending solution. After the publication of the sentence, it will be verified that judicializing the issue was one of the three wrongful departures that have tried to be given to the matter. The others were the doing nothing and the unilateral declaration of independence.

You have to think, therefore, in the day after, when it is verified that things continue in the substantial as they are today, although they are removed from the scene some - not all - of the people who have played a notable role in this issue. We will continue without having an immediate and prefabricated exit. It is motivated, among other things, by the contrasting dynamics that animate public opinion in Spain and Catalonia. A large majority of the opinion in Catalonia - including a notable non-independentist contingent - aspires to an increase in the political capacity of its Government. On the other hand, the majority of Spanish public opinion is inclined to reduce the current degree of territorial self-government or to limit it to the current model.

A significant sample of this contrast has been revealed in the recent and striking declaration of the Regional Parliament of Extremadura as a probable reflection of the opinion of its citizens. According to recent data from the CIS (Survey 3.234, December 2018), 13% of Extremadura are in favor of increasing self-government, while it is 60% of Catalans. In the opposite pole, 30% are inclined in Extremadura to suppress the autonomous communities or recentralize the State, an option that only convinces 14% of Catalans. For the conservation of the current situation, 42% of Extremadura and 23% of Catalans are pronounced. Without pretension of accuracy in the figures, the marked trends are very clear. Positions similar to Extremadura and even more pronounced occur in almost all autonomous communities where there is a minority demand to increase self-government and the tendency to decrease it or, in any case, to comply with the currently available.

This disparity of tendencies between the Catalan opinion - shared only with the Basque Country and Navarra - and the other communities has been maintained for some time. Its persistence is the cause and signal of the complexity of the issue at hand. For this reason, solutions as simple as preserving - whether judicially, governmentally or militarily - the substance of the current status quo or attempting to alter it in a radical manner unilaterally will hardly succeed. What is left to politics as a way out?

A large majority of the opinion in Catalonia aspires to an increase in the political capacity of its Government.

In a democratic context, politics must embark on the long and complicated negotiation path in order to reach a compromise. It is the way that aspires to commitment. The democratic way is not the "all or nothing", "white or black", "yes or yes". It is made of mutual concessions. The defeat without palliative of the adversary is not proposed, nor does it demand its unconditional surrender. Because, among other reasons, it is supposed to continue living with him.

However, the negotiation path is not going to come easy or quickly because the starting situation is notably deteriorated. And when it starts, it must also adjust to some conditions. It will demand patience and endurance because it will take a long journey. For this reason, it will be advisable to approach it as a step by step, adopting a gradualist perspective.

Moving forward in stages will be more useful than aiming for a fulminating arrival to a result. In some of these stages, it will be necessary to have recourse to a referendum or consultation agreed on the agreed conditions: without a direct popular revalidation, it will be very difficult to ensure a solid application of the agreement. Finally, this long march will have to be headed hand in hand by the Governments of the State and the Catalan Government. Because the territorial problem has always sounded in Spain - and continues to sound - with a strong Catalan accent, clearly perceptible unless there is intense political deafness. This does not mean that there must also be moments of multilateralism, because there are other actors with legitimated interests to intervene. But without pretending that submerging the "Catalan question" in a general treatment, the appropriate response to the problem can be found more easily.

Without a direct popular revalidation, it will be very difficult to ensure a solid application of any agreement.
 
Are fellow travelers on this negotiation path? I think not. We just saw it. As far as Catalonia is concerned, it is essential to build a position shared by a large majority. Although at first sight it does not look like it, there are indications that there are elements to be developed in the medium term, overcoming factional interests or personalist concerns. On the part of the State, the Government of President Sánchez voluntarily tries to approach the negotiation route. But his precarious position prevents him from taking more decisive steps, subject as he is to the relentless harassment of frontal adversaries and alleged friends. The media climate and the interests that this climate reflects are particularly hostile to him when it comes to the problem in question.

The conclusion is that the journey towards an effective negotiation does not yet have the basic conditions to start it with some chances of success. We must add to the current difficulties those that will represent the trial that awaits us or the uncertain outcome of future electoral calls. However, despite all the problems that arise, negotiation seems the only viable alternative for the political system to manage without collapsing a problem of this magnitude. Negotiation within the law, certainly. But with an interpretation of the law so generous and imaginative at least, like the one that allowed Andalusia to accede to autonomy via Article 151 without fulfilling its requirements or the one that confers in practice to Navarre a quasi-confederal relationship with the State .

And while this negotiation does not come, an effort of self-containment in language would be very useful, shunning not only the direct injury to the dissenting or the ironic disqualification of their arguments, but also the neglect of their reasons and motivations as if the mere fact of ignoring them I could make them disappear. It is a responsibility of political leaders, communication professionals and all citizens who honestly want to get out of the current labyrinth by the only route offered by democratic politics: negotiate to transact.

This route will have to resort, later than desirable, when we check after the future ruling of the Supreme Court that the problem is still there, claiming a way out more complex than the wrong solutions of criminal law or unilateral adventurism.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/06/opinion/1549471702_318099.html

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"We can not participate in a demonstration that goes against the Government"

Àngels Piñol

 

The president of the Catalan Civil Society rejects the application of article 155 as an electoral weapon.

Josep Ramon Bosch (Santpedor, Barcelona, ​​1963), president of Societat Civil Catalana. He was one of the founders of the entity, whose presidency, which he now holds, also held between 2014 and 2015.

Question. Why have you decided not to participate in the demonstration called by PP, Ciudadanos and Vox?

Answer. First because it is in Madrid and our field of work is in Catalonia. It is true that its motto is for the unity of Spain and there we are comfortable, but we can not be in a demonstration that is largely against the Government. People may like Pedro Sánchez more or less, but he is a legitimate president and we have to be with the Government. However, the board has six people and two will participate (one is Esperanza García, a member of the PP in the Parlament). I will not participate.

Q. Does it seem counterproductive to hold such a demonstration?

A. All the demonstrations serve if it is to channel the anger. I understand that people want to manifest themselves. I am not a supporter of demonstrations or flags and it is neither good nor positive to do so in times of tension.
 

Q. Your decision surprises ...
 

A. Civil Society has always been very transversal. We have people who come from Catalanism, Spanishism, socialism or the PP. We want to represent a plurality. They define us as very right wing and Spanishists for going against the procés. And we have argued that this is not the case. We have been faithful to our founding principles: together better and talk as little as possible about politics.

Q. You have been an advisor to Manuel Valls, candidate for Citizens. What do you think that he have decided to change his mind and go to the demonstration?

A. He has always been very clear with Vox and in France he faced the extreme right and Marine Le Pen. I spoke with him and he had doubts: he is close to Citizens and Catalanism and he had that duality. But he has said that he considers that the demonstration is not in favor of the right but of the unity of Spain.
 

Q. What do you think the Government has suspended negotiations with the pro-independence activists after accepting the figure of the rapporteur from the outset?
 

A. The limits of the dialogue are the Constitution. And there is no room for self-determination: Catalonia is not a colony, nor an oppressed people, nor is there an armed conflict in it, which are the assumptions contemplated by the UN. I understand that the Government has broken the negotiations unilaterally. I could not accept that blackmail. I assume the words of Felipe González. The only rapporteur is the Constitution.

Q. What should the dialogue be according to you?
 

A. Obviously, you have to talk. The two governments are legitimate. It is about talking about how to turn around that a significant percentage of Catalans have abandoned the idea of ​​Spain. I have a very good relationship with people close to ANC or Òmnium. I've always talked to independentists. The vast majority of my family and friends are and are not my enemies or rivals. And that does not mean I'll stop talking to them because they have ideological differences.

Q. You have just assumed the position again and it gives the impression that it has softened.
 

A. I have always manifested myself as a Catalanist defending Spain and I have made it clear that my cultural nation is Catalonia and that my political nation is Spain. I defend the unity of Catalan. When Societat Civil arose, our speech was groundbreaking with respect to that monolithic of the procés and they accused us of unionists and Spanishists. But our speech is firm and clear regarding the unity of Spain. From what unit? We can talk about many. When I say that my language and my culture is Catalan, I am breaking many stories about the unity of Spain.
 

Q. You said you were concerned about the emergence of a Spanish inflamed nationalism. What did you mean?
 

A. It is the law of the pendulum. Nationalism is war. Before a Catalan nationalism, almost identitarian, we now see another Castilian nationalism, which is framed in the Spanish flag confusing Castile with Spain. We are in a deaf dialogue. We defend Catalanness as our way of being Spanish. We are against the Catalan nationalism that conceives Spain as a strange reality and against that Castilian nationalism that arrogates the representation of Spain, the Castilian court and a concept that considers that Catalan and Catalanism are not part of that Spanish discourse. My speech is not accepted by everyone and is uncomfortable both here and there and is going against the current.

Q. PP and Citizens are wrong?
 

A. I will not go into the easy criticism of the parties. I'm not in favor of inflaming the street. I do not think that Vox is of extreme right: it is a Catholic right that could connect with the Carlist concept of the 19th century. And I do not feel reflected with that right. I do not want to criticize PP, Vox and Citizens but I do not feel comfortable with this call.

P. PP and Citizens request the application of 155 permanently Do you agree?
 

A. It is not good to use the threat of 155 by electoral interests. We are in favor whenever necessary. Applying the 155 will not help to solve the issue if it is not accompanied by a story directed especially to Catalan speakers who have abandoned the idea of ​​Spain.
 

Q. But 155 applies when the law is broken. The Government has done it?
 

A. The Govern, whom they accuse of opening embassies, which are actually commercial delegations, is not governing. But I do not see the Generalitat not complying with Spanish laws or outlaws at the moment. If it had been a republic or an independent state, they would have freed the prisoners and the Mossos would protect them. And they have not done so: they have scrupulously complied with the EC precepts and the statute.

Q. The trial starts on Tuesday. Are you afraid there is tension in the street?
 

A. No. I live two kilometers from the prison of Lledoners. On weekends I go out with the bike and I pass by the jail. I have seen thousands of people who, although sad about the situation, have gone to jail to see the prisoners with a festive spirit and without throwing a paper on the floor. I do not see any state of violence or revolution or incidents. Catalonia is not a violent society. We do not live in a state of war as they sometimes say. I live in Santpedor, with an independence majority, and I have never had a bad look or incident. The worst was on October 1st. I experienced it as a very important drama. It was tremendous family break with several of my relatives but now it has gone back. I live calm. There are moments of tension and we have to lower it among all. I am very sorry for the acts of vandalism and aggressions against Citizens militants for putting up tents.
 

Q. Pablo Casado says that the independence agenda is the agenda of ETA.
 

A. It is not, but it is true that the independence movement is sometimes accompanied by voices close to ETA. Otegi is regarded as a flag and Terra Lliure's relationship with the ETA has never been fully clarified. But it is not true that one thing can be compared to another. The vast majority of the independence movement is peaceful and calm although there are radicals as everywhere,

Q. How do you get out of this situation?

 

A. With a lot of time. It is a work of the future. We leave with a story. Separatism has been defeated and the unilateral path is over. There is a very high percentage of voters (47%) that votes to independentist parties because the unionist parties do not give way to the situation. We must return to centrality and reduce the percentage to 25%. I am a rare avis, I have eight Catalan last names and I feel very Catalan and Spanish, but there are very few like me. Nationalism is a bit like the gatopardo: change everything so that nothing changes. And the independence movement in the end is a cry of despair of Catalanness. Many have abandoned the feeling of Spain because there is no Spanish story for the Catalans. There is not a Spain for the Catalans. Catalanism was born with the mission to conquer economically but also culturally and politically to Spain. It is a way of feeling Spain from our way of being.

https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/02/09/catalunya/1549723376_078271.html 

 

 

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The 'counter-procés'

Carles Francino

Spanish nationalism, which exists and is transversal, and which is as legitimate a feeling as any other, is copying step by step the strategy of the 'procés'

No matter how hard we try, and be sure that I try every day, it is impossible to escape the explosive cyclogenesis that Spanish politics has become. The resounding derailment of the proposal to place a rapporteur in the negotiations on Catalonia is at the moment the last chapter. But, in line with this explosive cyclogenesis, wanted to refer to the next Sunday demonstration in Madrid against Pedro Sanchez as a big storm, because there will be lightning and thunder everywhere, and just as by now the storms are known by specific names, I think we could baptize that call for demonstration with a very significant name: 'counter-procés'. The 'counter-procés', in case there was any doubt, is already a reality in Spain. Do you want a very curious detail? Since 2014, in all the independence demonstrations in Catalonia, the motto has been:  'Fill the streets to fill the ballot boxes’.

The article that this Friday publishes Pablo Casado in the newspaper 'El Mundo' is entitled: "Fill the squares to fill the ballot boxes". Someone might say: coincidence? No. Spanish nationalism, which exists and is transversal, and which is a feeling as legitimate as any other, is copying step by step the strategy of the 'procés'. Banners on the balconies, emotional appeals, appeals to the common homeland, demonstrations on the streets, general mobilizations; and those who do not agree with this will immediately be treated as "traitors, not patriots, felons ..." Exactly the same thing that the independence movement in Catalonia has done in recent years; only with some linguistic nuance: in Catalonia the traitor, the not patriot is also called 'botifler'.

However, ¡watch out, very important!, this 'counter-procés' covers a huge space. Toni Martinez describes it splendidly in the 'Huffington Post': "This story -he says- is not of Vox, neither of the PP, nor of Rivera, nor of the old guard of the PSOE, nor of the pro-Spain sectors of Podemos, nor of the socialist barons, neither of the King, nor of the powers of the State, nor of the mass media, nor of the taxi drivers, nor of the pub conversations; it belongs to no one and belongs to everyone”. Because that story arises from the fact that the Constitution of 78 was drafted at a time when screaming "Spain" was embarrassing because it was associated with the Franco regime. Therefore it was a hung up Spain which remained. And, on the contrary, it was a moment of sympathy towards the peripheral and progressive nationalisms.

But some of these nationalisms did go too far; we must punish those responsible for this disloyalty and redistribute the cards of 1978. This would be a little bit of a summary, and I am convinced that this discourse, this idea -with all the nuances if you want- is subscribed to by the right, left, through the center, from north to south and from east to west all over Spain. But there is something else, and I want to say it: just as in the Catalan sovereignty drift there were too many people, for too long a time, who kept silent for fear of the hegemonic discourse of independence, now I also find clamorous the lack of reply or alternative to this tsunami, which might end not with independence but with less self-government. In short: 'procés' and 'counter-procés'. May god catch confessed those trapped in the middle - we are quite a few -.

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/opinion/20190208/articulo-opinion-carles-francino-el-contraproces-conflicto-catalan-nacionalismo-espanol-pablo-casado-7294138

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Nothing happens until it happens

Daniel Gascón

Pedro Sánchez's memoir is an anecdote. But it is not always clear what is the accessory and significant, farce and tragedy: it is surprising that the President of the Government signs a contract with a publishing group or that he has found time to finish a book while performing a theoretically demanding position. Regardless of their abilities, the person chosen to give "literary form" to Sánchez's autohagiography is designated to promote the image of Spain abroad shows a disconcerting closeness between the private and the public, and a reckless confusion between interests of the State and narcissistic frivolity.

Something similar happens with more serious cases, such as the discredit of the CIS or the polemic of the rapporteur and the table of parties. To save their budgets, a president without a mandate and with parliamentary weakness accepted part of the framework of defeated Catalan secessionism. It could be presented as a justifiable symbolic concession or a commitment to dialogue. But also as the acceptance of the fallacy that we are in a conflict between Catalonia and Spain, and not in a dispute between Catalans; the recognition that it is a problem that we can not resolve according to the stipulated channels and perhaps not even among us; or the staging of a bilateral relationship.

The debate follows a known mechanism. A botched government announcement causes perplexity and criticism: in the party, in valuable people who believe in the project, in voters and in opinion leaders.

The exaggerated and irresponsible reaction of the PP and Citizens is a lifeline for the Executive, analysts and aspiring spin doctors.

All dissent is attributed to a brutalized right. In an exercise of trumpery transversality, some and others apply a similar formula: euphemism and rationalization to describe the mistakes of the affines; superlatives and moralizing judgment to categorize those of others.

The hullabaloo dilutes the possibility of assessing the initial errors: we do not know how much they matter, nor what confusion helps an extreme right that does not even need to act much.

Nothing ever happens until it happens: we all think that our cause is the only true one and that the scarcity of public conversation is the fault of others, and we trust that the climate of polarization, lexical inflation and hysteria will not break the institutions that we degrade every day

https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/08/opinion/1549629753_191053.html

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A platform is born to bring together liberal Catalanism

Iñaki Ellakuría,

Eva Parera is in charge of a transversal group that will attend the Catalan elections.

A new political object has started in Catalonia, after a long time of analysis and elaboration in the kitchen.

A group of outstanding Catalan personalities that will try to add all the parties of this sensibility in a great electoral platform in the next elections to the Generalitat. As the first face and voice of this project, which will try to bring together liberal and conservative Catalanism that feels "orphan" of representatives, is the lawyer Eva Parera, one of the founders of Units and who could be in the first positions of the candidacy of Manuel Valls to the mayor of Barcelona. Next to her, another of the names that this newspaper has been able to know is that of the businesswoman Remei Gómez, who was a candidate of CiU to the mayor of Bellaterra.

This platform, which over time has the vocation to become a more ambitious subject, be it an association of parties or an independent and autonomous party, arises from the concern of a large number of people from different parties, traditions and sensibilities -some closer to the post-convergent space, others to the activism against independence, there is no shortage of those who do not possess previous political baggage- because of the social and political fracture due to the independence process. Amen of the "urgency" of placing political Catalanism as the axis and engine of debate in Catalonia.

Very different profiles of people who have decided to take a step forward in the face of the crisis in Catalonia and who hope to build ties and complicities to build, explain, an alternative for those 75% of Catalans who feel comfortable with their multiple identity, since according to the polls, they assume their status as Spaniards and Catalans without problems, and they reject any rupturist way.

"It's not a hostile takeover"

"It is not a hostile takeover to anyone, it is an attempt to normalize the social and political life of Catalonia," they say, aware of the difficulties they will encounter with some of the leaders who are now trying to take control of Catalanism, such as the former Ramon. Espadaler, leader of Units and current deputy of the PSC group in the Parliament, which advocates strengthening its strategic alliance with the Socialists.

"In Catalonia there are many people who are Catalan but not from the left, we must and can offer them a political project," they affirm from the new platform, pointing out that one of their natural voting grounds is that of PDECAT sympathizers in economic matters, social and even cultural, but who are disgusted with the "radical drift" of recent years. "There is a clamor in many sectors of Catalan society to recover seny and Catalanism," they add.

The articulation of this new Catalan political movement, which in the coming weeks will announce its name and logo, as well as other people that comprise it and a calendar of actions, is not entirely alien to the transverse candidacy of Manuel Valls in Barcelona and luck that the French-Catalan politician may have in the municipal elections of May.

The possible arrival of Valls to the city council of the Catalan capital would suppose a definitive impulse to the project to construct a new party that agglutinates to all the space of the liberal and conservative Catalanism, to which they consider orphan after the disappearance of CiU. In fact, in recent months and before formalizing its existence, the promoters of this platform have hired the services of one of the most reputable sociologists in Spain to analyze whether in the current Catalan political board there is room for a new Catalanist party and in the center. The calculations of this guru is that it has options to get between 11 and 20 deputies.

https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20190208/46283504825/catalanismo-cataluna-postconvergente-plataforma-manue-valls-eva-parera-independencia-espana.html

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The United States of Europe

Remei Margarit 
Psychologist and writer


 With the emergence of some nationalisms in some states that make up the European Union, it seems that right-wing political parties are simultaneously emerging with xenophobic programs and against human rights, as if in a weakening of democracies, in society they would let go the furies. On the need for a European federalism, there is a book that needs to be read: The federalism seen by Isidre Molas.

Talks with Manel Vega (Base editorial), in which after a master class in history about the roots of federalism, there is in chapter 9 "The federal idea as a political proposal for the future", where it says that a European Constitution of minimum for Europe, with laws and European justice is needed.

And I quote textually: "Neoliberalism defends that it is the markets that have to decide; In other words, the freedom of capital. But wealth is not created by markets, but created by people: entrepreneurs, technicians and workers (...) democracy, on the other hand, demands that the representatives of citizens participate in the creation of the future conditions of the latter, themselves". And also: "The emerging European Union will be a powerful space if it jointly has a common system marked by the welfare state and law, based on the freedom of the people and social reforms to distribute the living conditions to level the stadiums of material dignity of the people ".

Live by agreeing with differences and with respect for each culture and customs as long as they are included in the minimum laws of the European Constitution. A federation of different states with laws of proximity of each State, but under the umbrella of the federation.

In these times of ours, so deranged of new technologies that spread infinite freedoms for all, it is necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff to know that all these unlimited promises are only a bait that benefits only a few powerful groups of capital that do not have the more minimal interest in the redistribution of wealth. Neoliberalism, then, is making its campaign.

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Why a social federalism?

Nicolás Sartorius chairs the Association for a Federal Spain.

Why a social federalism?

There are those who oppose the culmination of the autonomic state in a federal model and do not realize that we are falling into a kind of "confederate bilateralism" that generates inequalities and dislocations

Whenever democracy has made its way in Spain, it has tended towards federalizing formulas of state organization, while dictatorships have imposed the most rigid centralism. Apart from the ill-fated First Federal Republic, deranged by own and strangers, the Constitution of the Second Republic, despite its definition as "integral State" - it was not going to brand itself as "disintegrated" state - established the autonomy of municipalities and regions. Autonomy that was reflected in the statutes of Catalonia, the Basque Country and the non-born statutes of Galicia and Andalusia due to the start of the Civil War. It is likely that others would have arisen - there was a project for Extremadura - if the Republic had survived. In the end, federalism is the most natural form of our state, because we are a plural country in its unity with different languages, cultures, rights and institutions within a common history. So common that when in Spain there is democracy or dictatorship, monarchy or republic, this is so in all the territories, however much some keep insisting on secessionist fantasies. Even when a separate life has been tried, taking advantage of the end of the European wars, both in the I and in the II, the stake did not find the slightest echo in the decision-making powers.

In the Constitution of 1978, with the state form of parliamentary Monarchy, we agreed what has been called the state of autonomies, with nationalities - "condition and peculiar character of the peoples and individuals of a nation" (as defined by the RAE) - and regions, extending the statutes to all of them. It was a historic advance of decentralization of political power, which the doctrine has come to describe as "quasi federal". But in politics, as in life, you cannot always be "almost something" without paying a price. Citizens have been told that there is no difference between autonomy and federation and this is not true. How could it be true with the Senate that we have, far from the territorial Chamber that orders article 69.1 of the Constitution? How is it going to be true with the competition bustle that we drag and the general discontent over the financing system?

We do not have, for certain important territorial issues, institutions that allow deliberation, coordination and common decision, which produces a perverse effect aggravated with the passage of time. Perversity consisting on each autonomous community, - faced with that lack of composition of the collective will between the Government of the nation and the different political communities -, tending, inexorably, to establish a "bilateral" relationship with the central government, in order to go ahead with each one’s ambitions, that is, the "what about mine - be it a AVE, a better financing, a "historical debt", the transfer of competences, etc. Demands whose possibility of success depends, many times, on the need that the current government has for the votes of the members of Parliament coming from said autonomous community. Thus, apart from the traditional nationalist parties, political parties have emerged, more or less nationalist or regionalist, which in certain occasions are essential for the necessary governance of the country and, as is logical, request a particular toll for their votes. That is to say, there are those who oppose the culmination of the state of the autonomies into a federal model and do not realize that we are falling into a kind of "confederate bilateralism," which generates inequalities and not a few unbalances.

40 years have passed since the 1978 Constitution was adopted and too many things have changed: we belong to the EU and it is not even mentioned in the Constitution; we have built the welfare state, whose main competences correspond to the autonomous communities; the feminine revolution is a transforming fact; globalization has accelerated and not taking into account its effects implies not knowing in what world one lives; the digital revolution changes everything in all aspects, including that of rights; threats in the form of nationalisms, populisms and anti-European movements, which spread like leprosy throughout Europe, have come out of the economic crisis and inequality. Can we stay static? The Constitution of 1978 is the best thing that we have done in our history and it is still valid in the fundamental, but it is convenient to update it if we do not want to place it in a state of risk.

The strength of the state depends, in essence, on the social and territorial cohesion that are, in my opinion, inseparable. Both are the ones that make institutions strong by achieving a solid adherence of citizens to them. Let us recognize that, today, they do not go through their best moment. Addressing a partial reform of our Constitution - and not an inconvenient and unfeasible constituent process - in those two very important matters would be the most necessary and prudent. Completing our autonomies in a federalism based on the principles of cooperation, institutional loyalty, solidarity, unity and pluralism would strengthen our democracy. A social federalism that should recognize certain social goods such as health, pensions, or housing in certain circumstances, with the same guarantees that fundamental rights enjoy today. A federalism inserted in an EU that is poised to federate if it wants to successfully confront the current dissolving threats. A danger, by the way, which either we confront with a greater political union, or the progress made in economic integration will be questioned, as it is already happening.

It is a stupid argument to say that for this political move a consensus is needed that today does not exist, and that, in addition, the secessionist parties would not be satisfied with a reform of this tenor. It is forgotten that consensus is not a starting point but a product of the relationship of forces and necessity, when the other options are only worse. Or does anyone believe that the 1978 Constitution was the product of a prior consensus? In addition, the proposed reform is not due to a secessionist phenomenon but to a national need. However, it is more than likely that a part of those who today proclaim independence would support a more social and more federal common project. It is also argued that, with the current environment of confrontation between the parties and even with forces that on one side and another -nationalisms of different coats- raise the constitutional rupture, it does not seem the most realistic thing to pretend to advance in a federal direction. The temptation would be to take refuge in the popular "little virgin, let me stay as I am." Big mistake, because precisely because of these tensions and threats it is more necessary than ever to address the reforms that would correct the current dysfunctions and thus strengthen our state. This would also contribute to renewing the constitutional pact with the participation of young generations who had no chance to vote on the 1978 Constitution.


 

Perhaps the most arduous in this task would be the building up of a state of opinion favorable to changes that eventually would end up as a citizen movement which would facilitate the necessary consensus. Because we must always be aware that a reform of the Constitution must be the outcomed of broad agreements between different political forces and with the citizenry. I think it's worth a try.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/01/26/opinion/1548523366_158070.html

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Destroy or build?

Alfredo Pastor

Professor of Economics, Iese


We run a serious risk that today's situation would deteriorate to such an extent that, once again, our history might end badly. It has been written that Spain would cease to exist when Catalonia and Euskadi would eventually be independent and the PSOE would become the Andalusian Party. It is up to the reader to decide whether we are not approaching that end.

"We will not be less!” can be heard in Andalusia. "We want to be more!" can be heard in Catalonia and is thought about in Euskadi. "We will not negotiate with those who want to break Spain!" someone is shouting from Madrid, and now also from Seville. During the next months the electoral rhetoric, on the one hand, and the atmosphere that will surround the view of the 1-O trial, on the other, will poison the environment even more. Some will appeal, as they have been doing, to our most primal instincts, while others will try to turn the trial into a general cause against Spanish institutions. No need to speculate on how things can evolve to conclude that, in the best case, they will leave us a very bad country. So much so, that for the first time in many years it is not unreasonable to imagine that the Spain in which we have lived is in the process of disappearing, not necessarily as a result of a cataclysm, but because of the mixture of envy, longing for power, daydreams and lies that are facing us with the worst of ourselves, thus eating away our society.

Is that what we want? Otherwise, do not believe that it is enough to wait seated until it stops raining. We could take advantage of the opportunity provided by the independence frenzy to brighten our institutions, but that will not happen: the forces that both sides have unleashed are not forces of unity but of division, and are destined to destroy rather than to build. That is, without exaggerating, the question: destroy or build up Spain.

If we want to build up we have to start by facing three facts. The first is that achieving the independence of Catalonia is today impossible. Not only because a majority of the citizens of Catalonia do not want it, so that a unilateral declaration of independence would lead us to a civil conflict, but also because the rest of Spain does not want it; the Spanish state would not tolerate it and nobody would force it to do it. The second is that the pre-autonomic Spain that seems to propose the PP is equally impossible. The state of the autonomies is very improvable, but nobody will renounce to it for the sake of greater efficiency, of which, by the way, the state Administration is not the best example. Perhaps the "coffee for all" approach was an error, but today it is as consolidated as the union of Aragon and Castile in 1479, and few doubt that the state of the autonomies has been more beneficial for the whole of the Spanish population than a centralized Spain, along the line of France, in which the real Spain has never felt comfortable. The third is that we live in a world where the influence that a country can have depends in large part on its size. The European states do not seem to want to admit that their individual role in the world today is very secondary. Only a more cohesive Europe can aspire to make its voice heard. The voice of Spain is only occasionally heard. An independent Catalonia, even within Europe, would only have a role in the few occasions in which the EU protocol would grant it.

Accepting these three truths is only a necessary condition, but the supporters of building up have much more to offer. On the one hand, Catalanism is much more than a pro-independence movement which, after inflicting considerable damage to our institutions - perhaps to a good extent deserved - has paid off its last adventure with a resounding failure. On the other hand, the great projects that could build up a more productive Spain can only be undertaken for the whole country, so that having a Spain not only more united but, above all, better united would be beneficial for all. To build up you have to start by talking. Not each one for their own and only audience, but with each other. In Catalonia, many initiatives have emerged that want to promote this approach. We must encourage and extend them, and try to make them visible, since in the climate we live there are those who prefer to maintain their constructive spirit with prudent silence, and they would appreciate knowing that they are not alone. We must not forget, finally, that in the European environment there are winds of disorientation and rupture blowing, so that wanting to build up might seem to be going against the tide. However, the effort is worth it, because a sincere dialogue, based on the three facts mentioned, will prove that unity, not imposed but accepted, is better than a division that today, unfortunately, we cannot yet rule out.


https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20190129/4671694619/destruir-o-construir.html

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Bernard-Henri Lévy: "Puigdemont has spat in the face of Spain and democracy in Europe"

Bernard-Henri Lévy is about to embark on a kind of liberal apostolate.

He has written Looking for Europe , a monologue in which he plays an intellectual who racks his brains for an hour and a half to write a speech on Europe.

The desire of the French philosopher is not merely artistic. The work is a call to action against the foreseeable nationalist rebirth in the next elections to the European Parliament.

Lévy will tour 24 European cities, including Spain's Valencia (March 20), Barcelona (March 25) and Madrid (March 26).

 He says he goes on tour for two reasons, because the situation in the European Union is emergency and because it can be reversed. He has just arrived in Madrid from Barcelona, ​​to which he has granted the capital designation of populism and where he has announced the return of Albert Boadella to a Catalan theater. In the role of a nationalist.

His work Looking for Europe is located in a hotel room in Sarajevo. The choice is not idle. Why is there almost no talk of nationalism? There is talk of populism, independence, other formulas, when the word nationalism helps to understand both the past and the present of Europe.

You are right and that is the reason why I go out to look for Europe. Looking for Europe is an emergency call that tries to warn about the danger of nationalism. Being proud of your identity is fine, but closing yourself to the other and raising walls is a nightmare, it is the mother of wars and the worst miseries and you tend to forget it. I try to remember it in my work. Nationalism is a ghost that goes back to Europe and that phantom must be identified as such.

Spain is a very pro-European country but the image of the European Union came out badly damaged by the procés. It is difficult to understand that a fugitive like Carles Puigdemont would find refuge in the heart of Europe.
 
    It is true. Spain has built an exemplary democracy in a few years. The Transition is an example of how a country can emerge from the darkness of fascism and build a democracy. Moreover, Spain has built the paradigm of a State, which is not the French Jacobin State, nor a federal State like the United States, nor a confederal State. It is a very unique type of nation-state that you invented when you left Francoism and I am not sure that Europe has recognized to what extent it should be appreciated, protected and praised. I do not know if Europe has managed to understand that not only the Spanish people should be proud of the creation of this very special paradigm of State, but also that the rest of Europeans should be proud. The way in which Puigdemont has been welcomed in his escape and the way we have accepted this comedy, this provocation, in Belgium or in Germany is quite unfair for Spain. I know that many European citizens think like me.

Especially in France.
 
    And also in Belgium. And in the European institutions. There are many people who know that what Puigdemont has done is spit in the face not only of Spain but of democracy in Europe in general.

Are your predictions about the upcoming European Parliament elections so grim?
 
    No no. It all depends on the democrats, the liberals on the left and the right, waking up. If that happens, the European Union can prevail.

Are you on time?

    Yes they are. I would not undertake this exhausting campaign, I would not travel city by city as I am doing all over Europe if I did not have the hope that there can be an awakening and that the populists and the nationalists can be defeated, that we can prove they are cheats, some impostors, some demagogues and that would take people to hell. I am convinced that populism is fighting against the people, that theirs is not the way to help people but to submerge their heads underwater.

Would you include within that band of populists, demagogues and cheats that speaks to a force like Vox?

    Yes. Vox belongs to the same family. It is a new game that we do not yet know exactly all the points of his program and that has not yet been completely unmasked. This type of games tend to advance with a mask that is falling slowly. You will soon see how close Vox is from Marine Le Pen and leaders like Viktor Orbán. They have the same strategy and will have the same allies. You will see how Steve Bannon pays them a lot of attention, if he has not already done so. I can assure you that before my work is released, you will see how Steve Bannon appears interacting with Vox. It is news that I can already anticipate.

But in all these forces that you mention there are particularities. Le Pen is secular and does not share the confessional part of Vox, Salvini is a federalist.

    I came here 40 years ago to Madrid to have a debate with Santiago Carrillo in a program called La Clave. There I said that communism and fascism shared the same agenda. Of course they were not the same, they even fought each other for decades. Of course Carrillo was an antifascist all his life. There was more than differences between them: there was an abyss. And yet they had a common agenda. The same thing happens today. Of course Vox, Marine Le Pen and Salvini maintain differences, much less than Carrillo with Franco, and yet the agenda is the same: ruin the values ​​of European liberal democracy that we strive to defend. Forty years ago, Carrillo's friends became very angry with me, insulted me and told me that I could not compare him. I was right.

Extremism often benefits from the fact that the voter acts in a more frivolous manner in the European elections and uses them to punish their respective governments.

    In this time of crisis, when we have so many external enemies, Chinese trade imperialism, Putin's ambition for power, Trump's betrayal, Erdogan's hatred, every election is important. It is not just a way to punish your president. These European elections are crucial and I am campaigning to explain it. The situation is too dramatic to consider these elections as any. They are crucial.

In your work there is a strong emotional charge. It's interesting Liberal forces seem to have given up the emotional charge of politics and believe that it is enough to state a truth in order to be recognized.

    We have to be careful with the emotions because it is the path that leads to populism but at the same time we should not leave the populists the monopoly of emotion. We Europeans, democrats, liberals, we have to walk on two legs: knowledge and emotion. The policy is composed of both and we have to be able to connect them. As a modest writer, what I try is to unite both threads.

You have no qualms about talking about patriotism.

    I define myself as a citizen of Europe of French origin and language. The language is my wealth, I am a writer, my origin is very important, but first of all I am a citizen of Europe.

With the crisis in Venezuela, the idea that Europe is incapable of defending itself and that in the end it has to be a platoon of American Marines that saves civilization returns. In other words, Europe is too slow a bureaucracy that does not respond to the challenges of the moment.

    Europe is what the states of Europe have decided it to be. Your bureaucrats can give their best but they have a mandate from Spain, from France, from Germany ... Now what we have to do is expand the margins of that mandate. Because now that we see Trump abandoning us and Putin attacking us, we have to build a more powerful force, we must have a common defense, a common foreign policy. We must be able to do it, otherwise we will be devoured by our enemies.

How is it possible that Emmanuel Macron has yielded to the violence of the yellow vests?

    He has not given in. He has done something very different. There are two phenomena in France. The yellow jackets with their violence, their hatred of the republic, their anti-Semitism and their racism. And then you have some economic claims about some real problems. What Macron did was to open the debate but not to the yellow vests but to all the French. You have proposals and ideas, let's put them on the table. Macron is thus inventing a new form of democratic deliberation about the ideas that people have begun to share and that experts did not see coming. It is a good democratic experience.

https://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2019/01/31/5c51d1db21efa088638b460f.html

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