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rfmcdonaldCatalonia is in the news lately. The Catalonian regional parliament has declared itself in favour of changing the Catalan Statue of Autonomy, to give Catalonia status as a nation within Spain with a corresponding high degree of autonomy.
Not entirely unreasonably, many Spanish outside of Catalonia fear that this strengthening of Catalonia might eventually lead to the dissolution of the Spanish state and the independence of Catalonia. The model of near-independence proposed by the Catalonian government isn't very different from the model of sovereignty-association favoured by Québécois nationalists. All that it might take would be for some ambitious politicians to destabilize affairs and Spain could go through its own version of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Divorce. A state dating from 1492 would come to an end, or more accurately, be sadly reduced. I do think that Catalonia could pull this off--it's certainly competent enough, rather more so that the Basque Country--but a country would be diminished.
I feel Spain's pain, a bit. Just now in Canada, the Gomery Commission released the first phase of its report into the sponsorship scandal, finding among other things that former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was partially responsible for the mismanagement of tens of millions of dollars spent on pro-Canada advertising campaigns. The image that has thus been created of federal misrule and corruption, of the use of tax dollars to buy federalist support and subsidize pro-Liberal businesses, has been deadly for the cause of federalism in Québec. If the 1995 referendum on independence was held now, the sovereigntists would win by a slim margin. The trends don't seem to augur well for a united Canada, particularly since, as Jonathan Montpetit observes in Maisonneuve, immigrants in Québec are starting to vote in large numbers for sovereigntists.
Would I prefer Québec to unambiguously remain part of Canada? Certainly. I'd go so far as to say that Québec may have more influence as the second province of Canada on the global stage than it would have as a small through prosperous independent state. I don't think that the difference would be that great, though. Certainly, after the emotional 1995 unity rally by federalists in Montréal was followed up by a complete failure to take up a dialogue with Québécois nationalists, Canadians have no grounds whatsoever to complain about Québec's lack of any kind of intense emotional attachment to the Canadian federation. I only hope that the Spanish are more competent than we Canadians in convincing their own potentially separatist minority nations to remain Spanish. Forcing the issue certainly isn't going to work. Quite apart from the immorality of this, it would devastate the remainder of the country. Serbia's resistance to the breakup of Yugoslavia was a catastrophe for Serbia, producing a devastated economy that will take decades to recover to pre-war levels of output, to say nothing of a semi-criminalized polity and a demoralized society. I've no desire to spend the remainder of my young adulthood exploring Internet matchmaker sites for rich Americans or Europeans I could marry.
All things must pass. I just wish that Canada (and Spain) weren't to be found in that category.
The proposed new Catalan charter also seeks to give the Barcelona government power to change laws passed by the Spanish parliament and a status of peer in its dealings with the Spanish government. It would also give the Catalan region exclusive say over areas ranging from culture to immigration to airports.
[. . .]
The Catalan plan calls for the region around Barcelona to raise and spend its own taxes. But in a debate yesterday at the Congress of Deputies, the lower chamber of parliament, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the Spanish state must retain its power to raise revenue around the country.
“I am convinced that the toughest battle, the core of the negotiations that will take place in congress, will be the system of financing,” said Joan Puigcercos, a leader of a Catalan nationalist party that helped write the plan.
Spanish Industry Minister Jose Montilla, who is from Catalonia, agreed that money “will be the issue that causes the most problems.”
The early morning vote, with 197 votes in favour and 146 against, followed more than 10 hours of intense debate.
Not entirely unreasonably, many Spanish outside of Catalonia fear that this strengthening of Catalonia might eventually lead to the dissolution of the Spanish state and the independence of Catalonia. The model of near-independence proposed by the Catalonian government isn't very different from the model of sovereignty-association favoured by Québécois nationalists. All that it might take would be for some ambitious politicians to destabilize affairs and Spain could go through its own version of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Divorce. A state dating from 1492 would come to an end, or more accurately, be sadly reduced. I do think that Catalonia could pull this off--it's certainly competent enough, rather more so that the Basque Country--but a country would be diminished.
I feel Spain's pain, a bit. Just now in Canada, the Gomery Commission released the first phase of its report into the sponsorship scandal, finding among other things that former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was partially responsible for the mismanagement of tens of millions of dollars spent on pro-Canada advertising campaigns. The image that has thus been created of federal misrule and corruption, of the use of tax dollars to buy federalist support and subsidize pro-Liberal businesses, has been deadly for the cause of federalism in Québec. If the 1995 referendum on independence was held now, the sovereigntists would win by a slim margin. The trends don't seem to augur well for a united Canada, particularly since, as Jonathan Montpetit observes in Maisonneuve, immigrants in Québec are starting to vote in large numbers for sovereigntists.
Would I prefer Québec to unambiguously remain part of Canada? Certainly. I'd go so far as to say that Québec may have more influence as the second province of Canada on the global stage than it would have as a small through prosperous independent state. I don't think that the difference would be that great, though. Certainly, after the emotional 1995 unity rally by federalists in Montréal was followed up by a complete failure to take up a dialogue with Québécois nationalists, Canadians have no grounds whatsoever to complain about Québec's lack of any kind of intense emotional attachment to the Canadian federation. I only hope that the Spanish are more competent than we Canadians in convincing their own potentially separatist minority nations to remain Spanish. Forcing the issue certainly isn't going to work. Quite apart from the immorality of this, it would devastate the remainder of the country. Serbia's resistance to the breakup of Yugoslavia was a catastrophe for Serbia, producing a devastated economy that will take decades to recover to pre-war levels of output, to say nothing of a semi-criminalized polity and a demoralized society. I've no desire to spend the remainder of my young adulthood exploring Internet matchmaker sites for rich Americans or Europeans I could marry.
All things must pass. I just wish that Canada (and Spain) weren't to be found in that category.
