Will the Us Help Catalan Again
Arenys de Munt, a two-taxi town of a little under 9,000 people that lies an hour north-west of Barcelona, hides neither its colours nor its loyalties.
Its hues are the red and yellow of the traditional Catalan senyera flag, the red, yellow and blue of the separatist estelada banner and the many colours of the strings of laconic but insistent pennants that hang between the pollarded plane trees of the high street, each reading simply: "Yes".
While it lacks the cosmopolitan clout of the Catalan capital and the smart yacht clubs that dot the nearby coast, the hillside town has earned its place in contemporary history.
It was here, eight years ago, that the early simmerings of regional discontent began to come to the boil when the residents of Arenys de Munt became the first Catalans to vote on a now-familiar question: "Do you agree that Catalonia should become an independent, democratic and social state of law, integrated in the European Union?"
Town after town followed suit and the movement snowballed, culminating in October's unilateral declaration of independence after a region-wide vote showed 90% in favour on a turnout of 43%.
Quick Guide Elections in Catalonia
Show
Why elections are being held
On 27 October, less than an hour after secessionist Catalan MPs voted to declare independence, Spain's senate gave the country's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, power to assume control of Catalonia. As well as sacking the regional president, Carles Puigdemont, and his pro-independence government, Rajoy called snap elections to be held on 21 December.
Candidates
Although Puigdemont is in Belgium and his former vice-president Oriol Junquerasis in jail pending possible charges including rebellion and sedition, both they and their parties are going to contest the election. More than a dozen Catalan leaders face charges, but all are eligible to stand so long as they are not convicted and barred from public office. Among those also running are the anti-independence, centrist Ciutadans or Citizens party, the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, En Comú Podem-Catalunya en Comú coalition and Spain's ruling conservative People's party.
What it means for independence
Pro-independence parties used the polls two years ago as a de facto vote on splitting from Spain and Puigdemont's coalition set about paving the way for the unilateral referendum. Pro-independence parties will be looking to use next week's vote to maintain their momentum. Opposition parties will be looking to capitalise on the frustrations of the roughly 50% of Catalans opposed to independence.
How voting works
Members of the 135-seat Catalan parliament are elected using proportional representation. The seats are divided into four districts: at least 3% of the vote in each district is needed to win seats, and 68 seats are needed for a majority. The electoral system is weighted in favour of less populated rural areas.
Spain responded by sacking the Catalan government and calling fresh elections, which will see people casting their votes next week. Polls suggest support for pro- and anti-independence parties is evenly split.
Arenys de Munt's pro-independence council remains deeply proud of the symbolic poll, in which 96% of people voted to leave Spain. "We're a small place but the referendum really put us on the map," says Àngel Vallcorba, a councillor for the Catalan Republican Left party (ERC).
"We lit the fuse and a lot of other towns and cities started holding their own consultations. Arenys de Munt is seen a bit as the bressol, or cradle, of independence."
While those Catalans opposed to independence would probably view the 2009 vote as the slow-burning fuse that would eventually detonate regional unity, many in Arenys de Munt prefer to look on their actions as a benign act of democratic midwifery.
If their drive for independence needed any further encouragement, it has come courtesy of the Spanish authorities' reaction to the referendum and the continuing detention of the former Catalan vice-president and the "two Jordis" – as the imprisoned leaders of two grassroots pro-independence groups are known.
Like most independentistas, the town's mayor argues that the Spanish authorities left them with little choice but to act unilaterally.
"I can't understand how, in a democratic country, and after years and years of massive demonstrations – millions of people on the streets calling for a different relationship with the Spanish state – the answer has always been no," says Joan Rabasseda.
"If you had a million people on the streets of any other EU country calling for something, I think the government would pay attention to what they were saying … There's never been any effort to court people."
Rabasseda likes to invert the question of why half the inhabitants of one of Spain's wealthiest regions would want to strike out on their own: "What do we stand to gain by carrying on as Spaniards? What are the benefits of being Spanish and belonging to a state with arbitrary justice, incredible levels of corruption and high-speed trains that go nowhere?"
The mayor points to the Spanish government's failure to invest properly in regional rail infrastructure and its decision to thwart measures designed to help low-income families manage their energy bills. There are also taxes: "A family of four people in Arenys de Munt are paying €10,000 in taxes that go to Madrid and don't come back," he says.
Rabasseda's litany of complaints is not new. But it does show that for many Catalans, the push for independence is about economics as much as identity and culture.
For all the talk of Spanish authoritarianism and the claims that Franco's ghost has somehow seeped out of his tomb in the Valle de los Caídos to stalk the land once more, the current crisis is about pockets as well as pride.
The refrain of "España nos roba" (Spain is robbing us) may have become a cliche, yet it remains a pertinent articulation of how many feel.
"I've got nothing against the Spanish, but it's important for us to be independent for one reason: Madrid discriminates against us; they don't like us," says Teresa Riera, whose grocery is decked out with an estelada and a picture of the two Jordis.
"All the taxes from here go to Madrid and we just get back what they feel like giving us. If we want to get to Barcelona from here, you have to pay the toll for the motorway … They have put trains all around Spain – even if they are only used by one person – but they haven't put them here."
Maria Majo, a 31-year-old doctor, is more than a little more impatient. "Things should have changed, but there's been no change and we've always been told 'no'," she says.
But, she adds, things are finally shifting. "The percentage of people voting for independence used to be small and now it's just grown and grown. I don't think there's any other choice now."
Riera, who has lived in Arenys de Munt all her 57 years, also hopes that independence will come so that her grandchildren can grow up in a country very different from the one in which she did.
"Of course it's about identity," she says. "I couldn't study Catalan at school under Franco and because of that, I still make mistakes in my written Catalan … you can't forget what you have gone through."
Memory and defeat play a large part in the independence movement. Catalonia's national day, Riera points out, marks not a triumph but the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish war of succession in 1714.
Similarly, the series of setbacks the indepes, as the separatists are known, have suffered over the past two months may prove to have shored up support for their cause when Catalans go to the polls.
The results from Arenys de Munt are unlikely to yield any surprises. The town's minority of Socialist party and rightwing People's party (PP) supporters will vote as they always do, their ballot papers wildly eclipsed by the pro-independence majority.
But, whatever happens afterwards, insist Rabasseda and Vallcorba, there will be no tension in the community.
"You have people sitting down in bars and talking about things – PP supporters in their 80s sitting at the same table as independence supporters," says Vallcorba. "They argue, but over a glass of wine and without any problems."
Riera, too, dismisses talk of the "social rupture" that the events of recent weeks have visited on other parts of Catalonia.
"That's just rubbish. If people are your friends, you keep talking to them, whatever they think. If I'm Barcelona FC and you're Real Madrid, can't we be friends?"
Toni Jane, a 58-year-old retired bank worker out walking his dog, is happy to bide his time, secure in the belief that independence will eventually arrive. "Some revolutions are very quick," he says, "and some are very slow."
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/11/we-lit-the-fuse-town-catalan-independence-arenys-de-munt
0 Response to "Will the Us Help Catalan Again"
Post a Comment