The pro-independence Catalan MEP (Together for Catalonia) and academic, Clara Ponsatí, is presenting a new collective work on the subject: under the title The Case of the Catalans: Why So Many Catalans No Longer Want to Be Part of Spain, it reviews the evolution of the Catalan conflict from different points of view, from the historical background to the current political, economic and legal situation.
The book is to be launched this Tuesday via a videoconference connection between Edinburgh and Brussels, in which Ponsatí, editor of the work, and Scottish National Party politician and journalist George Kerevan will take part. The pair will talk about the Catalan political conflict and will take questions from those attending the event, which can be followed online.
Together with Ponsatí, six Catalan academics took part in this work: Carles Boix, of Princeton;Enriqueta Aragonès, of Barcelona's UAB; Albert Carreras and Xavier Quadras, from U. Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona; and Antoni Abat of the University of Copenhagen.
The title of the book is, like some elements of the issue, centuries old. The phrase "The Case of the Catalans" was used by the European powers in discussions on the political fate of Catalonia under the Peace of Utrecht (1712-1714) which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. As the book notes, England had allied with the Catalans on the side of the Habsburg's pretender to the Spanish throne, but eventually signed the Treaty of Utrecht under which it abandoned the war, in exchange for Gibraltar and Menorca and access to the Spanish slave market. "The abandoned Catalans continued to fight but were defeated by Bourbon troops after the dramatic siege of Barcelona in 1714," recalls a short frontispiece. It's an episode from Catalan History 101. However, it consumes barely a few pages of what is a wide-ranging and up-to-date work.
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