Un bloc de Brian Cutts amb música, llibres i algun que altre comentari sobre les Terres de l’Ebre o l’actualitat ..... music, books and the odd comment on current affairs, or local news and events in southern Catalonia.
Al desembre del 2011, a Suecia va començar un nou i interessant projecte - obrir un compte a Twitter "en nom del pais", però deixar-ho en mans d'un ciutada diferent cada setmana en comptes de baix el control de les Autoritats Oficials. Ha donat una visió molt interessant del païs i la seva gent, i ha tingut molta repercussió (com aquest article). Des de llavors que s'han anat obrint comptes pareguts en altres paisos, i ara toca Catalunya! Fa 15 dies només que funciona però té bona pinta. Aquí es va publicar una noticia sobre el funcionament i objectius, però basicament l'idea és piular en anglès per arribar a les xarxes socials internacionals donant un idea de com és la vida a Catalunya, segons el punt de vista de cada persona que gestiona el compte. Aquí està el webpage del projecte amb informació sobre qui ha participat.
I, com que "qui no té feina, el gat pentina", pos, resulta que aquesta setmana hi participo jo!! Aixi que, ja sabeu, si coneixeu gent no-catalans que volen saber més de natros o tenen ganes d'ajudar a difondre el tema, pos, endavant!.
@CatalanVoices
....
In December 2011, Sweden set up an "official" national Twitter account where every week a different citizen would be allowed to tweet about their own life and thoughts, thus allowing for an open, democratic and un-official vision of Sweden to be shared around the world. People raved about the idea and it's been a great success (as this article shows). Since then, many countries have started their own similar projects, and now so have Catalonia! It only started 2 weeks back but it looks like a great idea. The webpage, here, gives some idea of the objectives and how it works, but basically it's just to build up a piece-by-piece jigsaw of Catalan life, aims, concerns, through the subjective eyes of the people who live, or have lived, here and get this message outside of our frontiers to the rest of the world (hence the choice of language, English).
And this week it's my turn!! They've put my blurb on the webpage too and I'm already tweeting :)
So, if you're interested in seeing the Bigger Picture about Catalonia, or have international friends who may be, you know what to do. @CatalanVoices
Parlant de Catalunya, gràcies a Liz Castro, s'ha publicat un llibre excel·lent amb una diversitat d'articles molt interessants sobre el tema de la má de "experts" en la materia - i tot això en anglès, amb l'objectiu d'arribara llà on hem d'arribar. De fet amb els diners que han recol·lectat (amb el sistema Verkami) han enviat copies del llibre a biblioteques, periodistes, i politics internacionals a més a més de les copies que s'han enviat als contactes dels col·laboradors!
En fi, per intentar ajudar a entendre, he copiat una pagina de l'article de Xavier Solana comparant Catalunya i Escocia.
La cançó d'avui - pos, alguna cosa d'Escocia.
...
Recently there has been a great book published, What's up with Catalonia. Thanks to the editor Liz Castro, 33 fascinating articles on different aspects of the "Catalan question" by a selection of experts, has been published in English - and copies have been sent around the world, to libraries, journalists, politicians, and contacts of the people who have donated money to make this project happen! Here's just a short extract, from an article by Xavier Solano, but hopefully by comparing the Catalans with the Scottish case it will help people understand a little better What is up with Catalonia!
"...Scotland and Catalonia have many things in common. Both are small nations that currently form part of European Union member states. Both lost their sovereignty at the beginning of the 18th century, Scotland in 1707 and Catalonia in 1714. Three hundred years later, a significant portion of both the Catalan and Scottish people believe that it no longer makes sense to remain within their respective states. The current situation no longer offers them sufficient benefits. Indeed, many believe that Scotland and Catalonia miss out on opportunities every day because they are not independent, and they do not have complete freedom to make decisions about their own affairs.
It turns out that there are more and more people who believe that it is time to become a grown-up nation, a people responsible for its own actions with all the associated consequences, just like the other approximately 200 countries in the world. There are many who believe that the Catalonia and Scotland of the future should have only two capitals, Brussels and their own, and that those decisions that are not made in Brussels should be taken in Barcelona or Edinburgh because, at the end of the day, independence is nothing more than having the freedom to make your own decisions and manage your own resources.
However, there are also important differences between Scotland and Catalonia. For instance, Scotland is considered a “nation” by the Government of the United Kingdom and the Scots are deemed to have the right to decide the future of Scotland. Its parliament is respected and trusted by the British Parliament of Westminster, which never legislates on matters that have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The budgets of the Scottish Parliament and Government are calculated through a transparent formula, the public
revenue and expenditure reports are published regularly and the Scottish Parliament has full powers over the main policy areas such as education, health, or justice, to name just a few. Scotland also has official national teams competing internationally.
Catalonia has none of these. The Spanish government and parliament, unlike the British authorities with Scotland, have repeatedly refused to give such treatment and recognition to Catalonia.
...
... Another thing that perhaps few people know is that Catalonia is a very old nation. For example, our current President, Mr. Artur Mas, is the 129th president of the Generalitat of Catalonia. To put this into context, allow me to compare this with the United States, whose current president, Barack Obama, is the 44th leader of that great nation. There are not many countries in the world that can claim that their first president was named in 1359. Obviously, the times have changed but the Catalans’ sense of self-determination and sovereignty remain strong.
This desire for self-government is something we share with all of the nation-states in the world and also with those nations that, like Scotland, are pursuing independence. Scotland and the United Kingdom make a good analogy for explaining Catalonia and Spain to the world. If we look closely, we see that the United Kingdom and Spain have a fair number of things in common, for example, both were formed as unified states at the beginning of the 18th century and both are comprised of multiple nations.
Britain, for example, is formed of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish. It’s interesting to see that the English—who were and still are the largest and most important nation in the United Kingdom—never renounced their own nationality in order to become British. In Spain, the story is quite different. The Castilians, who were the largest of the nations that constituted the Spanish State, after conquering the other Iberian nations and abolishing their laws, languages, and constitutions, established a process of castilianization of the new unified Spain. In the end, they divvied up their own nation, Castile, and converted it into Spanish regions. They eventually stopped thinking of Castile as a nation and considered only Spain instead. The English, on the other hand, have always kept their own identity, which has facilitated maintaining a relatively healthy relationship with their neighbors. In contrast, Spain has been trying to implement an aggressive program of “Spanishization” or castilianization of the Catalans, Basques, Galicians, and all other non-Castilians.
For that reason, the proposal of making Scotland an independent state from the United Kingdom has not raised such visceral hackles among the English, who understand it to be a Scottish affair. The English realize that an independent Scotland might fragment the United Kingdom but that its own nation, England, would remain intact. In Spain, the reaction is quite different. Since the Castilians are now only Spanish, they believe that an independent Catalonia would break up their nation. Therefore, the Spanish Government and Parliament have actively moved against any sort of recognition of the national identity of Catalonia even though it is well known that Catalonia was a nation well before Spain was created and, obviously, long before Castile was divided up.
The Spanish case is paradoxical. On the one hand it is a democratic country that belongs to the European Union of the 21st century. On the other, it is a state that, in contrast with the United Kingdom and Scotland, or Canada and Québec, has yet to recognize the status of “nationhood” for Catalonia, even though such status was passed by 90 per cent of the Members of the Catalan Parliament and ratified in a referendum by the Catalan people in 2006.
In fact, we can even go further. In contrast with Canada, and in the United Kingdom in particular—where each and every one of the Prime Ministers from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron, including Tony Blair, have always recognized the right of the Scots to decide if they want Scotland to become an independent state—the Spanish government refuses to recognize this right to the Catalans, the Basques, or anyone else who asks for it. Actually, the Spanish government has already announced that if the Catalan President goes ahead with the referendum in 2014, he will have to face the courts."
Un altre resumen personal de la situació actual a Catalunya,
pels que parlen anglès ... i la cançó, pos, si apreteu les semblances podriem
dir que parla d’algù que havia tingut por a parlar fins ara però per fi vol
explicar-ho tot al món....
....
Regular
visitors to the blog will be wondering why Brian hasn’t been rabbitting on
about the Catalan independence movement for some time. Well, firstly, time is
short, and secondly, I would not wish to bore you with a mono-themed blog –
but, anyway, it’s time for a quick update.
As you
should know (by clicking here), 1.5 million people marched for Independence on
11th September which led the Catalan PM to call elections. His (winning)
party, and the second-placed party in the elections, have a clear objective of
holding a referendum on this issue. Together with a couple of smaller parties,
maybe 75% of MPs believe a referendum should be held, and the government is
committed to holding it in 2014.
Meanwhile,
in Madrid, they insist this would be illegal and anti-constitutional, and that
they’d probably not allow it and Catalonia would lose all its current
autonomous powers, as well as other nasty things which may or may not happen –
prison, military threats etc.
Catalonia
insists that it will try to get Madrid to agree to the referendum, but if they
don’t, then legal support from international legislation will be the way to
move forward.
And as many
experts have said, the top and bottom of it is; how can a people be denied the
right to have a democratic peaceful say on their own future, especially after
such wide and deep support has been shown?
What will
happen? Who knows! It seems like the plans for the referendum are still on
track, though maybe not at the front of the government’s mind at present as it
is struggling to deal with recession, no cash to pay for its obligations (public
servants and services being cut right, left and centre), plus numerous cases of
corruption. Maybe these cases will all be proven, but it seems like Madrid has
had a hand in many of them coming out to public knowledge just now .... so,
interesting situation!
The song,
at a (drastic) push, you could find a weak link today as she sings of someone
losing their fear to speak out ....
A continuació, una petita actualtització en anglès pels possibles lectors no-catalans del bloc, sobre com va el tema de l'independencia ... a nivell personal, cada dia estic més content que ERC va arribar a ser el segon partit en les eleccions i optimista que aixo arribarà a bon port :)
...
So, you may be wondering how the "Catalan question" is going on ... well, my last word on the subject gave the election results. Since then, the winning party has decided to form a minority government, with only 50 of the 135 seats available. However, this is more than double the vote of the second place party, which only got 21 seats. Added to this is the fact that this second-placed party does not wish to form a coalition govt, but shares the same opinion on holding a referendum for independence as the first. Hence, they have come to an agreement where they will support, or not hinder, the government on certain issues so that it can get on with the job of governing the country, as long as said referendum will be held before the end of 2014 :)
Here we go!
The Spanish government has already said this referendum will be illegal and will not be allowed, but as about 80% of Catalans believe otherwise (and maybe 60-70% would vote for independence in this referendum), the question is who is mightier, the people or the law? What is democracy?
The Spanish government are approaching this situation from the opposite direction of Cameron and the Scotland referendum. Can you imagine David Cameron trying to stop Scottish people speaking their own language (a tricky comparison, but you get the idea) or refusing to pay money owed to Scotland until the "come to their senses"? Or threatening to imprison and court-martial the Scottish PM, or even send in the tanks? All this on top of daily rants by politicians and media about how nasty Scottish people are etc. Would that encourage Scottish people to stay within the UK? Well, that's the Spanish approach - beat them with a stick until they love you!!
Music-wise, I can't think of anything to connect to the above, so it's another track from Brian's LP Of 2012!
Un apunt breu sobre que està passant a Catalunya. No m'extendré en català ja que ho sabeu tot!! Només aniré a la conclusió meva personal - que hem de decidir si volem "jugar" una aposta o no. Si apostem per un Si al "dret de decidir", i tot seguit (però rapid), la consulta i declaració d'independencia, tenim molt a guanyar. Ningu ens podrà aturar. Si ens tirem enrere, col·lectivament, perdem aquesta oportunitat unica per uns altres 40 anys. No hi haurà més opcions, ja que Espanya ens passarà per damunt. És tot o no res, en la questió de la nació catalana.
Que si, que altres temes són importants, pero es que aquests temes sempre son importants i fa 2 anys, i 1 any, ja vam triar un model de dretes. D'aqui 1 o 2 anys, independents, podrem tornar a triar model de societat - pero el tren de l'independencia només ens passarà un cop en la vida.
Que fem? En que confiem? Si ens enganyem, tornem a on estem (sempre enganyats), però, i si ens surten guanyadors les nostres apostes ......
.....
Regular visitors to the blog, if there's any left, will be wondering why I'm not preaching about Catalonia now that it's hot news. The thing is I am now officially the "last person with a job" in the Spanish State and it's becoming hard to find free time. Rajoy just phoned me to ask if I'd turn the lights off when Catalunya leaves ....
But here's a quick summary regurgitating previous posts - Catalunya "appeared" as a united body about 1000 years ago as different noble men and warriors did what they used to do. It formed an alliance with Aragon and was known as the Catalunya-Aragon kingdom for yonks. About 500 years ago, through different alliances and marriages this kingdom eventually formed a coalition with Castille, although each part kept their own rules, way of life, and political systems. About 300 years ago, there was a war with the Castille siding with the French and Bourbon kings and way of thinking, and the Catalans siding with the more liberal, open, dare-I-say democratic Austrian Empire. Catalonia lost and was brought under Spain's thumb for the next 300 years. Different attempts to re-gain their lost freedoms and autonomy have been crushed time and time again, with Franco in the 20th century even trying to do away with their culture and language. Franco died, the Spanish "democracy" gave Catalunya some limited autonomy, but also divided Spain into 17 other identical regions so as to water down the Catalan's, and please the armed forces and Franco fans. 30 years later, this autonomy has not satisfied Catalans, but Spanish govt believes it's too much. (this Brian-version of the history may all be true, or not, - that's why they invented Wikipedia, folks, so you can do your own checking up!)
A ground swell of feeling that the only way left (after 30 years of failed negotiations) is for out and out independence, has been growing and growing, till finally 1.5 million people marched in Barcelona in September for this objective. The usual softy President of Catalonia had his eyes finally opened, or his butt kicked, and at last admitted that Independence was a necessary goal. Abouut 70% of the Parliament voted on the need to hold a referendum in the next 4 years, and the President called snap elections to see if the public would match their actions with votes.
Anem a per una tercera i ultima entrada sobre el tema de Catalunya, i despres ho tornarem a deixar en mans dels "experts" ...
Quan explico el cas de Catalunya i les seves demandes d'independencia als meus amics anglesos, normalment em contesten amb la mateixa opinió que tinc jo - "Per a que esteu esperant?". No veuen cap problema, i la majoria (dels pocs amics que tinc) tenen clar que l'independencia no s'ha de demanar -s'ha d'agafar.
Aixi que, amb tanta historia darrera, i tants arguments a favor, per que els catalans no han fet el pas encara? Jo tinc dos teories que m'atreveixo de publicar per a que me'ls corregiu ... una, la paraula "seny", però mal entes. Els catalans que conec semblen tenir molt de seny i sentit comú i potser aixo se'ls para els peus, pensant que una cosa "radical" com trencar en EspaÑa no és de "seny". Jo opinion lo contrari, lo que és una bojeria seria no trencar!! El sentit comú i logica meva em diu que ja tardem en partir peres ...
La segona teoria; que la democracia és molt jove encara i la gent d'una certa generació està molt lligats als partits, i aquí concretament a El Partit. I fins que El Partit no diu JA, no es pot pensar per un mateix. Crec que, abans per temor (cops d'estat i democracia precaria), i ara per ordens dels partits, la gent no s'ha atrevit a anar més allà. Com he dit, tinc l'impressió que una certa generació de votants tenen el tema "partit" com a una religió - per exemple, aixo no havia notat a Anglaterra, o no fins el mateix punt. Que la gent des dels 18 anys ja tenen clar a qui votaran els propers 60 anys - per no esmentar els "enllaços" que hi ha entre favors, feines, i vots ..... no soc cap expert ni hi he viscut alli des de fa anys, pero crec que a Anglaterra els caps de educació, salut etc no depenen de quin partit mana, i a més conec gent que ha votat tant el partit socialista com el conservador sense manies. Tinc l'impressió que això ja està canviant aquí també i potser els jovens (com jo) si que demanarem passos dels partits en comptes de "callar i obeir".
En fi, hem esperat molt, massa, però sembla que anem bé ara ....
La cançó no té res a vore, però ens agrada ;)
............
Ok, third and last (for now) comment on the future independence of Catalonia. For more information on the reasons behind this demand, you could click on my previous rants. But today I will attempt to answer the question that most of my English friends ask after I've convinced them of Catalonia's case - "So, what are you waiting for?"
Exactly. The same question I often ask myself. I've come up with two theories which I will unleash in the hope that my readers will be kind and not debunk them outright.
One, the Catalans are characterized (or stereotyped) as being a people with "seny" - common sense. Whereas many Latin or Mediterranean people are stereotyped as being quick off the mark, emotional, rollercoaster feelings etc, the Catalans are the calm reflective ones, apparently. And this "common sense" is the aspect which is holding them back from making a drastic break with Spain. Bad move, I say - the "common sense" move is to get out while you can - who'd recommend someone to stay with their partner in a marriage if everything went wrong, and your partner hated you, and you'd tried for 300 years to reach a "sensible" agreement on how to stay together?
Two, the Spanish and Catalan democracy is still very young, just over 30 years. A certain generation of people still remember Franco, or the coup d'etât back in 81, and have always been reluctant to shake the boat. Even worse is the party system. Many people here owe their allegiances to certain political parties as they or their family have managed to get a job through an intricate process of back-scratching. Many people, again of a certain generation, have the Big Party in Catalonia in their minds, and know they will vote for the rest of their lives come what may. And this Big Party (the "national" conservatives) have up to now always recommended negotiating agreements with Spain, rather than splitting up. Until now .... watch this space or better still, read the articles I linked to in my previous post).
Song, nothing to do with the post, but I just love it!!
Avui penjarem 4 noticies en anglès pels que no viuen aqui (o pels que només miren TVE!), per intentar explicar una mica que va passar el dimarts i els motius. I un parell de videos - ja sabeu, un imatgen val més ....
So what do one and a half million people look like? Here's a couple of videos trying to give an idea of Tuesday's demonstration in Barcelona. But first, a few links to English news articles about the day.
And, finally, the following video also shows the demo, as well as interviews in English with Catalan businessmen.
Footnote:one and a half million people are a hell of a lot of people (21% of the 7 million who live in Catalonia). Is it a realistic estimation of the participation? Birds-eye photos would seem to indicate so. Experts reckon on 3 or 4 people per square metre, meaning one million people would occupy a space 50m wide and 5km long. Given the length and width of many of the streets taken up, and the immense squares too, this is definitely possible. Statistics show that over 1000 coaches ferried people in from outside Barcelona - 50,000 people. If we assume another 50,000 went by train, and maybe the same quantity again by car, it's already adding up. And the people who came to Barcelona (spending a full day and probably near 100€ for a family of four) will always be a minority compared to the people of Barcelona (a couple of million) who just had to step out or get local transport. Finally, if the police say a million and a half, who are we to argue?! Adding up interest in the independence we could add on probably another million or so who couldn't get to Barcelona. Returning home at midnight the day before the school term started put many off, as well as the cost in the times we live in, but judging by conversations and social network comments, the "virtual" support for independence is also massive.
Tres dates importants i ja famoses en l’historia recent de Catalunya. La primera consulta a Arenys de Munt el 13-09-2009, el milió de persones als carrers de Barcelona el 10-07-2010, i ara la consulta més gran dels més de 500 municipis on s’han celebrat. A Barcelona han participat 257,645 persones el 10-04_2011! Un 20% de la població, en una consulta no-vinculant, no-legal, en un diumenge de sol i platja, organitzat per voluntaris i amb els diners que han rebut dels ciutadans. Impressionant!!
El poder de decidir, ho tenim la gent. Fins a on arribarem? Quin és el proxim pas? Podem fer-ho sense caure en el "joc" de baralles politiques? Podem fer-ho sense els politics?
...............
The history of Catalonia’s struggle for independence is a long and complicated tale. So, let’s fast forward and look at three recent steps.
On 13th September, 2009, the independent mayor of a small town called Arenys de Munt decided to hold its own referendum on independence. This was a non-legally-binding act, a mere symbolic gesture according to its detractors. There was an overwhelming turnout. This led to a chain reaction where volunteers got together in other towns around Catalonia to organise their own. A citizens’ group was set up to validate them and check they were being held correctly and strictly, so no one could question the results. Over the last 18 months over 500 towns (of the 1000 in Catalonia) have voted, with a total of over 600, 000 votes in favour of independence. Until last weekend.
The final stage in this chapter was the breath-taking organisation of a referendum in Barcelona, the capital city, on 10th April 2011. Breath-taking as these activities receive no public or institutional help or money. Over 5000 volunteers took part at make-shift polling booths on street corners, all funded by private donations. All this in a cosmopolitan mixing-pot of a city like Barcelona where the organisers had serious concerns regarding the interest for this issue. They took as their reference, last years referendum on city planning decisions organised by and supported by the chief political parties. This had achived 11% participation, over 3 days of voting. Well, last Sunday, a day of sun and beach, for a non-legal symbolic gesture, over 20% of Barcelona’s inhabitants turned out to vote!! 257,645 people. Bringing the grand total to almost 900,000 Catalans of voting age (from an overall population of 6-7 million), and many towns still not having voted. The conclusion is that the people’s will is clear. What will the people do next?
Més sobre les eleccions en anglès. Si algú vol afegir, corregir alguna cosa, ja m’ho direu. Amb la mateixa conclusió d’ahir... després de molts d’anys de cinisme i pasotisme, per una altra vegada vull confiar en algú...
I have now lived in Catalonia for 21 years, 21 law-abiding tax-paying European-citizen years, but still am not allowed a vote. Snif! This year, however, I have decided to put aside my habitual cynicism and choose who I would vote for if I could. However, I do not consider it to be choosing a party, but, instead, choosing an objective ... Maybe they will deceive me too, but, as they say, a change is as good as a rest.
So here goes for a brief introduction to Catalan politics:
Although Catalonia is kept on a tight chain by the State of Spain, it does have its own Parliament which has certain autonomic powers. As with most countries elections are held every 4 years, and time is up on Sunday. The Parliament has 135 MPs and is currently made up of the following parties, with a PSC-ERC-ICV coalition in power:
CiU (with 48 seats). A so-called nationalist party which, despite being in power since the 1980s, to 2003, only managed to get Madrid to offer Catalonia the scraps from the dining table but with no real progress being made from a nationalist point of view. They seem – to me- to be a political party with the sole objective of staying in power and obtaining more power for themselves, rather than thinking of long term visions for Catalonia. They are a centre-right party with conservative Christian roots. They consider themselves to be liberal (though not like the Liberals we know in the UK).
PSC (Catalan Socialist Party) (37 seats) is basically the Catalan arm of the Spanish socialist party and, hence, after 7 years in power seem to have achieved very little in the way of Catalan autonomy. In fact, things seem to have gone backwards after seeing the consequences of the problems with the new Statute.
ERC (Left-wing Republican Catalans) (21 seats) – firm believers in Catalan independence. However, 7 years of government have brought little or no progress.
ICV (Left-wing Green Catalans) (12) – believe it is time to re-write the Spanish constitution (unfortunately an impossible task if they cannot convince the Madrid Parliament first) so as to accept a federal vision of Spain, where Catalonia achieves much more autonomy. Personally, I think 30 years of democracy have shown that this is a road the Spanish state does not wish to take. Although they are ecologists, there have been a few too many “dodgy” decisions taken by them. Here’s hoping that the new generation coming in now, will put them back where they should be.
PP – Popular Party (14). right-wing conservatives. Think Aznar. Think Iraq. Spanish nationalists with no desire for loosening Catalonia’s ties with the state. Often fight in law courts to reduce some of the (limited) powers Catalonia actually has.
Ciutadans (3) – more or less the same but just in Catalonia. Claim to be in favour of freedom, which actually means more freedom for Spain, less for Catalonia.
These are the parties who currently have seats in the Parliament. Over 100 other parties will also stand in Sunday’s elections, with the usual bunch of Pensioners United, Free Cannabis, Happy Christians, Anti-Bull Fighting and so on, adding colour to the proceedings.
This time, however, two new Catalan parties (Reagrupament and SI) have emerged with definite possibilities of gaining parliamentary representation. Both have the independence of Catalonia high on their agenda. And the fact of the matter is, after the protest march in July, it is surprising how little attention the “traditional” parties have paid to this issue. Perhaps it is true that the people often lead politicians, rather than the other way round.
Of these two options, the one which has attracted my attention is Solidaritat Catalana (SI). This is a coalition of many smaller parties who have one thing in common. Independence. They are a mixed bag of lefties and right-wingers, but I believe their proposal is logical. First, let’s forget our policies, get together and aim only for independence. Afterwards, each can go their own way and the future of Catalonia will go to the left or right depending on the voters’ will. The point being, Catalonia can do very little to improve its economic, social, or cultural problems until it achieves the right to decide on these things (and act). Without independence, all we can do is moan to Madrid.
This coalition is led by Joan Laporta, ex-chairman of Barcelona Football Club – who won every title under the sun while he was in charge, and beat Real Madrid 2-6 at their ground!
SI firmly believe the time is over for begging and negotiating with Madrid. The only possible route is for 68 Catalan MPs (parliamentary majority) to decide to declare Catalan independence in the Parliament, a decision which would then need to be negotiated with Brussels, and the UN. Apparently this is the way taken by many other nations in recent years, and international and European legislation would throw up no barriers.
So what’s going to happen?
The Catalan elections are strangely biased in favour of the 6 parties already in Parliament as the others are not allowed a presence in the media. So, although SI could gain a lot of support in theory, it will be a struggle to reach the “masses” who get most of their information from the TV. Personally, I hope they manage to get into the Parliament. If they cannot get 68 MPs (between SI, ERC, CiU) this time, once this party is publicly established, maybe 2014 will be the year ....
ans, Anti-Bull Fighting and so on, adding colour to the proceedings.