Catalonia’s President Mas on BBC: ‘it is difficult to stop a democratic, peaceful movement’

  • Artur Mas asks on British TV 'how can you convince the Catalans that they don't have the right to vote?'

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19.01.2014 - 12:01

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Catalonia’s president, Artur Mas, said in an interview with the BBC that ‘it is difficult to stop a democratic, peaceful movement’ like the one the Catalans have begun in order to hold a referendum on independence. The British broadcaster analyzes the situation in Catalonia with a report from Allan Little, with comparisons with the situation in Scotland. ‘How can you convince the Catalans that they don’t have the right to vote?’ said the Catalan government president, who admits that he would like it if the Spanish government acted ‘with the same mentality’ as the British and permitted a referendum. ‘Our aim is to reach this agreement, but the difference is that in Spain the central government says we don’t have the right to vote’, said Mas.

The report, titled ‘Why pro-independence Catalans envy Scotland’ cites the case of the town of Sant Pere de Torelló, which was the first to declare itself ‘free Catalan territory’. ‘It is a symbolic repudiation of the town’s Spanish heritage in favour of an explicit Catalan national identity’ says the BBC report, that remarked on the plethora of Catalan independence flags hanging in balconies. 

The BBC reports that there has been ‘a dramatic rise in support for Catalan independence in the last few years’ and gives as an example the demonstration on Catalonia’s National Day in 2012. It points out that ‘opinion polls frequently put support for a break with Spain at more than 50%.’

The report includes a video interview by Allan Little of President Artur Mas, in which the latter says he wants to convoke a referendum on independence in November. ‘Your plan to hold a referendum is illegal under Spanish law ‘, Little pointed out. ‘It is not illegal, as a matter of fact. The Spanish government says that our plans for a consultation are illegal but it is not true. We have identified five different legal frameworks to organize and to hold a consultation ‘, says Mas. Little replies, ‘the important difference between your case and the Scottish case is that Alex Salmond has an agreement with the Westminister government to recognize the result of the referendum’.

‘That is a big difference, and that makes the difference’, answers the Catalan president. Mas points out that the United Kingdom is ‘trying to make sure Scotland doesn’t leave the United Kingdom. On the other hand, it seems to me that Spain is trying to make sure Catalonia cannot leave Spain’, he explained.

‘The UK government, and the anti-independence “Better Together” campaign, have both said they will respect the outcome of the referendum,’ reports the BBC’s article. ‘We envy a little bit what is happening in the UK’, admits Mas. He affirms that he’d rather deal with the ‘British mentality’. ‘If you have a nation, Scotland or Catalonia, and you have in this nation a broad majority of the population that is asking for a referendum, asking for real democracy, what should you do? You should sit at the table, reach an agreement and let the people vote. This is the British way. And I wish that Spain was exactly the same, with the same mentality’ says Mas.

Nevertheless, the Catalan president says that he is ‘quite sure that in the end the Spanish government will have a certain reaction’.

‘Spain is not the United Kingdom and Catalonia is not Scotland’, interjects Little, who adds that even though they have a similar size population, Catalonia is ‘Spain’s wealthiest and most economically productive region and accounts for about a quarter of Spain’s taxes – far more than its share of Spain’s population.’ In contrast, the percentages that Scotland pays and receives are ‘similar’. The article claims that the difference between what the Catalans pay and what they receive from the Spanish state ‘has helped fuel the rise in support for independence’.

The BBC also argues that there is another ‘key’ difference between Scotland and Catalonia which is that while in Edinburgh support for independence has been ‘has been fairly solid at more than 30%, arguably for decades’ in Barcelona it ‘has rocketed from somewhere in the teens to more than 50% since the current economic crisis began’. That leads ‘many anti-independence campaigners to argue that this recent rise is ephemeral, an anomaly – a short-term response to a short-term economic crisis, but one which could have irreversible long-term consequences’, says the BBC.

‘We could suspend Catalonia’s autonomy’, says conservative MCP

The report states that ‘three-quarters of the people’ in Catalonia want to vote in a referendum but that a ‘minority want Spain to act to stop the referendum taking place at all’. The BBC also interviewed Fernando Sánchez Costa, Member of the Catalan Parliament for the People’s Party, who said ‘Spain could do many things’ to stop the referendum.

‘We hope it won’t come to this, but we could for instance suspend Catalonia’s autonomy’ said the conservative MCP. ‘Our democratic constitution gives us the tools. It wouldn’t be necessary to suspend [the Catalan] parliament. In Northern Ireland something similar happened a few years ago. Some competences were taken away temporarily. This could happen in Catalonia’, warned Sánchez Costa. 

The BBC reports that ‘many in Catalonia believe that would only boost support for independence still further’ and that ‘Artur Mas says he is determined to go ahead regardless’. ‘Let me remind you,” he says, “that we had democratic elections here a year ago. The electoral pledges were very clear and the people elected us because they wanted the right to exercise this choice. We must stick by our promise to hold a consultation.

‘And if Spain blocks it?’, asks the BBC journalist. ‘Then we will call new elections, by 2016 at the latest, and this election will become the referendum on independence. You cannot convince the Catalan people that they have no right to vote on this. You cannot stop a democratic and peaceful movement like this’, claims the president. 

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