28 de novembre de 2009
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The dignity of Catalonia

(As published on barcelona-metropolitan.com. Please make free use of it.)

Expressing
the deep worry of Catalan society, 12 newspapers in Catalonia have
published an editorial warning the country’s top court against
curtailing the Statute of Autonomy that grants sweeping new powers to
the Catalan parliament and government. The papers, among them the
leading Barcelona-based
La Vanguardia and El Periodico,
reminded the Constitutional Court that the charter’s law was signed in
2006 by King Juan Carlos after being approved by both the Spanish and
Catalan parliaments and was also backed in a referendum.

The
Spanish high court is expected to deliver a ruling soon after
deliberating for three years on an appeal of the charter by the
conservative opposition Popular Party, which is the second party in
Spain but a minority party in Catalonia.

 

‘The dignity of Catalonia’

After
almost three years of slow deliberations and much rambling that have
damaged its cohesion and eroded its prestige, the Constitutional Court
seems to be on the verge of finalising a ruling on the Statute of
Autonomy of Catalonia, promulgated on July 20th, 2006 by the Head of
State, King Juan Carlos, with the following heading: ” The Spanish
Parliament has approved, the citizens of Catalonia have ratified in
referendum and I sanction the following organic law”. It will be the
first time since the restoration of democracy in 1977 that the High
Court pronounces on a fundamental law endorsed by the electorate.

Expectations
are high. Expectations are high and anxieties are not scarce as
evidence shows that the Constitutional Court has been pushed by events
to operate as a fourth house, confronting the Catalan Parliament, the
Spanish Parliament and the people’s free will expressed in referendum.
We insist it is a unique situation in democracy. There are,
nevertheless, more reasons for worry. Of 12 magistrates that compose
the court, only 10 will be able to pass judgment, since one of them
(Pablo Pérez Tremps) has been rejected after an unclear manoeuvre done
to modify the balance of power during the deliberations and another
(Roberto García-Calvo) has died.

Of the 10
judges with right to vote, four are continuing in their roles after the
expiry of their mandate, as a consequence of the sordid disagreement
between the Government and the opposition on the renewal of an organ
defined recently by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
as the “heart of democracy”. A heart with clogged valves, since only
half of its members are today free of mishap or the need to extend
their mandate. Such is the supreme court that is on the verge of
deciding on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. Out of consideration for
the court—a respect undoubtedly higher than the one it has appeared to
have for itself on several occasions—we will not refer more to the
causes of the delay in the ruling.

The
definition of Catalonia as a nation in the preamble of the Statute,
with the consequent emission of “national symbols” (does not the
Spanish Constitution recognise, in its second article, a Spain
integrated by regions and nationalities?); the right and the duty to
know the Catalan language; the organisation of the Judicial power in
Catalonia, and the relations between the Spanish government and the
Catalan government (the Generalitat) are, among other issues, the most
clearly sticking points of the debate, according to its filtered-down
versions, particularly as a significant part of the court has opted for
intransigent positions. There are some who dream again of iron
surgeries that slice off the complexity of Spain. This might be,
regrettably, the measuring stick used to pass their judgment.

 

Let’s
not be mistaken. The real dilemma is progress or regression; acceptance
of the democratic readiness of a plural Spain, or the blockade of it.
We are not only dealing with decisions regarding this or that article.
What is at stake is the essential dynamics of the Constitution: the
spirit of 1977, that made the peaceful transition to democracy
possible. There are serious reasons for worry, since they seem to be
planning to transform the ruling of the Statute of Autonomy into a real
institutional lock. A position opposed to the maximum virtue of the
Constitution, its open and integrative character.

Consequently,
the Constitutional Court is not only going to decide on the appeal
brought by the Popular Party (PP) against an organic law (a PP that now
tries to get closer to Catalan society with constructive speeches and
flattering attitudes). The High Court is going to decide on the real
dimension of the Spanish frame of coexistence, that is to say, on the
most important legacy that the citizens who lived and led the political
regime change at the end of the Seventies will transmit to younger
generations educated in freedom, fully part of the complex European
supranationality and confronted by the challenges of a globalisation
that calls into question the old nation states. The profound agreements
that have made possible the most virtuous 30 years of Spain are at
stake. And having come to this point, it is essential to remember one
of the vertebral principles of our judicial system, evolved from its
Roman root:
sunt servanda—what is agreed is binding.

There
is worry in Catalonia and it is necessary that the whole of Spain is
aware of it. There is something more than worry. There is an increasing
fatigue for having to suffer the infuriated look of those who keep on
perceiving the Catalan identity (institutions, economic structure,
language and cultural tradition) as the shortcoming that prevents Spain
from reaching a dreamed and impossible uniformity. Catalans pay their
taxes (without statutory privilege); they contribute with this effort
to the transfer of revenues to the poor regions in Spain; they confront
economic internationalisation without the large benefits given to the
capital, Madrid; they speak a language with a larger demographic base
that that of several official languages in the European Union, a
language that instead of being loved, turns out to be submitted so many
times to obsessive scrutiny on the part of official Spanishness, and
they respect the laws, of course, without renouncing their peaceful and
proven capacity of civic endurance. These days, Catalans think, first
of all, about their dignity; it must be known.

We
are at the brink of a very important resolution. We hope that the
Constitutional Court makes its decision while considering the specific
circumstances of the matter that it has in its hands—that is no
different from the demand for self-government of an old European
people—and remembering that absolute justice does not exist but only
the justice of the specific case, the virtue of justice must be
prudence. We remind it again: the Statute is the result of a double
political agreement submitted to referendum.

Let
nobody be fooled. Let nobody misunderstand the inevitable
contradictions of today’s Catalonia. Let nobody fail in their analysis.
While there might be many problems and reasons for unhappiness, we are
not faced by a weak society, powerless and ready to watch impassively
at the mutilation of its dignity. We do not want to presuppose a
negative ending and we are confident in the righteousness of the
judges, but no one that knows Catalonia will question that its
identity, the benefits of self-government, the securing of a fair
financing and a qualitative jump in the management of infrastructures
are and will keep on being claims tenaciously raised with the widest
political and social support. If it is necessary, Catalan solidarity
will articulate again the legitimate response of a responsible society.

 

Translated by David Murano on November 26,2009

www.arnaudevilanova.com

 

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