Thinking About: Catalonia

The first word that comes to mind when I think about the Catalonia situation is: Crazy. It’s crazy because it’s so unnecessary. It’s also crazy because it’s been so badly handled. Indeed the whole situation is an example of how NOT to handle a political crisis. I’m sure that in years to come – no matter the longer term outcome – books will be written about it explaining how not to respond in similar situations if you want things to go well.

OK, I can kind of understand where Madrid are coming from. A prosperous part of their country, already with a fair amount of regional autonomy, talked about independence and actually tried (and mostly succeeded) to hold a referendum on that question. Madrid went in hot and heavy to stop it, rather ironically calling the resultant crackdown on people voting as protecting democracy. That, I think, was their first big mistake from which all else follows. Although the result looked like an overwhelming majority vote for independence now we’ll never actually know because the referendum was too disrupted to be valid. What the Madrid government should have done is said: OK, we don’t agree with you voting on the issue and any costs will be covered by the Catalan government. If you want the vote to go ahead we want independent (EU?) observers there to make sure that everything is above board. Then we’ll see what people really think about it. If the vote goes heavily for independence (or even significantly in that direction) Madrid should then have offered talks to see what should be done about it – either within Spain if the vote is significant rather than overwhelming or (maybe) in Paris moderated by other EU members if the independence vote is beyond doubt. Then they talk, and deal and sort it. But no, the Spanish government decided to push it, and then push it again until the Catalan government were essentially forced into a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Of course now Madrid feel forced into their response and have dismissed the Catalan government and will now (at least try to) run the regional government directly. Which, naturally, gives the Catalan government and its people just too options – capitulate or resist. I’m guessing they won’t capitulate. What Madrid will do next, well if the last few weeks are anything to go by they will force the issue then, if things were not messed up enough already, things could get really messy really fast.

The EU are not exactly helping by repeatedly saying it’s an internal Spanish issue. It’s actually a European issue and the EU should have mediators (and observers) both in Madrid and Barcelona before things get completely out of hand and to prevent that happening in the first place, a case of better late than never. They should be there calming things down and not simply sitting on their hands seconds just after they’ve washed them. All sides in the dispute need to be adults, realise that there is a problem that needs to be resolved and sit down in a room and work on its resolution. You do not solve problems in a democracy with the use of force. In a democracy you talk and talk and then talk some more until you come to a compromise that everyone can live with. The independence genie is out of the bottle and it’s not going to be easy to put it back. Madrid should face up to the possibility that eventually Catalonia will be an independent state within the national boundary of Spain. Really, what difference does it make? Would it really be the end of the world if more regions broke away and Spain became a federal country? Does the Madrid government really want to violently hold their country together and do they honestly believe that violence and the threat of violence can do that? Crazy.