Eric and the Army of the Phoenix

Before publishing the rest of the long article called The viability of an independent Catalan State I want you to know that the video about Eric and the Army of the Phoenix (see my old post titled Say you are Spanish or I lock you up. The modern Spanish Inquisition) is now available in YouTube. The video is divided into five. Here you can see all of them. Shame on Spain.

The viability of an independent Catalan State (I)

I publish an article appeard in 2003 in The Bologna Center Journal of International Affairs by Josep Desquens, a Catalan economist. It sweeps away all the fears some Catalans have when thinking about an independent Catalonia. Can it be viable? The answer is here. I did cut the article in four posts because it is too long to publish it in just one. The pics included are mine, they are not in the original article.

Europe's Stateless Nations in the Era of Globalization. The Case for Catalonia's Secession from Spain

By Josep Desquens

"The life of the Catalan is an act of continuous affirmation [...] It is because of this that the defining element of the Catalan psychology is not reason, as for the French; metaphysics, as for the Germans; empiricism, as for the English; intelligence, as for the Italians; or mysticism, as for the Castilians. In Catalonia, the primary feature is the desire to be."-- Jaume Vicens Vives, Catalan historian

Many citizens of Flanders in Belgium, Scotland in the United Kingdom and Catalonia in Spain do not consider themselves merely part of a region but an independent nation that has no state of its own. Greater self-rule is the central objective of the so-called nationalist political parties characteristic of these European regions and the possibility of secession has been part of their politics for years. Yet while secession is mentioned as one option for the future, mainstream parties perceive it as a utopian formula rather than a viable alternative. This results partly from a genuine allegiance to the existing states by many of these regions' residents, but also from the fear of the unknown and a surprising lack of information about the economic costs of remaining part of these states and the potential economic benefits of independence.

Current conventional wisdom in the European Union and the United States sees the issue of secession as something outdated or even dangerous. Mainstream politicians, diplomats and academics tend to present it as a senseless option at a moment in history where the focus is building a united Europe and a free-trade world. The thought of the wars in the former Yugoslavia makes many fear such an option. However, the situation in Catalonia, Flanders or Scotland is not comparable - these stateless nations are well-established democratic societies that respect human rights and free-market economies within the European Union. Thus, Catalans, Flemish or Scots cannot ignore that full political independence remains a serious option for them. The desire for secession needs to be objectively analyzed and the costs and benefits properly weighed.

Many Catalans do not consider themselves Spanish but exclusively Catalan. Such feelings raise eyebrows in other parts of Spain, Europe and elsewhere, but are widely accepted as legitimate within Catalonia. The key goal of Catalonia's main political party, Convergència i Unió (CiU), which has governed the region for more than twenty years, is to gain higher levels of self-government. It defines itself as Catalan nationalist (or Catalanist) and frequently refers to the Catalans' right to political self-determination. With this party's support, the Catalan Parliament declared fourteen years ago that it would not renounce this right. Yet it does not seek full independence from Spain. Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), which does publicly support full independence and is Catalonia's fourth largest political force (it is the third in 2007), held about 9 percent (the 16 percent in 2007) of the vote in the last regional elections. Polls on the issue reflect that a much higher percentage of the population sympathize with the idea of secession.

In Spain, this is a hot topic. The Autonomous Government of the Basque Country unveiled a "Sovereignty Plan" last year which calls for a referendum on the issue of self-determination once there is an end to the violence of ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), the region's separatist terrorist group. The central Spanish government in Madrid is strongly opposed, arguing that the Spain's Constitution does not foresee the right to self-determination for any part of the country. Recently, CiU made public a plan to reform Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy that reaffirms the right to self-determination, claims Catalan representation in various international organizations and demands sole control of areas such as immigration and tax collection, among many others, which are today responsibility of the Spanish central government.

There are broadly three main arguments for the independence of Catalonia. The first is that since the Catalan cultural and language is neither understood nor accepted in Spain (and so neither protected nor fostered), the best way forward is an independent state. This results from three centuries of linguistic and cultural discrimination, which reached its pinnacle under Gen. Francisco Franco's 36-year dictatorship. The second one says that a well-defined political entity such as Catalonia should be mature enough to govern itself with its own voice in the European Union or the United Nations in order to address the problems specific to it. Finally, there is the belief that Catalonia would be better off economically by seceding. In particular, proponents of the last argument refer to the fact that Catalonia pays much more into Spain's central treasury than it gets back (subsequently referred to here as the fiscal imbalance) and to the excessive bureaucracy resulting from the current administrative arrangements.

The economic arguments are contested. Some believe an independent Catalonia would not be economically viable; others argue that it does not make sense given that globalization and the European Union have brought about the blurring of borders. But only a few seem willing to undertake a serious economic assessment of an eventual secession, as this has become a "politically incorrect" issue in Spanish politics.

The purpose of this article is to show that there are sound economic and administrative arguments supporting the case for Catalan independence and that there are no objective reasons to believe that a Catalan state could not be viable from an economic perspective. Secession would mean getting rid of the current fiscal imbalance with Spain, which has seriously hampered Catalonia's growth and endangers its future economic performance. It would also mean simplifying the current oversized bureaucracy and having a direct voice in international forums. Moreover, I will argue that the processes of economic globalization and European integration are creating a new reality that reinforces, rather than weakens, the case for secession. Overall, evidence indicates that from an economic perspective, independence is the best solution for the people of Catalonia presently.

I will not touch upon the cultural arguments and I will not discuss whether an independent Catalonia would be morally legitimate or historically justified. Though there are strong historical and cultural arguments that justify going it alone, one could also argue that there are many others that support being part of Spain.

Good bye Patriot!

Dedicated to Lluís Maria Xirinacs. Catalonia needs patriots like you and your example will live with us forever. Good bye, Patriot. You are not a slave now in death. One day we will be free in life. Freedom for Catalonia!

One day you will be proud of your people.

The Catalonians by Bart Kennedy

Below you can read what Bart Kennedy published on Thursday, September 30, 1909 in The New Age, a weekly review of politics, literature and arts, under the title The Catalonians. This article appeared a month after the famous bloody confrontations called the Tragic Week of Barcelona.

The Tragic Week in Barcelona, 1909

His point of view about the way Andalusians or Catalans are is funny and simple at the same time, but although it is a trace made with a thick brush it is a part of the reality also. He came to the logic conclusion: Catalans are not Spaniards and the best solution to the troubles of Spain is that Catalans become a separate State. He was completely right: the tempestuous relationship between Spaniards and Catalans will last to the end of times if they go on living together. He somehow foresaw what really happened the next years. In 1923 Spain became a dictatorial system where Catalanism was forbidden and our language, culture and history repressed. But the worse was about to happen. In 1936 the fascists and the Spanish ultra-national-catholics joined to destroy the Republic proclaimed in 1931. One of the reasons was what they called separatism and the Catalan secessionists. From 1939 and during nearly 40 years, the Spanish democrats were repressed for their ideas. The Catalan democrats were repressed for their ideas and for their national reality: Catalans. So the first ones to know that Spaniards and Catalans are not the same are those who violently deny this difference. Those who say Catalans are just Spaniards and nothing else and the only true nation is Spain are the ones who know better that we are not the same and our nations are different. They go on denying it because they know that if one day they accept the truth Spain will change and even disappear. The higher they shout the word Spain, the bigger they write Spain in their flags the weaker their arguments for justifying a united Spain are. Even nowadays they say we are all Spanish people but they treat us as a colony: they take our resources and give us the leftovers mixed with the contempt and humilliating insults from the Spanish media. Like the jews in medieval times, Catalans are the origin of all evil and troubles in Spain. So they are the first ones to treat us as non-Spanish people but a colony with no identity. Shame on Spain.

The Catalonians

By Bart Kennedy

The trouble in Spain is racial. The Catalonians are utterly different from any other Spanish people. The Andalusian and the Catalan are at opposite poles. And the Castilians -the men of the centre of Spain- and the Basques are also very different from the turbulent, energetic Catalonians. The language of the Catalonian is also different from the true Spanish -the Castilian. As I tramped through the mountains to the north-east, on my way to Saragossa, this was borne in upon me. I had to revise my stock of Spanish words. Veinte (twenty) transformed itself into "bin" Cinco (five) was "sin" Ochenta (eighty) was "weetantey" And there were other differences of a radical and puzzling nature. And the accent of the people was distinctly Gaelic. Imagine Gaelic spoken in a rough and guttural way and you will have some idea of the way Catalan sounds. I found them to be a rough, sudden, hurry-up people. And while I was amongst them I often longed to be back South amongst the calm and easy, come-day goday Andalusians. There was an electric energy about the Catalonians that was calculated to upset a person of easy thought such as myself. They were workers of a swift, abrupt character. And that is another trouble springing out of the difference of race. The Catalonian works, and he knows he works. And he knows that the rest of the people of Spain won't work. And therefore is it that he would like to be separated from the toil-shy Spaniards. He wants all the fruits of his labour for himself. I may say that in Andalusia no one works. Or if they do, they do it in such a secret, unobtrusive manner that it escapes the observer. I was nine weeks in Granada, and during all that time I never saw anybody doing anything. When next I am born again I sincerely trust that it will be in dear old Granada, where people neither toil nor spin -but somehow manage to reap. The Andalusian is a lovable, easy character with a supreme gift for polite lying. And his spirit rules Spain. And there you are. The Catalonian doesn't like it -and he won't have it. The merry mine-owner, who dearly loves other people to go out and do a bit of fighting for his mines, is only the ostensible cause of the trouble. For once this sturdy and lofty patriot is not in the wrong. I mean the root of the trouble is not really in him. He is but the feather showing the way that the wind blows. And the wind is blowing in the direction of Catalonia for the Catalonians. This talk of the wish to form a republic because a republic is such an angelic form of government -and this talk of the evils of clericalism- and this talk of the double-dyed and double-barrelled ruffianism of the merry mine-owner is -well, it is merely talk. The real question is one of difference of race. And there is the beginning and the end of it. A race who dearly loves work is disagreeing with a race who dearly loves rest -and plenty of it. And in the opinion of a plain and humble thinker such as myself it would be well were they separated. Oil and water can't mix. History isn't quite clear as to the stock from which the Catalonians sprung. They are certainly not a Gothic race. They possess neither the fairness of look, nor the stature of the old barbarians. They are dark, middle-sized, alert, and tempestuous. A quick, hard race of fighters. They have neighbours, though, who are certainly Goths. I mean the people of Andorra -the Andorranos. The men of Andorra are the finest looking men in the world -tall and broad and powerful, with blue eyes and fair complexions. They don't care much for the Catalonians. They are distrustful of their energy. When I was in Andorra I heard a long argument between a Catalan and some Andorranos. The Catalan was trying to explain how advantageous it would be to Andorra if it were under the wing of Catalonia. But the Andorranos could not see it. And they expressed their blindness, so to speak, with much energy. To put the case simply, it is this: an ancient, easy, conservative race has the misfortune to be living in the same house with a restless, turbulent, rushful, pushful, hurry-up race. True, there are some advantages accruing to the ancient, easy racef rom this mismated marriage. For the restless, turbulents work. In fact, they positively adore toil. And the present way the world is run a little toil is necessary to make the wheels go round. The calm and easy people don't like the turbulents. But they put up with them, because they love what they don't love: toil. Speak to an Andalusian of a Catalonian, and you will see a gentle, pitying smile come into the Andalusian's face. He looks upon the Catalonian as one would look upon the dark and benighted. He feels as the tramp feels towards the honest worker who likes to work hard for thirty shillings or a pound a week. Speak to the Catalonian of the Andalusian and there will come into his hard, energetic face a look of fierce contempt. And he will tell you many rude things concerning the Andalusians with volcanic abruptness. He will go on about his lack of energy and push. As I meandered up through Catalonia I heard a good deal of this. By that time I had been long enough in Spain to acquire a stock of what you might call green, or living, Spanish, and by the aid of that and gestures I was able to converse with these rugged and seriousmen. Serious? Yes, they are serious. There is nothing of a gay and light and airy nature about them. They never seem to have time to make a joke. I remember trying to make a joke with a Catalonian in Saragossa, and for a moment I thought there was going to be war. I had made a joking remark about some soldiers who were passing, and he gave me a snap-your-head-off glare. It was with difficulty that I soothed him and made him understand that though I was a foreigner I was one of the best. The truth of the matter is that the Catalonians do not consider themselves Spaniards at all. And as amatter of fact they are not. Any observer who goes through the length of Spain would be forced to this conclusion.Through the centuries there has been friction -if not about one thing, about another- between them and the rest of the people of Spain. There is a story to the effect that when Columbus landed in Barcelona with presents for Spain the municipal authorities were so vexed that they would allow no record to be made of his landing. How the trouble is to be really composed it is difficult to see. For it springs inherently from a racial difference. The political differences and the war in Morocco--arising out of the dispute about the mines--only mean that any stick is good enough to beat a dog. If it was not this, it would be something else. In the end Catalonia must become a separate State.

Catalonia Calling is on holidays

This blog will be on holidays until September.

See you then.

The Spanish Inquisition never sleeps. The kidnapper and censor Spanish law. Post in support of El Jueves

Today, judge Juan del Olmo from the Audiencia Nacional (Spain's highest court in penal matters which pre-constitutional origins have been studied by Antonio María Lorca Navarrete, professor in Procedural Law in the Universidad del País Vasco who affirms that the Audiencia Nacional was born "under the shelter of a doubtful democratic regulation") has ordered the Policía Nacional (Spanish national Police) the legal "kidnapping" (a nice way of saying "I don't like you and I censor you because I am the unquestionable law) of the Spanish satiric magazine called El Jueves (edited in Barcelona and sold in all Spain) under the accusation of slanderous caricatures of the Spanish Monarchy. Moreover they want to close El Jueves web site. In the front page of the arrested number you can see a couple fucking (they look like prince Felipe and princess Letizia) under the title: € 2,500 per baby (referring to the promise made by president Zapatero to help families with € 2,500 every time they have a baby). The man in the picture says "Do you notice that if you get pregnant, that will be the most similar to work I have never made?"

This is the cover published in all newspapers and web sites after the arrest (Avui , Il corriere della sera , BBC news , El País)

Well, I am against censorship and I think freedom is the real unquestionable right. It seems that Juan del Olmo and the Audiencia Nacional do not agree with me and as guardians of the pure and eternal Spanish essences have ordered the legal arrest of the magazine. Moreover, the author of that cartoon can be charged of offending the Monarchy and condemned to be imprisoned for two years. No, I am not talking about radical islamists threatening a magazine because of some caricatures of Mahoma. I am talking about supposed democrat Spaniards that should defend free expression. No, I am not talking about dictatorial North Korea. I am talking about the democratic Spain. But there are some similarities in both cases, aren't there? Radical islamists and North Korea have some curious similarities to Spain and some Spanish judges: they think they have the unique truth. As you can see, the age of Enlightenment is something that happened to others (not to the deep feudal Spanish minds nowadays dressed as democrats).

When radical islamists censor free expression we call them barbarians and anti-democrats. So, what will we call Audiencia Nacional after this attack to free expression in Spain? Remember that there is one supposed democrat Constitution that legalize these kind of acts. In the rest of the civilized Europe that would be a great scandal and would have cost some resignations. In Spain it is normal and nothing will happen. Even more, I bet that judge Juan del Olmo will be soon promoted.

It is not the first time that free expression is censored in Spain. The most famous one happened in 1905 when the Spanish Army assulted and burned the editorial office of a satiric Catalan magazine named "Cu-Cut!" and the editorial office of the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya (The voice of Catalonia), both well-known public defenders of Catalanism. But we don't have to go so far to find examples of censorship in Spain. More or less a year ago a judge censored an advertisment in favor of the legalization of Catalan national teams. The arrest of that ad was based in the fact that the actors were children and that was against the law of children protection. Beneath you can watch the censored video where you can see some children playing football (or soccer) dressed with some T-shirts that look like the colours of some national teams. Then there is one that wants to join them. He wears the T-shirt of the Catalan national team and the one dressed with the Spanish T-shirt don't let him join. Then the Catalan boy takes the T-shirt off and the rest do the same and then they can play together. That means that Catalans want to practise sport with all nations excluding no one, and that the real fact is that Spain doesn't allow it due to political matters that have nothing to do with sport (they have to do with Spanish superiority syndrome).

• But according to the argument used to censor that ad, they should have censored this other ad made by AES-DN, a Spanish neo-fascist party where you can see a child with the Spanish flag in his face following the title "Proud to be Spanish". Obviusly the child is used with radical (and non-democratic) political pourposes. But surprisingly it wasn't censored. I think that none of them should have been censored, but as you can see in Spain they don't treat everyone the same. They prefer neo-fascist ads to Catalan democratic rights. Neo-fascists have no problems to express but Catalan democrats are censored or even arrested and tortured (take a look at my last post). So the eternal and pure Spanish essences are closer to neo-fascists than to democratic principles. That is the reality in the democratic Spain. Sun and beaches, censors and inquisition. Monarchist semi-feudal democracy. Limited and under surveillance free expression. If you come to Spain, don't forget that and try to see the country with different eyes.
  

Catalonia has no future in this country. Catalonia needs its own country. Catalonia is not Spain.

Shame on Spain.

"Say you are Spanish or I lock you up". The modern Spanish Inquisition

I present you the real Spanish Fiesta. In Spain they do not only torture animals in their national fiesta (bullfighting) but they torture other "kind" of "animals". The real Spanish Fiesta starts when they arrest a non-Spanish secessionist. Beneath you have two examples of the cold war and the abnormal situation in which we live in Catalonia and in the Basque Country. A dark and deep racist mentality is hidden under the cover of the Spanish democracy, which consider Catalans, Basques and their ideas an illness that must be treated and cured. Catalans and Basques are ill Spanish that have chosen the wrong way or have wrong ideas that must be arranged.

Those who want independence and don't feel Spanish must be violent people and completely mentally ill and they have to be re-educated to the good Spanish way of life. Feeling non-Spanish is unnatural. And as a mentally ill person you have to choose: or you get cured or you get locked up just to avoid the infection of other people with your dangerous ideas. As a matter of faith, the modern Spanish Inquisition trials judge non-Spanish heretics. Being Spanish is a religion. If you don't want to be Spanish you must face the modern democratic Inquisition and its "methods" to keep the true Spanish faith. No rights, no laws. Everything is permitted: false proofs, forced statements, false police reports, false testimonies. But of course, before that you must "turn your camara off". Don't let the world see any other truth but theirs. Welcome to our own apartheid, where Catalans are inferior, where being a Catalan is a signal of insanity, where you have no rights if you don't agree with the Spanish essences, where you have to feel guilty for being Catalan, where you can be condemned and tortured physically or psychologically with impunity and without proofs. It is just an advice: look what can happen to you if you feel what we don't want you to feel and if you think what we don't want you to think. Welcome to the sunny and happy re-education camp called Spain. No, fascism is not back. In Spain fascism never left.

This is the Catalan documentary called Eric and the Army of the Phoenix

This is the documentary by the Australian TV channel SBS about Spanish torture The Spanish Inquisition (Australians, as everybody knows, are dangerous anti-Spanish liars, of course)

Shame on Spain

Spanish flavour

I had another post ready to publish, but I read a news about a demonstration that will take place in Madrid next July 18. This demonstration has been legalized by Zapatero's socialist government. That would not be a problem if the main protagonists were not member of the Falange party (the fascist unique party that ruled Spain during Franco's dictatorship). Falange is still a legal party in Spain and this demonstration has a very clear slogan: "If we have to pass again, we will pass!". The meaning of this sentence (somehow you can read it as a death sentence also) is an apology of the Civil War from those who destroyed the Spanish democratic Republic in 1936. The date of the demonstration is not accidental: July 18 1936 is the official day of the begining of the Spanish Civil War with the coup d'etat made by the reactionary and ultra-catholic Spanish army, a day celebrated since then to 1975. The slogan is an answer to the war cry "They won't pass!" made by the democratic defenders of Madrid (republicans, socialists, and international volunteer brigades) against the fascist army (composed by the rebel Spanish army, Italian fascists, and nazi German forces) that intended to occupy the capital for two years (1937 - 1939). Yes, they passed in 1939. They won that war. But they say they will pass again even if that means a new war. As you can see, after 31 years of democracy in Spain, it is possible to claim for its destruction, it is possible to claim for a new armed civil conflict and it is possible to insult and spit at the memory of those who died defending democracy, but it is not possible to claim a democratic right like the independence of Catalonia.

Here they are, with their arms up and their fascist flags in the wind. Can you imagine a legal demonstration of a nazi party in Germany? Can you imagine any apology of World War II and nazism in Germany? Simply not because it is illegal and apologists can go to prison. Well, as I told you in a previous post, this is not Germany.




What all those democrats killed during the Spanish Civil War and during Franco's dictatorship would think if they saw what their descendents are doing? Spain spits at all the victims of the fascist cruel system, many of them Catalans who were killed and tortured just for being what they were: Catalans. While those who want to destroy democracy can express their hate in the streets, Catalan secessionists have been arrested and tortured (Spain has a long tradition of tortures according to Amnesty International reports) during all these years by the "democratic" Spain that has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights of Strasbourg (read an abstract of the sentence here in English). In a next post I will tell you about the pathetic story of a Catalan teenager called Èric Bertran who was treated as a dangerous terrorist.

Spain spoils fascists while torture and repress those who claim for the international right of independence. Spain a nation back... to the old 1930s. Spain was the only European country where fascism was not defeated after World War II. Spain is the only European country where fascism has been legal since 1933. And Spain is the only European country where a Foundation that praise general Franco and his fascist dictatorship has been subsidized by a "democratic" government.

Shame on Spain.

Zapatero's pre-democratic Spain

"Equality is our identity”. This is President Zapatero’s answer to the interpellation of a Catalan secessionist deputy in the Spanish Congress. Zapatero added also that “this equality can only be achieved in a democratic system”. He said that there are no differences between Spaniards and Catalans: “some are not so different although they think they are” and appealed to the “historical tradition of living together”. Thus, Zapatero denies the national Catalan reality and agrees with the old pre-democratic Castilian centralist vision of Spain. It doesn’t matter who leads the state, right wing or left wing parties. In Spain the Catalan nation does not exist, therefore the right of self-determination is unnecessary. President Zapatero tells us that “there has never been a self-determination process in a democratic system. These kinds of processes have always happened during dictatorial systems or at the end of a dictatorship”.

It is necessary to make several considerations. If the Spanish identity is just equality, why are Spaniards different from Portuguese, French, Italian or Dutch? Does not the Declaration of Human Rights say that all men are equal? According to Zapatero, if we are all equal and the same, why don’t the states that make us different disappear immediately?

I suppose that Mr. Zapatero is able to differentiate a Frenchman from a Spaniard. But which are those differences? Both are dressed more or less the same, they enjoy the same globalized leisure and food, they are democrats, they use the same tools and maybe share the same religion… Tell me, Mr. Zapatero, which are the differences?

Language? History? Culture? National feelings? National anthems? Then, Mr. Zapatero, the differences between a Spaniard and a Frenchman are the same between a Spaniard and a Catalan (it is strange that Catalans have a national anthem with lyrics, but those who deny our existence as a nation have not. The national anthem of Spain has no lyrics. Why? Because it is not a national anthem but the Borbonic Royal March. Mabye it is the Spanish nation that does not exist. Think about it). But of course, Catalans and Spaniards have a "historical tradition of living together" that means armed oppression, the abolition of the Catalan laws and independent institutions in 1716 and its substitution by the foreign laws and institutions of Castile which obviously will never propitiate a self-determination process of Catalonia.

Spanish and Catalan are two different languages (even though some Spaniards say that Catalan language does not exist -no language, no culture, no nation: Catalans are a big NO in Spain- or that it is a dialect that comes from the Spanish language -see? The world itself will be one day an oddity of the Spanish way of life. First it was anthropocentric, then heliocentric, now it is Spaniardcentric. Darwin was wrong, humans do not come from apes but from Spaniards). Spain and Catalonia have a very different history (Catalonia has a thousand-year-old documented history and the Spanish state was created after the Catalan defeat of 1714, in spite of what Spaniards say with their historical lies about it. Since the XVth century Catalonia shared the same monarchy with Castile, but sharing a monarch does not mean being the same nation –if it was true, Australians and English should be the same nation because they recognize the same monarchy).

But as usual what is valid for the rest of the world, it is not for Catalans. We are always the exception, the last political and national apartheid in Europe, where "democracy" reduces us to a simple Spanish distorted rarity.

Zapatero says that countries get their independence during dictatorships or at the end of a dictatorship. So he is telling us that Spain is still a dictatorial state since Franco’s death in 1975 because a possible process of self-determination of Catalonia, Galiza or the Basque Country was not considered under any circumstances with the arrival of “democracy”. We all know that even the pathetic Catalan Statute of Autonomy provoked Tejero’s coup d'état in 1981. Since then, any effort to strengthen the Catalan sovereignity has been blocked.

It seems to me, Mr. Zapatero, that your demagogic words try to justify what cannot be justified. And although you want to disguise Spain with words of open democracy and tolerance, the speech continues being as negationist as the one during Franco’s fascist dictatorship. Trying to justify the negation of a universal right to all Catalan people, you just show that in the Spanish democracy we have no place, we will never be treated as a normal nation, and you are telling us that you keep the same conqueror’s mind Spaniards had in 1714 when Catalans were defeated and the Castilian boots of the occupation forces echoed in the streets of Barcelona.

But if Catalans do not exist, why do they talk about “the Catalan problem” in Spain, Mr. Zapatero? If the Catalan nation does not exist, how can Catalans be a problem? Spain has a problem with Catalonia and Catalonia with Spain. And as long as the existence and the rights that every nation deserves are denied to us, the problem will not end. The Catalan nation does not exist. You can close your eyes. But we are still a problem for your Spain, Mr. Zapatero. I wonder if your arguments are just a compilation of the old pre-democratic wish of erasing any sign of the Catalan nation. In that case, you are right, the self-determination process is forbidden by the “democratic dictatorship” we are trapped in since 1978 and the Spanish Constitution is our jailer.

Wouldn’t it be easier to understand that Catalonia is not Spain?

Catalonia + plunder = Spain

These are the conclusions of the article titled "Macroeconomic effects of Catalan fiscal deficit with the Spanish state (2002–2010)" published in Applied Economics (number 37, 2005):

• According to Eurostat Regional data, the Catalan economy has been blocked in recent years while Madrid, Navarra and the Basque Country have converged vigorously with the EU Regional GDP per capita average (in 2000 these three Spanish Autonomous Communities clearly surpassed Catalonia). It is suggested that the main reason for this stagnancy is the Catalan fiscal deficit with the Spanish state, estimated in recent years to be between 7% and 9% of Catalan GDP. Fiscal deficit does not exist in Navarra and the Basque Country (because of their particular financial system called concierto económico, that is equivalent and independent, self-sufficient administration) and it is significantly lower in Madrid, clearly the most dynamic Spanish region in recent years (only 1–2% of Madrid yearly GDP). Because of this continual extraction of Catalan resources and wealth, Catalonia is losing economic growth opportunities in the EU context, and according to the estimates derived in this study this stagnancy will continue in future years if the Catalan fiscal deficit with the Spanish state is not reversed. Catalonia will converge with the most dynamic EU regions only if there is a significant reduction of the Catalan fiscal deficit.
  

Catalonia pays taxes as a European country but receives public expenditure as a South American country. This is what Mr. Ramon Tremosa (a well-known Catalan economist) says in that article. Other economists have denounced the unfair economic situation of Catalonia (for example Mr. Xavier Sala i Martín)

But this alarming article is old-fashioned already. Recent non-official studies about the fiscal deficit of Catalonia with Spain say that things are worse. According to the Observatori del Finançament de Catalunya in 2005 the Catalan deficit was €19,176,000,000. That is a 10.5% of Catalan GDP. And what does this percentage mean? Simply twice and a half the maximun fiscal deficit legally stablished in Germany and its länder. So if Spain were Germany the economical relationship between Spain and Catalonia would be illegal. But of course this is not Germany (sometimes I wonder if this is Europe) and everything is possible here (against Catalans, of course). Democracy is transparency, they say in all the democracies of the world. But its Spanish translation is: democracy is piracy. Who said transparency? Oh yes, transparency is what Spanish avoid when Catalans are around (we are not normal, remember?). Not in vain, the information about interterritorial fiscal scales is the most hidden secret in Spain since 1996, breaking year after year a Spanish parliament mandate. The reason? Spanish Government says that there are many ways and methods for calculating them and that there is no consensus (do Spaniards know that fiscals scales are published every year in all European countries according to monetary flows? I insist, is Spain in Europe?). "We will go on trying it" said President Zapatero last May. Trying it? Do you mean that you need 11 years to know how to calculate the interterritorial fiscal balances? What kind of economists are there in Spain? What it seems is that fiscal scales are not so interesting (I mean that Spaniards are not interested in showing where our money is invested, so shaming it is).

Just some significant indicators to sum to Catalan fiscal deficit (and due to it):

• The 72 % of the payment highways of Spain are in Catalonia
• Catalonia is the European country with more payment highways per km2
• Catalonia has just the 4.13 % of the free highways in Spain
• Catalonia has the 26 % of the car accidents of Spain
• The 36 % of the Catalan road network has a high or very high risk of accident rate due to the low Spanish public expenditure
• Catalonia is the 19 % of the total GDP of Spain but the total Spanish public expenditure in Catalonia is just the 14 %
• The fiscal deficit of Catalonia in 2005 is four times the total cost of Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games
• Catalans have a fiscal deficit of € 2,704 per capita yearly
• Catalans recieve € 415 per capita in concept of total inverstment while the Spanish average is € 477
• With that fiscal deficit the whole Catalan public health system deficit could be payed
• Since 1991 the public expenditure in the Autonomous Comunity of Madrid is twice the public expenditure in Catalonia
• The investment of the Catalan railroad network has been manifestly insufficient for the last 20 years
• The failures, delays and accidents in the Catalan railroad network are common every day affecting hundreds of thousands Catalans
  

This situation is called "solidarity" in Spain. If you do not speak Spanish "solidarity" means "Catalans pay and shut up" in the democrat Spain. When Catalans denounce this situation we are called thieves, rude primitive nationalists, anti-Spanish xenophobes, and they say we lie and the reality is that we have no solidarity with the poorest Spanish regions while we have uncountables benefits from Spain (which are these benefits? Ultra-Spanish nationalists give no economic datum. We are Catalans, and that is enough. We are the origin of all evil. Do they need more datum? We deserve our situation. If we were good Spanish people they wouldn't have to plunder us). Any Catalan attempt to force the Spanish Government to publish the interterritorial fiscal sclaes is called blackmail for some Spanish media (as an example: the ultra-catholic-Spanish radio star Federico Jiménez Losantos said in prime time "The Government only talks to terrorists, homosexuals and Catalans. When is it going to talk to normal people?" -La Mañana de la COPE -June, 13 2005)

This table represents the last information we have about the financial scales per Autonomous Comunities in Spain (period 1991 - 1996). As you can see Catalonia was the second Spanish Autonomous Comunity with a higher fiscal deficit. It has yearly grown since then and Spain gives no official information about it.

Just some comparisions:

• Extremadura was the most favoured Autonomous Comunity then (and so it is nowadays)
• Nowadays, Extremadura has new free highways which are half empty (the population density there is 25 inhabitants per km2 while in Catalonia is 220 inhabitants per km2)
• In 2004 there were 1,200,000 poor people in Catalonia
• In 2006 Extremadura had a population of 1,086,373 inhabitants
• Even though all the investment Extremadura receives, it is not decreasing but increasing while the fiscal pressure of Catalonia is growing every year (but of course, we have no right to claim, we are Catalans, never forget that)

This is what we call Modern democratic colonization (maybe too similar to the traditional colonization). Catalonia is not Spain but a Spanish colony. Facts are facts, and "legal" plunder is "legal" plunder. Spanish democracy = piracy.