Ramon Tremosa

Correu enviat el dia 10.10.2012:

“Personal answer to Vidal-Quadras: some more info, a Poem and a Song”

Dear colleagues,

I would like to briefly reply to the lies that Vice-President Vidal-Quadras expressed in his public letter last wednesday to all the Members, Assistants and Political Groups of this house.

1.- Attached you’ll find and official report from the Spanish Government on 2005 fiscal imbalances between regions: on page 17, you’ll find the fiscal deficit of Catalonia (net transfers to other regions) of that year: 14.808 M € (8,7% Catalan GDP) following the monetary flow methodology (the strongest to calculate fiscal flows between territories as the economic literature believes). Therefore, to say publicly that I am propagating economic fantasies is simply a lie.

http://www.meh.es/Documentacion/Publico/GabineteMinistro/Varios/BalanzasFiscalesCCAA.pdf

In the webpage of CatDem Think Tank http://www.it-intransit.eu/?issue=84 you will find articles in English of some of the best Catalan economists, most of them working in American universities.

2.- The Catalan struggle for national vindication has never been violent, and so, I cannot accept that it is “neither pacific nor democratic”. We’ll see in the Catalan elections the 25th of November how many Catalans are in favour of exercising the right of self-determination. Last 26th of September the Catalan Parliament voted for it with 84 MPs in favour, 21 MPs against and 27 abstentions. All polls envisage a further fall of the pro-Spanish parties in the next Catalan Parliament. Something curious happened yesterday afternoon. While the Spanish Parliament vetoed a possible referendum in Catalonia, in London, the British government agreed on the conditions for the referendum in Scotland on 2014. For me the right to self-determination is more important than independence.

3.- Whoever has acted violently through history have been the Spanish armies that bomb Barcelona and other Catalan cities for close to 300 years. The Catalan President Lluís Companys was shot dead by Franco in 1940 after the Gestapo deported him from his exile in Paris. Moreover, one of the founders of the Catalan Cristian-Democratic Party UDC Manuel Carrasco i Formiguera (from which an MEP is now Member of the EPP) was shot dead by Franco in 1938, bypassing all the pressure in his favour from the Vatican and all the Cristian-Democratic parties of the time. Franco, also executed dozens of Catalan and Basque catholic priests, even though he justified his armed rebellion in 1936 against the Spanish Republic as a “crusade against communism”.

In memoriam of their life and death and that of thousands of Catalans that were killed, imprisoned or exiled in the last Spanish Civil War, I cannot accept the lies of Vice-President Vidal-Quadras on this point.

4.- The Catalan political cause comes from a long time ago. Attached you’ll find the link for a booklet published in London the year 1713 (http://www.llibrevell.cat/wp/the-deplorable-history-of-the-catalans/). Inside you’ll find the transcription of the 5 debates between tories and that the English Parliament had “on the Catalan case”. Catalonia was abandoned by the British army despite the military agreements signed in Geneva between Catalonia and England the year 1713.

With constructive and positive spirit, I attach a great Catalan poem “La ciutat llunyana” (Màrius Torres, 1910-1942) in English, French and Spanish. It helped Catalan to endure 40 long years of Francoist Dictatorship and expresses in a unique way our dreams of freedom and democracy. Hereby you’ll also find its musical version by Meritxell Gené:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEqDUPVS4A

THE  DISTANT  CITY (1939)

Now that the furies’ mighty fist has razed

The city of ideals we hoped to build:

Amid the ruins of buried dreams, close to the earth,

Preserve us, Motherland -the earth will never lie.

Over this alien clamour, let us hear your clear voice

Speak out. For what is left us now,

But to believe and to await the new design

Those freer hands may trace upon your soil.

Oh to forget that sinking city!

Farther off, and freer, another there may be,

Sending us, across this imprisoned time,

A breath of air and faith. That of a voice of bronze

That from tall towers reaches out,

Exalts the heart and warms the tread of  pilgrims.

LA  CITÉ  LOINTAINE (1939)

Puisque le bras puissant des fureurs jette à terre

La cité d’idéaux que nous voulions bâtir,

Parmi des ruines des rêves enfouis, plus près de la terre,

Patrie, protège-nous: la terre ne saura jamais mentir.

Parmi tant de cris étranges, que ta voix pure

Nous parle. Il ne nous reste guère d’autre réconfort

Que croire et espérer la nouvelle architecture

Pour que des bras plus libres puissent creuser ton sol.

Qui pourrait oublier la ville que s’effondre !

Plus lointaine, plus libre, il est peut-être, une autre

Qui nous envoie, par-dessus ce temps prisonnier,

Des battements d’air et de foi. Celle d’une voix de bronze

Qui de tours tellement hautes s’étend sur les chemins,

Et qui élève le cœur, et réchauffe les pieds des pèlerins.

Correu enviat el dia 02.10.2012:

“Video and FT article of possible military intervention in Catalonia”

 Dear colleagues,

Last Thursday, Vice-President Vidal-Quadras made a public statement in a TV debate calling for the intervention of Guardia Civil (Spanish security forces) against the self-determination of Catalonia, even if it was through pacific and democratic means.

Today the FT has quoted these disgraceful statements in a broader article on the situation between Catalonia and Spain. You will find below some quotes.

The full article can be found here:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9113ddaa-0be8-11e2-8032-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Xj5CrXjU

“…Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a prominent member of Spain’s ruling Popular party in Catalonia, went further, suggesting that if Mr Mas continued down the path of secession, Madrid should send in the country’s Civil Guards to impose central control. They should be briefing a General of the Civil Guard . . . the government should think of intervening in the rebellious region if they persist,”, Mr Vidal-Quadras, a member of the European parliament, told Spanish TV. The comments, which immediately resonated in a country that experienced a failed coup attempt by Civil Guards in 1981, prompted complaints to the European parliament from Catalan MEPs…”

These comments by Mr. Vice-President Vidal-Quadras, prompted several Catalan colleagues to write a letter to President Schultz in protest for the lack of faith in democracy that is perceived from Mr. Vidal-Quadras comments.

Below you will find the 90 seconds video of Mr. Vidal-Quadras calling for the Guardia Civil intervention (English subtitles provided):

http://www.helpcatalonia.cat/2012/09/the-video-spanish-european-parliament.html?spref=tw

Kind regards,

Ramon Tremosa-i-Balcells

Catalan MEP, ALDE Group

www.tremosa.cat

@ramontremosa

Correu enviat el dia 26.09.2012:

“Catalan elections 25.XI: a new European State?”

 Dear colleagues,

If you are interested to have more information on what’s going on in Catalonia, I attached  you two articles I wrote when I was Lecturer at the University of Bacelona:

1.- “Macroeconomics Effects of Catalan Fiscal Deficit wiht the Spanish State” (2005).

Published at “Applied Economics“, one of the best academic reviews on economics in Europe.

http://www.ramontremosa.cat/ramonnews/data/upimages/ARTICLES_ACADEMICS/2005_2_APPLIED_ECONOMICS.PDF

2.- “The Catalan Financing Mechanism” (2009).

An explanation of the un-transparent system that has led, recognised also for some documents of the Spanish Government, to a net transfers from Catalonia to the rest of Spain estimated between 8-10% of yearly Catalan GDP. Too much solidarity which is damaging the competitiveness of Catalan economy.

http://www.ciu.cat/media/39164.pdf

If you need more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Ramon Tremosa-i-Balcells

Catalan MEP, ALDE Group

www.tremosa.cat

@ramontremosa