The case of Catalonia

HISTORY OF CATALONIA

The territory occupied by Catalonia was conquered by the Roman Empire in 218 BC and was part of the Tarraconense province; In the 5th century the Tarraconense was conquered by the glasses and was part of the Kingdom of Toledo. The 712 Muslims defeated the Goths and occupied the Tarraconense, but by the end of that same century they were expelled from the north by the Franks with the support of Charlemagne. The Gòtia franca was organized in counties, which when the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty did not renew the vassalage to the new royal royal dynasty. The Count of Barcelona seized several counties and in 1137 he married Peronella, daughter of the King of Aragon, constituting a dynastic union between the two lineages. Alfons el Cast, the first to be the king of Aragon and the count of Barcelona, ​​politically unified the heterogeneous group of Catalan counties that were under the jurisdiction through three legislative, legal and cultural documents: Usatici Barchinonae (Usatges de Barcelona) , the Liber domini regis (Llibre del domini del rei), and the Gesta Comitum Barchinonensium (Gestos dels Comtes de Barcelona), documents that shaped Catalonia as a medieval statewith a unified legislative and judicial corpus, common cultural references, and some borders that were defined as "the land that goes from Salses to Tortosa and Lleida". Administratively, Catalonia was articulated through a territorial jurisdictional structure, the vegueries, at the head of which there was a representative of the royal authority, the veguer. The foundation of Catalonia as a state is represented by the appearance of the term Cathalonia in the legal documentation of the chancery of the King of Aragon, which went from having the mere and vague geographical meaning before becoming the official name of A defined political and ethnic space.

In 1319 King James the Fair consecrated the indissoluble "Union" of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia, transforming the dynastic union into a powerful federation of states called the Crown of Aragon   respecting the singularities of each territory and developing an equivalent and similar political structure: Parlaments, Generalitats and constitutional system. The dynastic union of the Casal de Aragón with the Trastámara Dynasty and the Habsburg Dynasty did not alter the constitutional system of the states of the Crown of Aragon. In 1640 the centralist project of Count Duke of Olivares triggered the War of Reapers, which ended up causing the separation of the Kingdom of Portugal and loss by transfer to the Kingdom of France of the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya. The enthronement of the Bourbon Dynasty triggered the War of the Spanish Succession on a European scale and due to the continuous conflicts between the civil servants of Philip V and officials of the Aragonese Crown, a feeling of support for Archduke grew in Catalonia Carlos turned the conflict into an internal war between the states of the Catholic Monarchy. The war ended with the cession of Hispanic states of Italy, Flanders, Menorca and Gibraltar, and the imposition of Bourbon absolutism with the Decrees of the New Plant.

The collapse of the Old absolutist regime throughout the nineteenth century and the establishment of liberal regimes did not imply the recovery of the constitutional system proper to Catalonia and the other states of the Crown of Aragon but instead devoted the Kingdom of Spain. Spain as a centralized political regime. Throughout the 20th century different methods of administrative decentralization were searched, such as the Commonwealth of Catalonia or the Republican Generalitat, but it was not until the promulgation of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the approval of the Statute of Autonomy when consolidated the current Spanish system of political and administrative delegation in the autonomous communities. The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006 states in its preamble that "the Parliament of Catalonia, gathering the feeling and the will of the citizens of Catalonia, has defined Catalonia as a nation", although the current Spanish constitution limits the recognition of the national reality of Catalonia to that of a historical nationality.

The ruling of the 2010 Statute, among others, revived the independentist sentiment and was the trigger for activating a Catalan independentist process, which celebrated mass demonstrations in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, until the elections to Parliament of Catalonia of 2015 gave rise to a Parliament with absolute independence majority. The President of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, convened a Referendum on self-determination held on October 1, 2017 and gave more than 90% of votes in favor. A few days later he made a partial declaration of independence, pending international mediation. Finally, on October 27, 2017, independence was proclaimed in the Parliament of Catalonia.

But, what about the indepedence? Is it a historical issue?

Catalan Independentism is the political current, derived from Catalan nationalism, which advocates the independence of Catalonia, or of the Catalan Countries, with respect to Spain and France and thus establish the Catalan Republic, proclaimed on several occasions.

Catalan independentism bases its thesis on the principle that Catalonia is a nation, alluding to a variety of arguments, which, without entering into the nuances of each ideological group, have a common basis in the right to full self-government, financial self-management, the ability to decide on the socio-economic model, the defense of Catalan culture and language, the preservation of Catalan civil law, while also motivating feelings of belonging or historical motives. These diverse reasons are described in a series of analyzes according to the different ideological trends, and show the advantages that Catalonia will become an independent state.

First historical antecedents

XVIII Century:

The first historical antecedents of Catalan political independence, are uncertain, since the abolition of the Catalan Constitutions, with the New Plant Decrees in 1714, after the War of the Succession, there were several popular movements that claimed, more or more less explicitly, a Catalan republic in the various ups and downs that would shake Catalonia throughout the 19th century, but they did not yet do so with a modern nationalist political project.

XX Century:

The first Catalan independentist publications had appeared in 1918. And the first political parties independentistas. Since the beginning of the century, the first movements of separatist tendencies that had come together in the creation of the National Democratic Federation (1919) and the beginning of what would be the first group that would be declared separatist: Estat Català, led by Francesc Macià, a group that initially engaged in armed activities. The FDN would have an ephemeral life and very soon, Catalan State would become a political organization (1922) that will have a military branch, the suborganization Black Flag (1926).

In 1926, the events of Prats de Molló would take place, where Francesc Macià led a failed attempt to promote a pro-independence armed insurrection, which reached an alliance with the trade unionism of the CNT and the workers' forces to to convene a general strike. The military failure, however, became a success of propaganda, and the trial in Macia was able to give a great echo to the vindication of independence both internally and internationally, and converted Macià into a popular icon. Once in exile, Macià would found in Cuba the Revolutionary Separatist Party of Catalonia, inspired by the Cuban Revolutionary Party of José Martí and Máximo Gómez Báez.

In the decade of the thirties other independentist parties appeared like Us Sols! (1931), the Catalan Nationalist Party (1932), or the Proletarian Catalan Party (1932). In 1936, the latter would be integrated into the Socialist Unified Party of Catalonia and the first two would be integrated into the Catalan State. In these years, independence in practice, only acted within the scope of the Principality of Catalonia. The Catalan Proletarian Party, led by Jaume Compte, would be the first precedent of socialist independence. With the fall of the Monarchic Restoration (Alfonso XIII) and Primo de Rivera, and the advent of the Spanish Republic (1931), the Catalan republicanism will be united and will form the Republican Esquerra de Catalunya. There will also be a large part of the "separatism" led by Francesc Macià despite maintaining a certain structure of its own (the JEREC). Macià will become the leader of this movement and, after the proclamation of the Catalan Republic, it will be achieved that Madrid grant self-government of Catalonia. Macià and, later, Lluís Companys will arrive to presidents of the Republican Generalitat, with great support of the town, but having to resign in fact to an independent state.

FRANCO GOVERNMENT

The Franco Regime banned catalan language in Catalonia. So a lot of catalan families became more catalan nationalist that they were before.

TRANSITION

The end of the Franco regime, with the death of Franco, apart from the formal freedoms of democracy achieved, the changes that came later in relation to the structure of the state, which the official discourse described as "Democratic transition", supposed a process of reform agreed between the directions of the majority parties, as opposed to the Democratic Breach that initially demanded anti-Franco authorities such as the Assembly of Catalonia, which included among its points the right to self-determination. Thus, from the point of view of independentism, the process actually strengthened the fundamental pillar of the indissoluble unit of the "Spanish nation", and placed the Spanish army as the guarantor of this unit, principles enshrined in the first articles of the Spanish constitution of 1978. In this framework, for autonomy the Catalan autonomies remained as subordinate entities without their own effective political power. The pro-independence left denounced what this meant then, remaining alone in the denunciation of the autonomous regime. For 16 years, from 1979 to 1995, he developed an armed propaganda strategy that allowed the emergence of an incipient social and political movement that managed to extend socially, for the first time in history, massively, explicitly independentist positions.

In the 1980s, the creation of the Earth Defense Movement mostly agglomerated political independence, until by the end of this decade it would be divided into different factions, and in 1992 it would receive an important repressive sotragada. Meanwhile other movements such as the Call for Solidarity and, at the beginning of the 1990s, parties such as the Republican Left of Catalonia, evolved towards independentist positions. It is at the beginning of the 1990s that Terra Lliure self-denies, although another armed group, the Freedom Liberation Squads acted in 1994.

XXI Century:

On December 14, 2011 in Vic the Association of Municipalities for the Independence was created an organization that groups different local entities in order to defend the achievement of the national rights of Catalonia with the aim of promoting the exercise of the right to self-determination

Since September 3, 2012, several municipalities of Catalonia have declared Free Catalan Territory from a motion approved by the corresponding city council plenary.

11th September of 2012:

It took place the The manifestation «Catalonia, the new state of Europe», was a rally that took place in Barcelona on September 11, 2012 during the Day of Catalonia. It was convened by the Catalan National Assembly, an organization of Catalan scope that aims to achieve the political independence of Catalonia.

The influx of protesters was estimated among 600,000 people, according to the Government Delegation in Catalonia, and one and a half million people, according to the Urban Guard of Barcelona and the Department of Interior.

This manifestation is considered as a turning point in the independentist claims of Catalonia, as has also been the ruling on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006 of the Constitutional Court of Spain, which opens a much more belligerent stage of the political agents involved . On September 25 of that same year, two weeks after the demonstration, the president of Catalonia, Artur Mas, convened elections with clear references to this manifestation.

On December 18, 2012, it was agreed that the consultation on the independence of Catalonia was held in 2014, according to the Pact for Freedom, a governance agreement ratified by Artur Mas by Convergència i Unió and Oriol Junqueras by 'Republican Left of Catalonia. 

Result of the vote on the Declaration of Sovereignty

On January 23, 2013 the Parliament of Catalonia approved the Declaration of sovereignty and the right to decide on the people of Catalonia, which was a resolution with which it was agreed to initiate the process towards the right to decide, with 85 votes at please, 41 against and two abstentions. 

On February 12, 2013 the Advisory Council for National Transition (CATN) was created, which is an organ created by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2013, according to Decree 113/2013, of February 12, in order to "Advise the Generalitat in the process of national transition of Catalonia and the achievement of a referendum on the independence of Catalonia.

Human star in the Plaza de Cristo Rey de Manresa on July 7, 2013

On March 19, 2013, the Consultation Law of Catalonia was admitted to the process with the support of CiU, ERC, PSC, ICV-EUiA and the CUP.  It will be processed through the urgent way to be approved in full in October 2013. 

On June 26, 2013, at the auditorium of the Parliament of Catalonia, the constitutive meeting of the National Agreement on the Right to Decide was held, in which forty forty organizations formed by civil society, the most representative institutions of the country, the local world and the political forces. Agreeing in favor of the process of exercising the right to decide and of holding a consultation on the political future of Catalonia.

On July 26, 2013, Artur Mas, President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, sends to Mariano Rajoy, President of the Government of Spain, a letter calling for the consultation on the independence of Catalonia.

Route of the human chain.

The Onze of September of 2013, coinciding with the National Day of Catalonia, the Via Catalana towards the Independence was made, which was a human chain of about 400 kilometers in Catalonia proposed by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC ) with the aim of vindicating the independence of Catalonia.

On December 12, 2013 the announcement was announced for the consultation on the independence of Catalonia, a consultation that had to be held on November 9, 2014.

On January 16, 2014, in Parliament, with 84 votes in favor, 3 abstentions and 43 votes against a petition addressed to the Congress of Deputies of Spain, was approved in order for the Generalitat de Catalunya to celebrate the referendum on independence.

During the National Day of Catalonia 2014, the Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural organized a concentration on Diagonal Avenue and the Gran Vía de las Corts Catalanes in Barcelona, forming a "V", to claim the celebration of the consultation on the independence of Catalonia and the independence of Catalonia.

On November 25, President Artur Mas proposed the creation of a combined list of political parties, civil society and professionals (recognized experts) in favor of the elections [52] [53] that succeeded, in large part , with the announcement on January 14, 2015 of an agreement with ERC and other sovereign entities to convene elections on September 27, 2015.

A few months later, in July of 2015, CDC, ERC and the independent organizations ANC and Òmnium agreed to make a pro-independence list for next September Parliament elections. This candidacy included the majority of parties, associations and movements in favor of independence, and was called Together for Yes. The head of the list was Raül Romeva, followed by Carme Forcadell, Muriel Casals, Artur Mas and Oriol Junqueras, but despite not being listed, Mas would be the candidate for the Presidency, which was criticized several times for the rest of Parliament parties. The Candidacy of Popular Unit did not want to enter this list, and decided to appear alone.

Government of Carles Puigdemont

He was appointed president of the Generalitat of Catalonia on January 10, 201615 thanks to the agreement with the Candidacy of Popular Unity (CUP), which nevertheless did not support the first budgets of the legislature six months later, considering them "insufficient" .

On September 19, 2016 the Valencian President Ximo Puig and his counterpart, Carles Puigdemont, meet at the Palace of the Generalitat Valenciana and sign the reciprocal agreement for the channels of the Corporation with those of the Catalan Broadcasting Corporation. The agreement includes the creation of a joint technical commission with Catalonia so that, just as the Corporation begins to issue, such reciprocity will be effective.

In September of 2017, the general public prosecutor of the State of Spain, José Manuel Maza, evokes the possibility of stopping Carles Puigdemont for misappropriation of public fund.

On October 27, 2017 after the Parliament of Catalonia proclaimed the Catalan Republic under the outcome of the referendum on October 1, but contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, the Senate approved the measures proposed by the government to the amparo of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, among them the dismissal of Carles Puigdemont as President of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the whole Government of Catalonia, immediately afterwards was published in the Official Gazette of the State.

On October 29, 2017, he started a trip to Brussels, leaving early in the car from his home in Gerona and taking a flight from Marseille to the European capital.18 On October 31, 2017, at a press conference offered from Brussels , demanded guarantees of an impartial trial to return to Spain, affirming its intention to stay in Brussels and to maintain its political activity from there.

Who is who in Catalonia?

Carles Puigdemont Casamajó (Amer, December 29, 1962) is a politician and Spanish journalist who held the mayor of Gerona between 2011 and 2016 as the most important positions and that of the presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 2016 to October 28, 2017 , day of termination, 3 under the Order PRA / 1034/2017, of October 27, 4 in application of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

Before taking office as president of the Generalitat, Puigdemont was elected as the deputy of the viii, ix and x legislatures of the Parliament of Catalonia by Convergència i Unió and in the XI legislature for Together for the Yes.6 Belonging to 2016 the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia , is, since then, a member of his "successor" party, the Catalan Democratic Party (PDeCAT).

EVENTS WHERE CATALONIA TRIED TO BECOME INDEPENDENT FROM SPAIN OR FRANCE

988: Borrell II denies the vassalage of the Catalan counties to the French king Hug Capet. 

1641: The General Armies chaired by Pau Claris proclaimed the Catalan Republic on January 17

1641-1652: On January 23, 1641 the General Armies chaired by Pau Claris proclaimed Louis XIII of France as the Count of Barcelona, ​​putting the principality of Catalonia under French administration. On the death of Louis XIII in 1643, he was Louis XIV (King Sun) until 1652, reincorporated again to the Hispanic Monarchy.

1712: Proposal for the creation of a Catalan Republic under the protection of the United Kingdom. 

1810-1812: Napoleon grants independence to Catalonia under French rule. 

1812-1814: Catalonia is annexed to France by Napoleon.

1814: Catalonia is reinstated in the Kingdom of Spain by Ferdinand VII.

1873: The Catalan State is proclaimed within the Federal Republic.

14-17 April 1931: Macià proclaims the Catalan Republic.

October 6, 1934: Lluís Companys proclaims the Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic.

2017: Carles Puigdemont, creates a referendum for self-determination