The Crazy State

In an unprecedented, but not unexpected decision, the Spanish Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Catalan National Parliament of 23 January, though a final ruling is expected in the following months. This is the first time that the High Court has annulled a decision by a democratically elected regional parliament in Spain. It acted upon request of the office of the State Prosecutor, an organism that has too often failed to act independently from party politics.

Spain’s Primer Minister Mariano Rajoy's strategy to get the Catalans finally subdued remains unchanged, by making financial and political pressure more unbearable every day. Supporters, however, are growing fewer in number and mainly remain on the judicial side, because neither history, nor the people, nor the democratically elected representatives of the people support him in his crusade against a nation of about 7.5 million Catalans. In the last regional election in November, Catalans voted with a 2/3 majority for parties that are proposing holding a referendum to decide about the future of the Catalan nation.

When Spain was on the edge of bankruptcy only two years ago, it took former socialist Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero no more than two weeks, in the midst of the parliamentary vacation summer, to change the Constitution (with the support of today's ruling Popular Party), so that they could take the EU loans that Angela Merkel had promised — all according to constitutional order. Merkel had made her support dependent on these changes since she saw the need to impose debt limits on the Spanish regions. And obviously nothing pleases Spanish politicians of whatever stripe more than to show off and to centralize power for themselves. Today it is PP’s P.M. Mariano Rajoy who sits in the same boat named ‘Madrid is in command and shall keep the Catalans under control’ with the leader of the Social Democrats, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. Together, they now praise the Constitution as an immutable basic law, a declaration of intent that back in 1978 was supported by all Spaniards, and which can suddenly be altered no more.

No one knows how long the state will keep playing this crazy game of suppressing the democratic will of a whole people. However, opinion polls show almost every week that those who live and work in Catalonia can hardly stand the pressure, and therefore want to get out of Spain, and this sentiment is growing steadily. Anyone who believes that Quebec or Scotland are examples to compare Catalonia with is on the wrong track. The situation is rather similar to the urge the Croats had to get away from the Serbs, the need the Slovaks felt to split from the Czechs, or the situation between Kosovo and Serbia right before they fell apart. Canada and the UK have long realized that they cannot keep a whole people within their boundaries against their will. Spain is unfortunately still far away from realizing this.

Read this article in German and Spanish

Thomas Spieker

(Thomas Spieker is a columnist of German origin who has been living in Catalonia for over 40 years)