Catalan Culture: A matter of independence (1)

Being the matter quite delicate, I must confess that I have put off the creation of this post several times. Although, it is not possible for anyone who has lived in Catalonia for at least a few months to avoid dealing with the issue of the independence of Catalonia. Indeed, it is such a burning issue that it is often carefully avoided in everyday conversations, in the name of a quiet common life. And yet the subject keeps coming up in different ways, with such an insistence that a person necessarily ends up forming an opinion about it, even if he is a stranger. Hoping to preserve unaffected all the relationships of friendship which I have struck up so far, then, I will proceed to comment upon this much-heated topic.

The facts, in the first place. As probably most people know, Catalonia has been characterised, in the last century or so, by a strong claim for Independence from the rest of the Spanish country. A problem which is not uncommon at all in the Iberian Peninsula: despite being the oldest among the current countries of Western Europe, Spain has indeed had consistent internal problems. Not only the Catalan, indeed, but also the Basque Country has been claiming for independence for a long time, with consequences which in some cases have become dramatic (the infamous attacks by the terroristic group ETA, which have led to hundreds of victims between the 1960s and the end of the past century.

In both cases, the claim is based both on cultural and economic reason. Both communities, indeed, boast their own language (which in the case of the Basques, is very different not only from Spanish but from any European language) and some specific historic traits which in some way set them apart from most regions of Spain. Moreover, Basque country and Catalonia are probably the two areas of Spain with the most developed industrial fabric, leading to the fact that they can be generally regarded as quite wealthy regions. For these (and other) reasons, these two areas are considered by the Spanish country special communities with a certain degree of autonomy, both under an administrative and an economical point of view. In other words, they are two of the comunidades autonomas (the Spanish regions) enjoying special privileges, among which, for example, the right to have the local language taught in schools. If on the one hand the situation has probably been cooling off in the Basque country during the last few years, not quite so in Catalonia.

Also due to the unfavourable economic conjuncture, which has affected Spain much more than other European countries, the situation in Catalonia has deteriorated considerably in the last few years. Tired of the economic straits imposed by the government, the Catalan administration, namely the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, has decided to thump the table. After contributing decisively to a turning point in a nationalistic accent to the Catalan politics, he repeatedly pressed the Spanish government about the independence of Catalonia and finally took a decisive, huge step. Less than two months ago, indeed, he called for Catalan people to decide in a referendum to be hold in November 2014 about the permanence of Catalonia in the Spanish country.

Of course, the Spanish prime minister Rajoy did not give his consent to act, arguing that a decision of this kind is of such importance and common interest that it should not involve only Catalonia but the whole country. As the national government is the only authority endowed with the power to proclaim a referendum, the decision taken by Mas is obviously regarded as illegal. Nevertheless, the Catalan president has refused to step off so far, and the call he made is still valid at the eyes of some Catalan people, who in a climate of growing exaltation are bracing themselves for the vote which should set them free from the Spanish oppression.

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