30.01.2014 - 15:14
Ernest Maragall (Barcelona, 1943) was a founding member of the Socialists’ Party of Catalonia and held various positions within the government. His brother, Pasqual Maragall, was Mayor of Barcelona between 1982-1997, including the era of Barcelona’s Olympic Games of 1992, and President of the Catalan Government between 2003-2006.
In October, 2012, he decided to leave the PSC to form Nova Esquerra Catalana, the New Catalan Left. We talked to Ernest on January 28th about just what he is hoping to achieve with Nova Esquerra, what has happened to the PSC and where the PSC is now, and what the role of Catalan socialism should be in Catalonia’s process toward a referendum on independence.
Here is a transcript of a portion of the interview:
What do you hope to achieve with your new party, Nova Esquerra Catalana?
“I think that the goal, the real goal is to build a democratic party. And it takes probably 3, 4, 5 years or more. Then it would be enough to build common ground, common parts of problems…
When did division begin within the PSC?
“You can see the 2005 moment when the Catalan Parliament approved the proposal of the Statute of Autonomy. Socialist Party, Catalan Socialist Party, the PSC was not happy with this proposal.
“At the same time they were already thinking how to reduce, how to eliminate, how to amend this text.
“I think the turning point was Sept 2005 when the text was sent to the Spanish Congress and the PSC was not one of the forces to defend the text, but rather one of the forces to destroy the text.
How has ‘party discipline’ affected PSC’s stagnation?
“It’s the kind of electoral laws that gives as a result this kind of organization, of political organization. It’s a fact. Because it’s the party that selects people, it’s the party that elects people in a way. Citizens don’t have, with this electoral system, you don’t know who is your deputy. It doesn’t exist, in fact. Then, it gives as a result a political organization which is closed, self-managed, self-referenced.
What about the Catalan Socialists who have remained within the PSC?
“Those people still inside, I have to respect their position. I don’t share their position. I think it would be better if they acted on behalf of citizens who are waiting for a Socialist Catalanist reference than on behalf of inside matters, like how to recover eventually in a future congress. I think that serves nothing at this moment. I am trying to defend the position of ‘enough suffering, enough battling against the world‘, just go outside, breathe, enjoy, and build. And build something. Because, there’s another fact: the Catalan process as a whole, it lacks a factor, a vector, of Catalanist democratic socialism. It’s a party that at this moment is not present, and it should be.
How would you explain Catalan socialism to an American, where ‘socialism’ is a bad word?
“I would say ‘We the people’. In terms of freedom, in terms of being ourselves. I think Americans understand these things perfectly. It’s not easy to fight against stereotypes. The word ‘socialism’ comes from the Soviet Union period, the cold war, so perhaps we have to be able to refill the contents of the word ‘socialism’ or change the word ‘socialism’ for another one that explains the same thing.
“But how can I explain it? For us, Obama is socialist in a sense. He represents the same kind of values, same kind of purposes, same kinds of advancing toward a more equitable, more fair, more just society. So we aren’t talking about different things. The reality is different, the history, economic conditions are different, but socialist Europe has things to show the American people. The health reforms that Obama is trying to achieve, not reaching the original goals, is something that Europe has had, thanks to socialism, thanks to democratic socialism, for 50 years. You have to find a balancing point, probably. Socialism is this: a certain willingness to find the equilibrium between freedom and responsibility.
