Fascist Franco may have been dead for more than four decades, but Spain is still encumbered with his dictatorial corpse. A new paradigm has been coined right inside the lofty European Union, self-described home/patronizing dispenser of human rights to lesser regions across the planet: “In the name of democracy, refrain from voting, or else.” Call it democracy nano-Franco style.
Nano-Franco is Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose heroic shock troops were redeployed from a serious nationwide terrorist alert to hammer with batons and fire rubber bullets not against jihadis but … voters. At least six schools became the terrain of what was correctly called The Battle of Barcelona.
Extreme right-wingers even held a demonstration inside Barcelona. Yet this was not shown on Spanish TV because it contradicted the official Madrid narrative.
The Catalan government beat the fascist goons with two very simple codes – as revealed by La Vanguardia. “I’ve got the Tupperware. Where do we meet?” was the code on a prepaid mobile phone for people to collect and protect ballot boxes. “I’m the paper traveler” was the code to protect the actual paper ballots. Julian Assange/WikiLeaks had warned about the world’s first Internet war as deployed by Madrid to smash the electronic voting system. The counterpunch was – literally – on paper. The US National Security Agency must have learned a few lessons.
So we had techno power combined with cowardly Francoist repression tactics countered by people power, as in parents conducting sit-ins in schools to make sure they were functional on referendum day. Some 90% of the 2.26 million Catalans who made it to the polls ended up voting in favor of independence from Spain, according to preliminary results. Catalonia has 5.3 million registered voters.
Roughly 770,000 votes were lost because of raids by Spanish police. Turnout at around 42% may not be high but it’s certainly not low. As the day went by, there was a growing feeling, all across Catalonia, all social classes involved, that this was not about independence any more; it was about fighting a new brand of fascism. What’s certain is there’s a Perfect Storm coming.
No pasarán
The “institutional declaration” of overwhelming mediocrity nano-Franco Rajoy, right after the polls were closed, invited disbelief. The highlight was a mediocre take on Magritte: “Ceci n’est pas un referendum.” This referendum never took place. And it could never take place because “Spain is a mature and advanced democracy, friendly and
tolerant”. The day’s events proved it a lie.
Rajoy said “the great majority of Catalan people did not want to participate in the secessionist script”. Another lie. Even before the “non-existent” referendum, between 70% and 80% of Catalans said they wanted to vote, yes or no, after an informed debate about their future.
Crucially, Rajoy extolled the “unwavering support of the EU and the international community”. Of course; unelected EU “elites” in Brussels and the main European capitals are absolutely terrorized when EU citizens express themselves.
Yet the top nano-Franco lie was that “democracy prevailed because
the constitution was respected”.
Rajoy spent weeks defending his repression of the referendum by invoking “the rule of law such as ours”. It’s “their” law, indeed. The heart of the matter are Articles 116 and 155 of a retrograde Spanish constitution, the first one describing how states of alarm, exception and siege work in Spain, and the latter applied in “order to compel the [autonomous community] forcibly to meet … obligations, or in order to protect the … general interests.”
Well, these “obligations” and “general interests” are defined by – who else, Madrid and Madrid only. The Spanish Constitutional Court is a joke – it couldn’t care less about the principle of separation of powers. The court congregates a bunch of legalistic Mafiosi/patsies working for the two parties of the establishment, the so-called “socialists” of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) and the medieval right-wingers of Rajoy’s People’s Party (PP).
Few outside Spain may remember the failed coup of February 23, 1981 – when there was an attempt to hurl Spain back into the long dark Francoist night. Well, I was in Barcelona when it happened – and that vividly reminded me of the South American military coups in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the coup, what passes for “justice” in Spain never ceased to be a mere lackey to these two political parties.
The Constitutional Court actually suspended the Catalan referendum law, arguing that it was violating the – medieval – Spanish constitution. This disgraceful collusion is crystal-clear for most people in Catalonia. What Madrid is essentially up to amounts to a coup as well – against the Catalan government and, of course, against democracy. So no wonder the immortal civil-war mantra was back in the streets of Catalonia: “¡No pasarán!” They shall not pass.
Brussels does demophobia
Rajoy, thuggish, mediocre and corrupt (that’s another long story), lied even more when he said he keeps the “door open to dialogue”. He never wanted any dialogue with Catalonia – always refusing a referendum in any shape or form or transferring any powers to the Catalan regional government. Catalonia’s regional president, Carles Puigdemont, insists he had to call the referendum because this is what separatist parties promised when they won regional elections two years ago.
And of course no one is an angel in this hardcore power play. The PDeCaT (the Democratic Party of Catalonia), the main force behind the referendum, has also been mired in corruption.
Catalonia in itself is as economically powerful as Denmark; 7.5 million people, around 16% of Spain’s population, but responsible for 20% of gross domestic product, attracting one-third of foreign investment and producing one-third of exports. In a country where unemployment is at a horribly high 30%, losing Catalonia would be the ultimate disaster.
The demophobia of Brussels elites knows no bounds; the historical record shows EU citizens are not allowed to express themselves freely, especially by using democratic practices in questions related to self-determination.
Madrid in effect subscribes to only two priorities: dutifully obey EU austerity diktats, and crush by all means any regional push for autonomy.
Catalan historian Josep Fontana, in a wide-ranging, enlightening interview, has identified the heart of the matter: “What, for me, is scandalous is that the PP is whipping up public opinion by saying that holding the referendum means the secession of Catalonia afterwards, when it knows that secession is impossible. It is impossible because it would mean that the Generalitat would have to ask the Madrid government to be so kind as to withdraw its army, Guardia Civil and National Police from Catalonia, and to meekly renounce a territory that provides 20% of its GDP … so why are they using this excuse to stir up a climate reminiscent of a civil war?”
Beyond the specter of civil war, the Big Picture is even more incandescent.
The Scottish National Party is sort of blood cousins with Catalan separatists in its rejection of a perceived illegitimate central authority, with all the accompanying negative litany. SNP members complain they are forced to cope with different languages; political diktats from above; unfair taxes; and what is felt as outright economic exploitation. This phenomenon has absolutely nothing to do with the EU-wide rise of extreme right-wing nationalism, populism and xenophobia – as Madrid insists.
And then there’s the silence of the wolves. It would be easy to picture the EU’s reaction if the drama in Catalonia were happening in distant, “barbarian” Eurasian lands. The peaceful referendum in Crimea was condemned as “illegal” and dictatorial while a violent attack against freedom of expression of millions of people living inside the EU gets a pass.
The demophobia of Brussels elites knows no bounds; the historical record shows EU citizens are not allowed to express themselves freely, especially by using democratic practices in questions related to self-determination. Whatever torrent of spin may come ahead, the silence of the EU betrays the fact Brussels is puling the strings behind Madrid. After all the Brave New Euroland project implies the destruction of European nations to the profit of a centralized Brussels eurocracy.
Referenda are untamable animals. Kosovo was a by-product of the amputation/bombing into democracy of Serbia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; a gangster/narco mini-state useful as the host of Camp Bondsteel, the largest Pentagon base outside of the US.
Crimea was part of a legitimate reunification drive to rectify Nikita Khrushchev’s idiocy of separating it from Russia. London did not send goons to prevent the referendum in Scotland; an amicable negotiation is in effect. No set rules apply. Neocons screamed in vain when Crimea was reunited with Russia after shedding tears of joy when Kosovo was carved out of Serbia.
As for Madrid, a lesson should be learned from Ireland in 1916. In the beginning the majority of the population was against an uprising. But brutal British repression led to the war of independence – and the rest is history.
After this historic, (relatively) bloody Sunday, more and more Catalans will be asking: If Slovenia and Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the tiny Baltic republics, not to mention even tinier Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta, can be EU members, why not us? And a stampede might be ahead; Flanders and Wallonia, the Basque country and Galicia, Wales and Northern Ireland.
All across the EU, the centralized Eurocrat dream is splintering. It’s Catalonia that may be pointing toward a not so brave, but more realistic, new world.
It will be difficult, but for the good of all of us in Europe, Catalonia MUST become free and independent. Maybe we should start thinking of reviving the International Brigades to fight against the Franco heirs in Madrid. If Catalonia is defeated, the next people to be enslaved may be the one each one of us belongs to.
"All across the EU, the centralized Eurocrat dream is splintering." These new small players are easier to control by bigger players. Can Pepe explain why Soros, Israel and NATO see this development as OK?
Just a thought: the centralized Eurocrat dream may ultimately be strengthened by the breakup of EU states. Elites in Brussels may now be acting in collusion with Madrid against Catalonia but in the long run a more non democratic and centralized EU may result.
I also ask this question stated differently above.
The irony is that a rightwing government is protecting the distribution of wealth from a productive region to poorer regions. The other irony being the referendum is really an Ayn Randian movement to keep tax dollars for the people who earned it.
Wrong wrong wrong!!! The EU says that it support Madrid but on the other hand it works day and night, all the time, for decades now to destroy nation-states throught regionalism. The EC deals directly with the regions (mostly level NUTS 2 in EC terminology) for all kind of financial matters, not with states. I think many people get the role of the EU wrong here: the globalist unelected EC will win in either situation in the long run. Seems that Pepe is blinded by the hatred for Rajoy and his clique (he deserves a big deal of it, the incompetent) but fails to see the bigger picture.
You’re totally wrong Nuno. Sad for a University professor… The majority of Catalans DO NOT want independence. You are wrong when you say that this is a struggle for freedom and independence: learn this: THERE IS NO FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE -aka SOVEREIGNTY- within the EU. There isn’t for Spain and there wouldn’t be for Catalonia, which would be an even smaller and weaker entity. You and many ‘bona fide’ i**ots who don’t understand a damn about this situation (and the bigger picture) are playing the game that the EU and its globalist capitalist elites want you to play. DISGUSTING.
Petrus Levelleri – I’m sorry I am not as smart as you…
If you count the 770,000 people whose votes went missing – or weren’t able to vote at all – because of police repression, the voter turnout becomes 55%. If one assumes that out of those 770,000 people wanting to vote the same 90% would vote for independence (a reasonable assumption), and that all the other voters (2.5 million) were relatively indifferent to the matter being voted and would abstain even under normal conditions, we may assume that out of this last group 50% would be moderately favourable to independence and 50% moderately against. If you add all that, you come to the conclusion that about 73% of Catalans favour independence – 50% very strongly and 23% less so. More than enough to justify a declaration of independence for Catalonia.
But of course, being smarter than me, you know better…
Not really sure. When I see Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia… For war criminals "independence" was like Christmas and Eastern on one day; – they enriched themselves like crazy. And: the Yugoslav Constitution even gruranted each of the Republic of the Con-Federation the right for a secessin at any time. The Kosovo-Case was actually illeagal from whatoever view you’re looking at it: Kosovo was a province of Serbia, not even a republic. And Kofi Banana even said the war (so boming Serbia, bombing it media building and the Chinese Embassy) was illeagal. So where is Catalonias clear perspective of what it has to offer to it citizans, their Spanish fellows and to the EU? There is simply too much in the dark.
Pepe is a witty savvy writer, but on this one I do not buy what he is selling. Catalonia looks like the are suffering from Midas Touch syndrome. A poor example of the rich wanting their cake and to eat it by themselves. Neither Catalonia or Spain will benefit from this seccession battle, I foresee only a downward spiral as the union of Spain benefits both hence why Italy and Germany decided on unification instead of Balkanization. Yugoslavia was a whole lot better than the resultant Jigsaw puzzle on the Adriatic.
wuefc8yebw
The EU is playing a dangerous game.
This is not the first time I have heard this but why?
"Catalonia in itself is as economically powerful as Denmark; 7.5 million people, around 16% of Spain’s population, but responsible for 20% of gross domestic product, attracting one-third of foreign investment and producing one-third of exports. In a country where unemployment is at a horribly high 30%, losing Catalonia would be the ultimate disaster."
This is a failure of people who are used to living off of someone else. In this case it is Madrid and Brussels living off of the Catalonians.
Democracia significa que la mitad de la población de un territorio aplasta a la otra mitad. O más exactamente: que la mitad parasitaria y antiproductiva de un territorio, dedicada al lobbing, al mobing y al tráfico de influencias, aplasta a la otra mitad compuesta por los ciudadanos productivos. Bajo un régiomen democrático siempre vencen los individuos que utilizan los “medios políticos” (contraéticos y coactivos) sobre los “medios económicos” (éticos y voluntarios). Por eso, entre otras muchas ocsasm, la democracia es un sistema inmoral, perverso y criminal, al igual que cualquier otro sistema político basado en la coacción.
Pero hay una alternativa al orden -o desorden- social promovido por el estado, donde siempre hay ganadores que viven parasitariamentre a costa de los perdedores: los ciudadanos productivos, que son los auténticos esclavos del estado. De hecho, el estado es el más cruel y sanguinario sistema esclavista que jamás haya existido, ya que esta esclavitud estatal es, como sucede con todo lo público, mucho peor que la antigua esclavitud privada. Hay una forma de orden social donde no hay amos ni esclavos, ni parásitos y huéspedes, castas antagónicas que son creadas por el estado y su extorsión fiscal y legislativa. Este orden social, que de hecho es el único posible y el único natural, es el MERCADO LIBRE, basado en la Ley Natural, o sea, en el respeto absoluto a la libertad y la propiedad privada. Pro supuesto, la Ley Natural es opuesta e incompatible con el estado, que la destruye y subvuierte con su legislación, la cual es básicamente una forma coercitiva de dotar de impunidad o de despenalizar los espantosos crímenes cometidos consuetudinatiamente por los esbirros y ciudadanos estatales al servicio de los políticos (obediencia ciega y automutilación ética que podría considerarse es en sí misma como un grave desorden psíquico voluntariamente asumido).
Así que cualquier referendum de autodeterminación sólo significa que se da a elegir a los habitantes residentes en un territorio qué mafia pública o estado quieren que les robe y les controle: si la nacional o la regional. Todo conflicto independentista y toda secesión es una guerra entre mafias públicas o estatales. Y el libertarismno se opone frontalmente a ambos tipos de mafias o estados, tanto al nacional como al regional. En unos casos el primero será más brutal y corrupto, y en otros casos lo será el segundo, pero esto es circunstancial y no afecta al fondo de la cuestión. Lo que queremos es abolir el estado y su orden seocial basado en la coacción y en la mentira, y restablecer el Orden Natural basado en la libertad y en las relaciones voluntarias.
Por último, los conceptos de soberanía y democracia son, entre otras muchas cosas indeseables, incoherentes y autocontradictorios desde un punto de vista lógico, puesto que se fundamentan en otorgar el derecho de decisión colectiva a un conjunto arbitrario y predeterminado de ciudadanos (a un territorio) y en negárselo a sus partes: a sus regiones, a sus comarcas, a sus ciudades, a sus barrios y a sus ciudadanos individuales. Por supuesto, la única soberanía válida que existe es la de la persona individual, y los únicos contratos válidos son los voluntarios, siendo por consiguiente una violación absoluta del derecho natural que un grupo cualquiera de individuos pretendan imponer coercitivamente a otros un contrato coactivo que le convierte en siervo de un estado o de una mafia pública.
Nuno Cardoso da Silva You don’t say a thing about the sovereignty within the EU. Of course, it’s obvious there isn’t an ounce. Regarding your calculations: If you care about self-determination, that is, the sovereign people deciding upon its life in common, you should know that the sovereign in Spain is the people of Spain (the 46 million Spaniards), not 90% (who verifies the figure?) of 42% (of Catalans that showed up to the polling stations) of 16% (of the Spanish people). So in your delusional world of freedom and human rights, 2 million people can decide illegally and illegitimately upon the other 44 million, breaking the self-rule and the democratic fundamental law they all gave themselves in a *direct* vote (Constitutional referendum of 1978). Bravo professor….
Petrus Levelleri
In your reasoning the whole people of the UK should have voted on the Scottish referendum in respect of its independence… Of course SELF-determination is the exsclusive business of the people whose future is being determined. The idea that the non-Catalans should have a say on whether the Catalans are entitled to full sovereignty is ludicrous. The only thing non-Catalans can do is respect the will of the Catalans and keep a good relationship with the newly independent country… But that’s something Spaniards have always had a lot of trouble understanding and respecting. We, in Portugal, know something about that…
Nuno Cardoso da Silva The Scottish case is totally different to the Catalan one for the vote was negociated and agreed between two polities withint the frame of the bigger polity that is the UK. The political organisation of the UK has nothing to to with the Spanish one, Scotland was an independent kingdom in its current borders while Catalonia was never independent as such, but belonging to the Kingdom of Aragon in the 15th century. The vote in Catalonia was illegal, never agreed with the Spanish govt, unconstitutional. Only 35% of Catalans really want to be independent from Spain after 40 years of brainwashing from the DEVOLVED catalan authorities. The Spanish government turned a blind eye for too long and now this is the result: the delusional clique in power in Barcelona have believed their own lies, developing a pathological sense of being oppressed (hahahahaha… best sel-governance of a region in Europe and probably the whole world, only beaten by the Basques one) and now are pushing toward their internment in a Psychiatric hospital (the prison hospital actually). The problem is that they have deluded too many bona fide catalans in their suicidal course… You buy that as a poor Portuguese also multisecularly oppressed by the Spanish hordes? Haha. It’s up to you professor, but your Goebbelsian tactics are totally discredited.
Petrus Levelleri
Do you really believe that all the non-voters in the referendum were against independence? About 700,000 people couldn’t vote because of the police action. Many others, certainly, would have gone out to vote but were afraid of doing so by the threat of police violence. And most of those two groups would have voted like those who did actually vote. The other 40 to 45% of non-voters were true abstainers, people who didn’t care much one way or the other. That’s what happens in all elections throughout Europe, where around 45% don’t vote. Can you say that all those true abstainers were against independence? Chances are that they were evenly split between mild supporters and mild adversaries of independence. If you do the sums you will see that a substantial majority of people in Catalonia favour independence, even if some of them are only mildly interested in that issue. But the only way to be sure would have been to allow for a referendum on that question, without any interference by the police. But that’s what Rajoy didn’t want. Because he knows very well that a majority of Catalans favour independence, and he didn’t want to be confronted with proof of such preference. So he tried to sabotage the vote, and failed. And now, I am sure that the number of people in Catalonia favouring independence has grown substantially, thanks to Rajoy. Next step? Spanish military intervention in Catalonia to stop secession. And a possible second Civil War in Spain. Congratulations!!!…
Petrus Levelleri
"The counties that would eventually make up the Principality of Catalonia were gradually unified under the rule of the Count of Barcelona. In 1137, the County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon were unified under a single dynasty, creating what modern historians call the Crown of Aragon; however, Aragon and Catalonia retained their own political structure and legal traditions. Because of these legal differences and their use of different language —Aragonese and Catalan— an official recognition of the Catalan Counties as a distinct political entity with its own institutions, laws and political community became necessary.
Under Alfons the Troubador (reigned 1164-1196), Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time. Still, the term Principality of Catalonia was not used legally until the 14th century, when it was applied to the territories ruled by the Courts of Catalonia."
Nuno Cardoso da Silva If there was a legal referendum (which is impossible because Spanish law forbids an autonomous community to hold referenda on secession) you would see a far higher turnout than usual. 85% of people would go to the polling stations and the result would be that 60% DO NOT want independence. It’s a clear majority. Nevertheless, the Rajoy government’s handling of the issue (it’s a long story) has been deplorable. He lets the judiciary have the initiative on request of the state prosecutor, that is, he hides behind the laws and lack political will to talk to the clique installed in Barcelona. On the other hand, the nationalist clique (which ranges from the *most* (even beating PP) corrupt party in Spain, former CiU, now PDeCat, neoliberal etnocentric freaks to the extreme left ERC and CUP, the party of the fascist Antifa daddyboy students and other eternal teenagers who’ve never worked in their entire life) has been knowlingly, stubbornly breaking the laws upon which they are even in government themselves… This has to end. They will be arrested and there will be unrest, I hope not war, because they don’t have the means and people in Spain wouldn’t take a rifle ever. This time and experiences are long overdue. But Spain could face a (self-defeating for them) catalan terrorist pro-independence group and bombings here and there. I tell you something: that’s the biggest fear of Spaniards and the big prize for the PP (the lived very well under the threat of the ETA for decades). That is the situation.
Petrus Levelleri
"…you would see a far higher turnout than usual. 85% of people would go to the polling stations and the result would be that 60% DO NOT want independence. It’s a clear majority…."
There is no scientific basis for these expectations of yours, and you know it. You only say that because that’s the only way you could hope for a majority against independence in Catalonia. It’s pure wishful thinking. I have no doubt some people in Catalonia may not be so sure of the consequences of independence. But Catalans have been fighting for independence for 375 years, and thus the emotional aspects will be stronger than any reasoned doubts they may have. At the end of the day, having a country of their own, having their sovereign rights recognized, being finally masters in their own house, will be stronger than anything else. They want independence, they are willing to risk it, and in the end they will make a success of it. Better get used to the idea. And forget about a Catalan ETA appearing. ETA was the result of the Basques knowing they did not have enough support for a political fight for independence. Knowing they are a majority in Catalunia will mean that the fight can be political and be successful. But if Rajoy sends the army to fight secession, then you are going to have a civil war, not terrorism.
Nuno Cardoso da Silva The scientific basis is: 1. Pollings (I give you a Catalan source so you have extra fun professor) http://ceo.gencat.cat/ceop/AppJava/loadFile?fileId=25315&fileType=1 There you see that around 50% are against and 41% in favour of independence. 9% doesn’t care (people who don’t care use to favour statu quo, it’s a reasonable assumption); 2. Elections: Junts x Si and CUP got 1.966.508 votes out of 4.130.196 in the 2015 regional elections. 1.380.657 electors didn’t vote. Assuming that people who favour statu quo are less likely to go to the polling stations, we can see a clear MAJORITY against independence in Catalonia 4.130.196 – 1.966.508 = 2.133.688 Now add most of 1.380.657… you get 2 million in favour and 3 million against. Keep working professor, and mind your business, Portugal has plenty of issues too 😉
Petrus Levelleri
Polls are not reliable, as we have often seen. As to minding my own business, that’s an interesting advice… I have a debt of gratitude to Catalans who, by revolting against Spain in 1641, gave us room to consolidate our ouwn revolt against Spain. Without the Catalan revolt, we might have been defeated in our attempt. So, as far as I am concerned, I will do anything I can to pay back our debt to Catalonia. Secondly, I favour a confederation of sovereign states in the Iberian Peninsula, including Portugal. But not under the yoke of Castilla. A confederation of equals, of which Castilla, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Portugal would be part. But first that requires Catalonia to be free. But that’s too much for an imperialist Spaniard to understand…
Nuno Cardoso da Silva Finally you admit you have an ideological (historical) bias and you’re not making your point on the basis of figures and/or law. Good professor. It took some time, but you were honest at last.
As a reward I’ll tell you something: I’m no imperialist… and I’m from the periphery of Spain. I hope the Spanish constitution undergoes a substantial reform (it’s aging fast) and that we can see an Iberian confederation as well, maybe one day. It will take time. Meanwhile we have to respect the law and the procedures, otherwise it’s chaos. Take care professor.
Petrus Levelleri
Take care. Nice discussing with you.