Infiltrators of the pro-independence movement - After gaining union weight, secessionism faces the assault on the chambers of commerce

Agustí Sala



Saturday, 09/03/2019 at 09:00 CET





At times I remember the movie 'The Departed', by Martin Scorsese, in which the rookie policeman Billy Costigan, played by Leonardo di Caprio, joins the band of the powerful boss of the Irish mafia Frank Costello (the histrionic Jack Nicholson).

Saving distances, of course, without mafias or camouflaged police, the reference serves to describe how pro-independence civil movements like the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) promote the assault (legal and democratic) to institutions and entities of the 'establishment' in Catalonia. And they also get enthusiastic support from the Government, driven by a certain desire for revenge against the established economic powers, which, in their opinion, left the 'procés' in the lurch. "Now it is our time to change the correlation of forces", it seems they are saying to themselves.

This infiltration attempt, in addition to the political colonization carried out in numerous professional chartered institutions and associations over the last years, may have one of its high points in the upcoming elections to the chambers of commerce, with a candidacy being promoted by the ANC or the Cercle Català de Negocis. Its objective is to obtain the maximum number of members in the plenary sessions of these institutions, especially in Barcelona, in order to gain a presidency that is as favorable as possible to the independence movement and, if possible, to unilateralism. More than business interests, they openly defend political and secessionist objectives.

Another episode of this offensive has been the last union elections in the central and territorial services of the Generalitat. The Intersindical CSC, a residual union so far, which called the last and failed  'country strike on 21 February - encouraged by the Govern - has become the second most voted force, with just over 20% of the total and has gone from 4 to 35 delegates 'Vote for a trade union committed to the country', encouraged the ANC from its twitter account.

In a similar line, the chamber elections, which should be held between May 2 and 8, can give those who openly support the infiltration of secessionism in all institutions and entities of the economic and social world an important boost. 'The chambers of commerce: tools for the country' is its motto. More clearly...

And the electronic vote, introduced by the Govern, allows an unprecedented level of participation, which leaves much more open the result of the elections to the chambers than with the previous system. All this can be the final touch on the cake of pro-sovereignty strategy, like that referendum to which they so much appeal. Mobilization capacity is not missing in the pro-independence movement, as some of its opponents and the 'establishment' know. In the end it is a question of ballot boxes and votes. Is not that democracy?

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/opinion/20190309/independentismo-infiltrado-7340900

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The Catalan Republic that waits for us

EN ES

Teresa Freixes

10/3/2019

ENGLISH

Without having access to this project of Constitution for Catalonia, I already warned, in my book "155. The days that shook Catalonia" about various regulations that are contained in it. I reproduce some extracts, aimed at better understanding what they are (I say they are in present tense, because they do not stop), trying to create in Catalonia.

Extracts:

It was precisely a judge who was one of the first to tell us what was to come. From his official premises in the Center for Legal Studies of the Generalitat, Judge Vidal devoted himself to interviewing lawyers who were sensitive to independence to incorporate them as judges on the day of secession. And with such baggage he walked through towns and villages of Catalonia explaining the draft Catalan Constitution that he had drawn up. He explained to us repeatedly, although it seemed that many did not hear it or did not want to hear it, that "they" ("nosaltres", as he said) had the lists of judges and officials with whom one could count and those with whom one could not count at all; that is, they had identified the faithful and those who had to purge. Let's not forget that the Ministry of Justice has had to activate an emergency telephone number to attend judges who may feel harassed and that both they and prosecutors are subject to police protection, which is the last thing that can happen in a democracy. Well, it is "his democracy", his "smile revolution", his "trip to Ithaca", his descent, rather, towards the precipice.

The attribution of nationality, basic legal institution in the creation of any State, is inspired by the regulations in the Baltic republics, which have produced so much discrimination in minorities that were not nationals of the place when these territories proclaimed independence. This Law, like the ones that the pro-secession supporters say constitute their model, contains generic regulations that will require a development in which they will have to detail what specific requirements (not only filiation and residency) will have to be met to obtain Catalan nationality. The same technique as applied there. Firstly, generic regulations that do not raise suspicions. Then, when the specific law is adopted, the criteria that favor what you want to favor are set. And whoever does not comply with them cannot adopt the nationality and, depending on how all this is regulated, they can remain stateless, as has happened in the Baltic republics, and if they do not remain stateless they will have to see if they can maintain nationality of origin or not, under what conditions and with what effects. The same as in the Baltic. The same technique as applied there. First, to obtain independence, they make everyone believe that virtually all persons can have the nationality and, subsequently, the requirements are established with supremacist criteria. That is not in the Law, but we have been told as such in numerous conferences and courses by people belonging to the Council for the national transition, which is the one that advises in the elaboration of all the rules of rupture with Spain. By the way, they forget that no State can unilaterally attribute -as they also claim- double nationality with another country.

In effect, if we pay attention to what is manifested in the Reports of the "Consell per a la Transició Nacional" and we cross them with the Roadmap that, although the authorship is somewhat confused, circulates coming from the National Catalan Assembly, we see that they want to create a certain parallelism between what they have called "el procés" and "Vía Báltica" and their conformation of nationalist assimilation. By making the language an instrument of political domination, by offering all kinds of advantages to those considered "foreigners" if they adhere to the postulates of secessionism, and by threatening and considering as traitors the Catalans who resist, some actively and others without distinguishing individually, to be assimilated to the "processism", the Government of the Generalitat is entering into a dangerous strategy of confrontation with its own citizenship. It offers "advantages" to its faithful while threatening to purge and retaliate against "the dissidence", media included.


It is also impossible to affirm unilaterally that the "new Catalan Republic" will grant nationality to all those who are in its territory, with added rights and perks, because this is, on the one hand, demagogic (as did the Baltic independence movements) and, on the other hand, legally nonsense. In Catalonia many people live with a Spanish nationality and a European citizenship that we do not want to renounce and we do not want, as in a report paid by the Generalitat, to be in a similar situation to the citizens of northern Cyprus, in the area under occupation from Turkey, with diminished rights. How does this combine with the promises of "papers for all"?


This has become crystal clear in the draft that was leaked, prior to the Conference in Madrid City Council, of the Law of Transition that, in secret, was preparing the pro-secession crew and that differs little from the one finally approved on the second day of the "Plenaries of shame", on last September 7. More legal botched job is unimaginable. As I have already pointed out, but it is important to repeat again, in a similar way to what the German Enabling Act of 1933 had in its day, which allowed National Socialism to subvert the Weimar regime without officially repealing it. This law tried, among others things, through the euphemism of the "right to receive adequate training" [the "reeducation" to which they are going to submit us and which they already explained to us at the Escola d'Estiu de Prada or at conferences of the Director of the School of Public Administration], to force civil servants and citizens in general, to commit the most flagrant illegalities under threats and sanctions. It also provided for the seizure of state property. Childishly enough, it established the assumption of "Catalan nationality" without loss of the Spanish one, warning that "negotiations" will be initiated in this regard with the "Spanish State". It intended to grant amnesty to all those convicted of illegal actions in relation to the procés. It eliminated the co-official nature of the Spanish language in Catalonia. It tried to grant, to the own Spanish Constitution or the Statute of Autonomy, rank of law only in those areas in which they were not opposed to the new legality: which is a legal nonsense of monumental category, without respect of the principles of hierarchy and competence, impossible to be analyzed from a legal perspective for the rudeness of its articulation.


Already at the Universitat Catalana d'Estiu we were told that civil servants would have to "recycle”, not only those of state bodies, but also those of the Generalitat and local administrations, because we had to adapt to the rules and principles of the future "Catalan Republic". The director of the School of Public Administration of Catalonia also reinforced these statements. The members of Parliament themselves of JxS insisted on it and, in addition, the President of the Generalitat, repeated it in parliamentary seat. Thus it threatens, let’s see it well, not for not complying with the law, but for not violating it! And the authorities, - our authorities I was going to say, but they are not "ours", that is to say, of all, but only of a few -, voluptuously applaud that the maximum representation of the State in Catalonia, that is, the President of the Generalitat, endorses the vulgar direct threats inflicted by a member of Parliament. True, freedom of expression in the Parliament can do everything ... Until what is expressed becomes a legal act. There, at the time it occurs, it will no longer fit to hide in the shelter of the camera to attempt against citizens' rights.

To give some recent examples, since it would be impossible to detail the entire history of the appeals before the TC, I will point out some relevant issues in which the Tribunal's action has been very important. I will only mention some, after the declaration of unconstitutionality on the Law of the referendum and the Law of Transition, because we cannot get lost in so many jurisdictional recesses:

- About the DUI. Although the DUI that was adopted does not have real effects, there was a parliamentary act of proclamation which was object of appeal of unconstitutionality and was suspended by the TC, precautionary by admitting to process the appeal, waiting for the ruling on the merits. This is superimposed on the appeal of constitutional protection filed by the PSC during the parliamentary procedure and the incident of execution of sentence that I have warned about in another chapter, because the DUI was previously prohibited by another previous sentence of the TC. Subsequently, the TC declared the DUI unconstitutional in a final judgment.


- About the Catalan Social Protection Agency, suspended with the admission of the appeal for processing. It was another "state structure" they had prepared. They have been building what would be a "parallel state", using unfairly the powers attributed to them by the Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy.

- About the cyber-security agency of Catalonia also suspended with the admission to processing of the appeal; with this they wanted to take control of all electronic communications, banking, personal, administrations, health services, etc... trying this way, by violating the most elementary principles of data protection and the necessary control that must exist over information services, public security, etc., to dissociate them from the state and European organisms so that they could not be controlled from other instances.


- On the alleged investiture of the fugitive Puigdemont: In an interpretative boast, through precautionary measures and without deciding on the admissibility of the Government's appeal, it has blocked the investiture at a distance or by delegation, and forced the fugitive to appear before the investigating judge to, once he decides on his procedural situation, be authorized or not to attend the session in which he intends to be invested.

With all the Agencies, Offices, etc. they have been creating what would be the "ministries of the Catalan republic". "The state is to be cheated".... The famous DUI is the most striking, the tip of the iceberg, but what is important is what they have been building underneath, without being seen or noticed except for a few voices to which nobody has paid the least attention.

ESPAÑOL

LA REPÚBLICA CATALANA QUE NOS ESPERA

Sin tener acceso a este proyecto de Constitución para Cataluña, ya advertí, en mi libro "155. Los días que estremecieron a Cataluña" acerca de diversas regulaciones que e contienen en ella. Reproduzco algunos extractos, dirigidos a que se comprenda mejor lo que están (digo están, en presente, porque no cejan) pretendiendo crear en Cataluña.

Extractos:

Fue precisamente un juez uno de los primeros que nos contó lo que iba a venir. Desde su despacho oficial del Centro de Estudios Jurídicos de la Generalitat, el juez Vidal se dedicó a entrevistar a abogados que fuesen sensibles a la independencia para incorporarlos como jueces el día que llegara la secesión. Y con tal bagaje se paseaba por pueblos y pueblitos de Cataluña explicando el proyecto de Constitución catalana que él mismo había elaborado. Nos explicó repetidamente, aunque parecía que muchos no lo oían o no querían oírlo, que “ellos” (“nosaltres”, decía) tenían las listas de jueces y funcionarios con los que se podía contar y con los que no, es decir, que tenían identificados a los fieles y a los que tenían que depurar. No olvidemos que el Ministerio de Justicia ha tenido que activar un teléfono de emergencia para atender a los jueces que pudieran sentirse acosados y que tanto ellos como los fiscales son objeto de protección policial, lo cual ya es lo último que puede pasar en una democracia. Bueno, es "su democracia", su "revolución de las sonrisas", su "viaje a Ítaca", su descenso, más bien, hacia el precipicio.

La atribución de la nacionalidad, institución jurídica básica en la creación de cualquier Estado, está inspirada en las regulaciones de las repúblicas del Báltico, que tanta discriminación han producido en las minorías que no eran nacionales del lugar cuando estos territorios proclamaron la independencia. Esta Ley, como las que el secesionismo dice que constituyen su modelo, contiene regulaciones genéricas que precisarán de un desarrollo en el que se tendrán que detallar qué requisitos concretos (no sólo filiación y residencia) se tendrán que cumplir para obtener la nacionalidad catalana. La misma técnica que allí. Primero regulaciones genéricas que no levantes sospechas. Luego, cuando se adopta la ley específica, se fijan los criterios que favorezcan lo que se quiere favorecer. Y quien no cumpla con ellos no puede adoptar la nacionalidad y, según como se regule todo esto, pueden quedarse como apátridas, como ha sucedido en las repúblicas bálticas, Y si no se quedan como apátridas habrá que ver si pueden o no mantener la nacionalidad de origen, en qué condiciones y con qué efectos. Lo mismo que en el Báltico. La misma técnica que allí. Primero, para obtener la independencia, se hace creer que prácticamente todo el mundo podrá tener la nacionalidad y, posteriormente, se establecen los requisitos con criterios supremacistas. Eso no está en la Ley, pero nos lo han contado en numerosas conferencias y cursos, personas pertenecientes al Consejo para la transición nacional, que es el que asesora en la elaboración de todas las normas de ruptura con España. Por cierto, olvidan que ningún Estado puede atribuir unilateralmente -como además pretenden- la doble nacionalidad con ningún otro.

En efecto, si hacemos caso de lo que se manifiesta en los Informes del “Consell per a la Transició Nacional” y los cruzamos con la Hoja de Ruta que, aunque la autoría sea un tanto confusa, circula por ahí como proveniente de la Asamblea Nacional Catalana, vemos que quieren crear un cierto paralelismo entre lo que han denominado “el procés” y la “Vía Báltica” y su conformación de la asimilación nacionalista. Haciendo de la lengua un instrumento de dominación política, ofreciendo todo tipo de ventajas al por ellos considerado “foráneo” si se adscribe a los postulados del secesionismo y amenazando y considerando como traidores a los catalanes que se resisten, algunos activamente y otros sin significarse individualmente, a ser asimilados al “procesismo”, el Govern de la Generalitat está entrando en una peligrosa estrategia de la confrontación con su propia ciudadanía. Ofrece “ventajas” a sus fieles mientras amenaza con depuraciones y represalias a “la disidencia”, medios de comunicación incluidos.

No se puede, tampoco, afirmar unilateralmente que la “nueva república catalana”, otorgará la nacionalidad a todos quienes estén su territorio, con derechos y prebendas añadidos, porque ello es, por una parte, demagógico (igual lo hicieron los movimientos independentistas del Báltico) y, por otra parte, jurídicamente un sinsentido. En Cataluña vivimos muchas personas con una nacionalidad española y una ciudadanía europea a la que no queremos renunciar y no queremos, como en un Informe sufragado por la Generalitat consta, quedar en una situación similar a los ciudadanos del norte de Chipre, en la zona ocupada por Turquía, con derechos capitidisminuidos. ¿Cómo se conjuga ello con las promesas de “papeles para todos”?

Ello ha quedado meridianamente claro en el borrador que se filtró, previamente a la Conferencia en el Ayuntamiento de Madrid, de la Ley de transitoriedad que, en secreto, estaba preparando el secesionismo y que difiere en poco a la finalmente aprobada el segundo día de los “Plenos de la vergüenza”, el 7 de septiembre pasado. Mayor chapuza jurídica es inimaginable. Como ya he señalado anteriormente, pero es importante repetirlo, de forma similar a lo que dispuso en su día la Ley Habilitante alemana de 1933, que permitió al nacionalsocialismo subvertir el régimen de Weimar sin derogarlo oficialmente. Pretendía, entre otras, esta ley, mediante el eufemismo del “derecho a recibir una formación adecuada” [la “reeducación” a la que nos van a someter y que ya nos explicaron en l’Escola d’Estiu de Prada o en las conferencias del Director de la Escuela de Administración Pública], obligar a los funcionarios y a la ciudadanía en general, a cometer las más flagrantes ilegalidades bajo amenazas y sanciones. Disponía, también, la incautación de bienes estatales. Establecía infantilmente la asunción de la “nacionalidad catalana” sin pérdida de la española, advirtiendo que se “iniciarán negociaciones” al respecto con el “Estado español”. Pretendía amnistiar a todos los condenados por actuaciones ilegales en relación con el procés. Eliminaba la co-oficialidad de la lengua española en Cataluña. Pretendía otorgar, a la propia Constitución española o al Estatuto de Autonomía, rango de ley en lo que no se opusiera a la nueva legalidad, lo cual es un disparate jurídico de monumental categoría, sin respeto de los principios de jerarquía y competencia, imposible de ser jurídicamente analizado por lo grosero de su articulación.

Ya en la Universitat Catalana d’Estiu se nos explicó que los funcionarios tendríamos que “reciclarnos”, no sólo los de cuerpos estatales, también los de la Generalitat y de las administraciones locales, porque teníamos que adaptarnos a las reglas y principios de la futura “república catalana”. El director de la Escuela de Administración Pública de Cataluña reforzó también esas declaraciones. Los propios diputados de JxS insistieron en ello y, además, el President de la Generalitat, lo repitió en sede parlamentaria. Con ello se amenaza, véase bien, no por no cumplir la ley, sino por no violarla!!! Y las autoridades, iba a decir nuestras autoridades, pero no son “nuestras”, es decir, de todos, sino de unos cuantos, aplauden voluptuosamente que la máxima representación del Estado en Cataluña, es decir, el President de la Generalitat, respalde las barriobajeras amenazas directas infligidas por un diputado. Cierto, la libertad de expresión en el Parlament todo lo puede…. Hasta que lo expresado se convierte en acto jurídico. Ahí, en el momento en que se produzca, ya no va a caber el esconderse en el cobijo de la cámara para atentar contra los derechos ciudadanos.

Por poner algunos ejemplos recientes, ya que sería imposible detallar toda la historia de los recursos ante el TC señalaré algunos asuntos relevantes en los que ha sido muy importante la actuación del Tribunal. Sólo mencionaré algunos, posteriores a la declaración de inconstitucionalidad sobre la Ley del referéndum y la Ley de transitoriedad, porque no podemos perdernos en tantos recovecos jurisdiccionales:

- Sobre la DUI. Aunque la DUI que se adoptó no tiene efectos reales, existió un acto parlamentario de proclamación fue objeto de recurso de inconstitucionalidad y fue suspendido por el TC, cautelarmente al admitir a trámite el recurso, esperando la sentencia sobre el fondo. Ello se superpone al recurso de amparo que presentó el PSC durante el trámite parlamentario y al incidente de ejecución de sentencia que he advertido otro capítulo, porque la DUI ya estaba previamente prohibida por otra sentencia anterior del TC. Posteriormente, el TC declaró anticonstitucional la DUI en sentencia definitiva.

- Sobre la Agencia catalana de protección social, suspendida con la admisión a trámite del recurso. Se trataba de otra "estructura de estado" que tenían preparada. Han ido construyendo lo que sería un "estado paralelo", utilizando en forma desleal las competencias que tienen atribuidas por la Constitución y el Estatuto de Autonomía.

- Sobre la Agencia de ciberseguridad de Cataluña también suspendida con la admisión a trámite del recurso, con la que querían hacerse con el control de todas las comunicaciones electrónicas, bancarias, personales, de las administraciones, de los servicios de salud, etc… intentando de este modo, vulnerando los más elementales principios de la protección de datos y del necesario control que tiene que existir sobre servicios de información, seguridad pública, etc. desvincularlas de los organismos estatales y europeos para que no pudieran ser controlados desde otras instancias.

- Sobre la pretendida investidura del prófugo Puigdemont: En un alarde interpretativo, mediante medidas cautelares y sin decidir sobre la admisión a trámite del recurso del Gobierno, ha bloqueado la investidura a distancia o por delegación y obliga al prófugo a personarse ante el juez instructor para, una vez que éste decida sobre su situación procesal, ser autorizado o no a asistir a la sesión en la que pretende ser investido.

Con todas las Agencias, Oficinas, etc. han ido creando lo que serían los "ministerios de la república catalana". El hay que "engañar al Estado".... La famosa DUI viene a ser lo más llamativo, la punta del iceberg, pero lo importante es lo que han ido construyendo por debajo, sin que se viera ni advirtiera más que por escasas voces a las que no nos han hecho el más mínimo caso.

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Complete text of the draft Catalan constitution

EN ES

11/5/2016 El periódico







ENGLISH
The speakers have handed over the document to Carme Forcadell in the Parlament.
This is the full text of the draft constitution of Catalonia that the entity Constituïm has handed over to the President of the Parliament of Catalonia, Carme Forcadell.





ESPAÑOL

Texto completo del borrador de constitución catalana

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20160511/constitucion-catalana-texto-completo-pdf-5123613

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The Republic that Puigdemont was planning - The pro-independence supporters wanted to prohibit the parties against the Catalan state and limit the right of citizenship

The Generalitat sought to collect 4.2 million from 300 companies and confiscate 19,000 million from the State after a DUI

Juan José Fernández

Madrid - Friday, 03/08/2019 | Updated on 03/09/2019 at 11:48 CET



Two fragments from the project of Constitution for a Catalan republic as drafted by the former judge Santiago Vidal. / EL PERIODICO

The Government of Carles Puigdemont planned for the first moments of an independent Catalonia to capture 4.200 million euros in social contributions from companies, to spend 499 million euros to activate their own treasury and to confiscate real estate from the Spanish State for 19,134 million euros.

These figures are derived from the set of reports and other contributions of the Civil Guard to the investigation of the Court of Preliminary Investigation 13 of Barcelona for crimes connected with the preparation of independence. Among the elements of evidence presented, a draft of a Catalan constitution that foresees important limitations of political rights for parties and officials who do not support the pro-independence movement.

For example, and to diminish legitimacy from possible appeals or protests from within, the Catalan constitution project found among Vidal’s documents foresaw the limitation of rights to those implicitly considered as internal enemies: "Catalan citizenship will not be obtained, nor kept, by those people who, not being Catalans of origin, have been military professionals and/or forces of public military or civil order of the Kingdom of Spain and/or have been part of a foreign government".

In addition, the basic rule of the new republic would impose, according to the documents found, to all civil servants the obligation to choose a single nationality, and would give them six months to decide either to practice in Catalonia as Catalan citizens or not being Catalan citizen, in which case they will not be allowed to practice.

In the republic foreseen by the pro-independence movement, not all ideas could be defended. In Santi Vidal's sketch there is an article that foresees to allow "the existence of all kinds of political participation as long as its electoral program does not go against the existence of Catalonia as a State or against this Constitution". In terms of internal security, the plans proposed the creation in the police of this republic of a "unit specializing against violent pro-Spain groups" which could exercise "police pressure" on the most heated disaffected.

The lawyer of the court that intervened in the search, as well as the guards who carried it out and who analyzed the documentation, were struck by the shocking detail that, for the notes of the Catalan constitution, Vidal used hundreds of pages of the Administration of Justice of Spain, official paper, with the shield of the State, coming from the court in which he exercised.

Social security, key

The investigations have revealed the participation of important consulting, technology and information firms to prepare the data management bases necessary to create a Catalan social security. So far no payments have been discovered to these companies, including Deloitte, IT-Sistems and IBM, only budgets from technicians of the Generalitat.

With the Center for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CTTI) as a pivot, under the political direction of the minister for Labor Dolors Bassa and its Secretary General Josep Ginesta, and with experts from the center experts in computer networks, the Government designed a system of raising social resources for the beginnings of a Catalonia separated from Spain.

The plans, intervened by the Civil Guard in their searches held on September 20, 2017 - Operation Anubis - by order of Court 13, include technological preparations that were already well advanced before the Parliament enacted the laws of disconnection that later suspended the Constitutional Court.


Annotations in the papers intervened by the Civil Guard to the technician of the Departament de Treball David Franco on September 20, 2017. On the left, a diagram of the collection system for a social security in independent Catalonia. On the right, the figures of affiliates and retirees that the Govern Puigdemont forecast. / EL PERIODICO

For the Civil Guard, it was "key in the disconnection to assume the social security system", it says in a report. The plans pointed to the need to have accession -or compliance- of at least from 100 leading companies in Catalonia. With the contributions to the Social Security of those companies, plus those of 233 entities of the public sector controlled by the Generalitat, the designers of the plan foresaw to gather a critical mass of income of 4,200 million euros.

But that was in the first phase. The objective in terms of Social Security was to collect and manage the contributions of 3.2 million taxpayers and control 690,000 companies, including the self-employed, and the pensions of one million retirees.

Among the documents seized by the Civil Guard at the headquarters of the Department of Labor in the tense day of September 20, there are notes from the technician David Palanques foreseeing that the Generalitat stands as "the authority requesting in Catalonia all taxes and all the fees and obligations of any type for the social security system and passive classes".

The agency that would administer them would be a Catalan Agency for Social Protection. For the technical design of that agency, the Generalitat requested sketches from the Deloitte firm, according to notes intervened with the work technician David Franco. Its participation was budgeted at 197,508 euros, although the notes also foresee a "no VAT" price: 163,230. In those notes there are also allusions to participation in these tasks of HP, IBM, Itteria and the Cesicat.

They were needed to implement a Data Processing Center (CPD) that was going to have a budget of 1,471,247 euros in 2017 and 2,537,561 in 2018. The CPD would have to be able to manage the data of the mentioned 3.2 million taxpayers and 300,000 affiliations per year.

Catalan Finance Department

Beyond the famous Moleskine of Josep Lluís Salvadó, Secretary of the Department of Economy and Finance, the Civil Guard has also analyzed a pen drive of Salvadó with a single document, "Activitats i mesures adreçades a la creació de l'Estat Catalá", which contains a quantification of the resources necessary for the deployment of the treasury of an independent Catalonia on the same day 1 of the breakup.

According to the calculations that Salvadó made, that would mean spending 499,860,737 euros, and increase the staff of the Catalan Tax Agency in 7,000 people. All this, clarifies the Civil Guard, without counting on "the amount necessary for the deployment of the customs or the real estate agency", which would be the Catalan land registry.

And all this calculated as an extension only budget, without counting the resources already employed, in the autonomic phase, in creating an independent tax system: "It is inferred that around 17 million euros have been invested in the deployment of the tax administration as a step intermediate to reach the full fiscal sovereignty of the future Catalan state", the investigators assure to Judge Alejandra Gil, the one to take care of the preliminary investigations initiated by the late Judge Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer.

Confiscation of State property

The appropriation of other resources by a Catalan government already separated from Spain would have legal coverage at the highest normative level of the new Catalan republic.

Among the papers seized from former judge Santiago Vidal at his home that September 20, there was an imitation of a Catalan constitution. The last article is a "decree of confiscation", with such a title, which runs like this: "The assets existing on the day of the declaration of independence, within the current territory of Catalonia, belonging to the Kingdom of Spain, pass over to the property of the Catalan Republic".

The Secretary of Finance Salvadó had a team of 10 people, investigated by the Security Forces, working on an inventory of real state property and its value. The figure that came out was 19,134 million euros. The confiscation of State assets by a disconnected Generalitat had been the subject of open debates at the Catalan National Assembly, when in conferences or colloquiums were raised the first steps of a Catalonia separated from Spain.

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20190308/planes-govern-puigdemont-independencia-cataluna-7343958

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Ex-Leader of Catalan Nationalist Government Coalition (CiU) Josep Duran i Lleida: "Artur Mas (ex- president of Catalonia) rebuffed a deal offered by M. Rajoy (ex-president of Spain) to be voted by Catalans"

EN ES

José Rico
4/3/2019 El periódico







ENGLISH

Ex-leader of "Unió ( Democratic Union of Catalonia, Christian Democrat) reveals a frustrated mediation between both presidents before "N9" (An illegal consultation on independence organized by the Catalan government on November 9th, 2014).

Ex-president of Spain offered exploring a political agreement in case CiU promised to endorse it.

Despite a noisy reaction by the Popular Party and other right wing organizations in view of (president) Pedro Sanchez´s proposal to bring an independent witness ("relator") into the dialogue between the central government and the Generalitat (Catalan government) so as to acknowledge the true nature of conversations, the trial of the "Procés" (pro independence leaders) in the Supreme Court is helping cast light on the multiple attempts at mediation made throughout the Catalan conflict when the tenant of "La Moncloa" (Spain´s presidential palace) bore the name of Mariano Rajoy. Two of the attempts were revealed by "El Periódico of Catalonia"; the first by Iñigo Urkullu - president of the Basque Country who tried to stop "in extremis" both; the DUI (the unilateral declaration of independence by the Catalan government) as well as the declaration of Article 155 of the constitution (authorizing Rajoy´s intervention of the Catalan regional government sanctioned by the Senate) and the second; a mediation which took place between 2013 and 2014 led by three emissaries: Joan Rigol, Pedro Arriola and José Enrique Serrano.

However the latter was not the only secret mission carried out in the previous months to the 9N. Josep Duran Lleida (historical leader of the CiU coalition in Spain´s Congress in Madrid) reveals now a third one.

In an interview published today (March 2nd, 2019) in El Periodico of Catalonia, Duran assures that before N9, Rajoy accepted exploring a political accord which could have later been voted by Catalans as long as the CiU coalition (then in office in Catalonia) committed to endorsing it in Catalonia. However, according to the ex leader of the now extinct "Unió", the person who derailed such an agreement was then president of the "Generalitat" (Catalan government) Artur Mas, who once on top of the pro independence wave alleged he could not ensure such a proposal would be validated by the secessionists at the voting station.

"Before the N9 consultation conversations between Arriola (Spanish government mediator) and Rigol (Catalan government mediator) took place and at a given moment, Rajoy and I spoke about a potential political proposition which would have been subjected to popular vote. With all the common sense, Rajoy asked if such a proposal would be endorsed by us. I replied "of course" and that I would check with Mas (Catalan president). At that moment Mas rejected the poposal, fearing the reaction of the pro independence voters. Rajoy became angry - and I agreed with him - for two reasons: first, because Mas did not wish to endorse anything which could have come out of a negotiated agreement and secondly, because Rajoy found out through the media about the double-question that was going to be submitted to consultation on N9. It was then that Rajoy said 'Enough¡'", reveals Duran during the interview.

This episode is included in 'The Risk of the Truth' (Editorial Planeta), the political memoirs which the veteran Christian Democrat leader published last Tuesday. According to Duran, it was a real attempt to reach a political solution aiming to avoid a train collision, stating; "such failure was far from being of Rajoy's exclusive responsibility," although he criticizes the ex president of the (Spanish) Government for not having later tried again to "reignite dialogue".

Nonetheless this is not the only dart thrown during the interview by Duran against Mas, with whom he never maintained the best of relationships. He blames Mas for having climbed into the bandwagon of the pro independence movement for "lack of political talent" , "getting carried away by mediocre advisors, whose analysis led to the present situation." Duran accuses the same milieu of having "invented" the concept of "right to decide" equating it with the right of self-determination, which, in his opinion, "is reserved for realities that have nothing to do with Catalonia´s"

Regarding the fuze which unleashed the 'procés (pro independence process); the slamming of Rajoy to a tax deal in 2012, Duran holds the view that Mas "went to La Moncloa - presidential palace - with the will to close the door, having done nothing to prevent it from being closed ". However the hardest grudge against 'expresident' Mas is "having delivered Catalonia to the CUP" (ultraleft pro independence coalition); something which "I never, never, never - and I will repeat it over and over again - would have expected from Mas".

On Pujol, Puigdemont, Junqueras …(ex presidents and ex VP of the Catalan government, respectively)

The ex leader "Unió" blames "ERC´s" (center left pro independence party) pressure on Mas's for the latter´s resignation from the presidency of the Generalitat and confesses he was perplexed by Mas´s appointment of Carles Puigdemont, "a person who has always been crazy," as replacement.

In such a settling of accounts, Duran accuses Jordi Pujol - the man who disappointed him by not anointing Duran as successor (for the Catalan presidency), in favor of Mas - to have used his years of government to prepare the Catalans "tacitly" so that they would "carry on assuming the sovereignist creed ", going as far as assuring that "underneath " he has always been pro independence.

Puigdemont (ex Catalan president) and Oriol Junqueras (ex vice-president now under trial) are not free from Duran's scourge either.

Duran accuses the (recent Catalan) expresident of having squandered the "revenue" which could have been obtained from the great mistake committed by the Spanish government on October 1st 2017 (date of the illegal referendum), by having opted for the unilateral route, reminding it was the ERC leader (Junqueras), "who today appears as the kindest person, who actually squeezed Puigdemont so that he would not call elections instead opting for a DUI (UDI, unilateral declation of independence). "

Regarding the present situation, the former Christian Democrat leader applauds (Pedro) Sanchez's (President of Spain) attempt to "deflate the conflict", regretting that he has been played by the separatists at the game of "seven and a half". He reproaches the pro independence leaders who, "by claiming more and more cards," have shown that they simply "don´t want a dialogue."


ESPAÑOL

Duran: "Mas rechazó un pacto con Rajoy que se pudiera votar en Catalunya"

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20190302/duran-mas-pacto-rajoy-9n-7333257

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The pro-independence movement must apologize for the appropriation of Catalonia, fracturing society and excommunicating the anti-independence segments

Miquel Porta Perales

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Do not put your dirty hands on Zola

The pro-independence movement must apologize for the appropriation of Catalonia, fracturing society and excommunicating the anti-independence segments

Barcelona, ​​February 19, 2019 (04:55 CET)

Manuel Vicent, in the now defunct magazine Triunfo, published a celebrated article entitled: Do not put your dirty hands on Mozart (1981).

The protagonist of the article, fed up with the noisy, riotous and rude friends of his daughter, who destroyed the peace of his home with their screams and music, reacted when they tried to take Mozart's 40th Symphony to the 'burrow' of the girl.

It was then that he snapped at his daughter: "Mozart, no! Do not put your dirty hands on Mozart!!"

                     

The Catalan pro-independence movement wants to come up with Zola's 'J'accuse'

Today, almost forty years later, I remember the article by Manuel Vicent, but with other protagonists and title: Do not put your dirty hands on Zola.

Today, the Catalan pro-independence movement, faced with the trial against some of its companions for alleged and serious crimes, pretends to come up with the “J'accuse” that Émile Zola published -in relation to the Dreyfus case- in the first page of the Parisian newspaper L'Aurore of the 13th of January 1898.

The pro-independence movement accuses the State of falsifying evidence to justify an unfair political trial.

The Catalan pro-independence movement, in the manner of Émile Zola, denounces the State for - they say - constructing or falsifying evidence to justify an unjust political trial and a condemnatory sentence drafted in advance. And, like the French writer, it propagates its particular ‘I accuse’.

To the Catalan pro-independence movement, in the manner of that Manuel Vicent that shreds facts, ideas and beliefs, I say: Zola, no! Do not put your dirty hands on Zola!!

The evidence against the pro-independence movement

And I say something else to them:

1. You should admit that you have perverted and trivialized ideas such as 'democracy', 'referendum', 'put the ballot box', 'vote', 'democratic mandate', 'division of powers', 'right of self-determination', 'political prisoner' or 'exile'.

2. You should admit that you have installed yourself outside reality and have turned politics into an emotion and stomach issue that leads to the abyss.

3. You should admit that in 2017 you subverted the autonomic and constitutional legality on September 6 and 7, provoked the tumult on September 20 and 21, convened and held the illegal referendum on October 1, announced independence on October 27. And the game went wrong.

4. You should admit that you mocked the democratic legality, the rule of law, international law, parliament, almost all citizens of Spain and more than half of the citizens of Catalonia. 

5. You should admit that you were disloyal to the rule of law and you committed - the Supreme Court will say the last word - flagrant illegalities.

 6. You should admit that the Catalan pro-independence movement is not love, but the peculiar

manifestation of an egoism and a narcissism of the small differences that 

believes to be entitled to everything for being what it is.

The pro-independence movement must accept that they want a regime with an authoritarian vocation

7. You should admit that - in the Francoist way? - you are setting up a regime and a national movement that co-opts its members via a single party. Family, municipality, union and media. Read Crida, ANC, Òmnium, AMI, Intersindical and copartners and related media.

8. You should admit that it is a regime with an authoritarian vocation based on the opposition 'we' versus 'them', favoritism, and the manipulation of the conscience of a credulous and devout citizenry prone to exclusionary identity fundamentalism.

9. You should admit that the proposal of ‘referendum or referendum' demonstrates the will to blackmail, the inability to negotiate and the propensity to breach the law.

The independence movement must assume that the trial is not an attack on democracy, but an act of self-defense

10. You should admit that you are not the victim of an anti-democratic repressive state, but the subject as agent attacking the democratic legality of the rule of law.

11. You should admit that the trial against the pro-independence leaders is not an attack on democracy, but an act of legitimate and democratic defense of democracy against those who challenge coexistence and the law.

12. You should admit that the trial against the pro-independence leaders does not show the contrast between the dignity of the person who puts up ballot boxes and the shame of the State that fears democracy, but between the dignity of the rule of law and the shame of those fearing democracy and transgressing its rules.

13. You should admit that the trial against the pro-independence leaders is not political, but legal. Something you have earned for yourself.

14. You should admit that the trial against the pro-independence leaders is a shame for sure. The shame of those who, in a malevolent way, in the manner of the pro-independence movement, systematically violate the democratic legality.

15. You should admit that the Smile Revolution - inappropriate expression for anyone who is always angry with himself and others - has broken more than one plate. And burned containers, punctured wheels, deposited excrements or thrown stones, fences and paint cans.

16. You should admit that you do not have a carte blanche, nor can you appropriate the dignity of a people.

The future of the pro-independence movement

And I tell to the Catalan pro-independence movement even more:

1. You should forget about imposture, obsession, imposition, deceit, lies, farce, fantasy, fable, soliloquy, obscene propaganda and libel. Also, proselytism and histrionism.

2. Do not use Zola's name in vain to confuse the roles of victim and executioner; nor to build a story, fallacies, images, feelings, emotions, grievances and enemy; nor to unite the pro-independence world; nor to overheat the environment and mobilize the mass.

3. Do not use Zola's name in vain to sell the morality and legitimacy you need, and you do not have, in order to continue the challenge that must lead –this is what you think- to the momentum or final impulse leading to the breakup with the State.

Forgiveness

You should rectify and humbly ask for forgiveness.

You should rectify: renounce demophobia, the authoritarian nationalist populism and the superior state of political underdevelopment. You should embrace democratic legality and the rule of law. You should go back to the real world, do politics and do not add new evils to those already caused.

You should humbly ask for forgiveness: for your appropriation of Catalonia, fracturing society, colonizing or excommunicating anti-independence segments, infantilizing politics, encouraging the flight of capital and investments, creating a parallel reality, instigating conflict, generating fanaticism and chauvinism.

This is how Manuel Vicent concluded his article in Triunfo: liberated from his complexes, the protagonist of the story "threw [a rhetorical license] out of his home by kicking that bunch of rogues" and today it is "a man [not a rhetorical license] already free".

From the press: on the roof of the Plenary Hall of the Supreme Court, there is a fresco by Marceliano Santamaría (1924), which "the defendants will have over their heads", known as "The Law winning over evil or The defeat of crimes and vices in the presence of Justice".

Zola would not have drawn it better.

https://ideas.economiadigital.es/miquel-porta-perales/no-pongas-tus-sucias-manos-sobre-zola_606656_102.html 

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Interview: The president in difficulty. Alsina to Torra: "If defending self-determination were a crime, you would be prosecuted by now"

Víctor Santos

The president of the Generalitat has made his first interview after the beginning of the trial of the leaders of the procés in the Supreme Court

Víctor Santos

Carlos Alsina has interviewed this morning in 'Más de uno' of Onda Cero to Quim Torra after the start of the trial on Tuesday to the leaders of the procés in the Supreme Court. The journalist has been very able to build a gap between them and has left the President out of play on more than one occasion with replies to his answers.

The talk has had several moments in which the journalist has put the politician in a bind. Torra has maintained that Jordi Cuixart, like the rest of the politicians in prison, are imprisoned for defending an idea: "No, you defend the same idea and you are not prosecuted", the presenter answered. "If defending self-determination were a crime, you would be prosecuted by now. Are you prosecuted?", the presenter asked; the politician had no other choice but to respond with a "no".

But the thing has not rested there, as both have also become entangled because of the percentage of pro-independence people in Catalonia: "There are 80% of Catalans who want to peacefully resolve the exercise of the right to self-determination", the President has stated bluntly. And Alsina has asked: "Is that 80% obtained from a source like the Ara newspaper survey?" "And from many other surveys," added Torra.

"What was the question asked to the respondents in the survey of the newspaper Ara on which you rely to say that 80% of Catalans are in favor of self-determination? Because in the question might be the trap", the journalist insisted. "In the survey the question was to do with an agreed referendum, as in Scotland", replied the interviewee.

It was in that very moment when the presenter clarified that Scotland is "a nation". "And Catalonia is not?" the President has defended himself. "You know it is not. In the statute of Catalonia it is not defined as a nation. How many times does the word "sovereignty" appear in the statute of Catalonia?" Alsina has been interested in knowing. "Well, if you go to the legal texts this conversation will have difficulties", said Quim Torra, and this has tried the patience of Carlos Alsina: "Are you asking me not to look at the legal texts and to focus instead on the survey of a pro-independence newspaper".

Quim Torra: "Democracy goes before the law"

In the course of the talk, Quim Torra has repeatedly called for "the voice of Catalonia" to be heard in order to hold a referendum. "Promote a reform of the constitution," Alsina answered; and when the President has stated that he does not have the majority to promote the change, the journalist has been forceful in his response: "Search for that majority." Torra, meanwhile, has come to ensure that "democracy goes first, before the law".

"You want to resolve the conflict in such a way that Spanish society accepts what you are demanding, this is the only solution that you propose". "But does this not seem normal to you?" Torra asked Alsina, to which he has answered bluntly: "How will it seem normal to me that you are devoting all your political action to snatching from the Spaniards the possibility of deciding about the Spanish nation? Do you think that Spaniards have no right to decide where Spain starts and ends?"

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/yotele/20190213/carlos-alsina-quim-torra-entrevista-7301404 

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