THE head of the Catalan government’s official delegation to the UK and Ireland will address a fringe meeting at this weekend’s SNP Conference, after the nation’s foreign affairs minister insisted that “one way or other” a Catalan independence referendum would take place this year.
Sergi Marcen will update members on plans for the vote and discuss its potential impact at the event organised by SNP Friends of Catalonia.
It is crunch time for the independence movements in both Scotland and Catalonia. If their respective peoples vote for autonomy in the course of the next 24 months, the political landscape of Europe will be radically altered. The balance of power could start to shift away from big, pro-austerity states towards smaller, pro-growth and social democratic countries with a mission to create a People’s Europe.
However, in Madrid, the right-wing, minority People’s Party government of Mariano Rajoy has so far set its face against allowing Catalans a popular referendum. The Spanish Constitutional Court is prosecuting more than 400 Catalan elected officials for facilitating the referendum process and recently debarred the former Catalan Prime Minister Artur Mas from holding office for two years.
Marcen took up his post in September, with the task of strengthening bilateral relations between Catalonia and the governments and devolved administrations of the UK and Ireland. Previously he was head of Catalonia’s telecoms strategy. He is also a member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) – a traditional sister party of the SNP.
Marcen works closely with Catalonia’s Minster of Foreign Affairs, Raul Romeva. This week Romeva – a Catalan Green who was a member of the European Parliament for a decade –addressed a packed meeting of MPs and peers at Westminster, organised by the new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia.
Speaking about Madrid’s opposition to a Catalan referendum, Romeva said: “Obviously we would prefer the vote to take place with the co-operation of the Spanish Government, as happened with Scottish independence, but if that is not possible the referendum will happen and will be binding on the Catalan people.”
He added: “If that is not possible, the Catalan government has the clear mandate from the elections in September 2015 to hold the referendum anyway. If necessary we will make the law to make it legal and binding. We are completely committed to this referendum being fair, with all options discussed fairly by international standards. One way or other we are going to have this vote.”
Scotland and Catalonia have much in common. There are 7.5 million Catalans versus 5.3 million Scots. Both nations lost their statehood at roughly the same time. On the losing side of the War of Spanish Succession, Barcelona fell to Spanish forces in 1714. Scotland entered an incorporating Union with England in 1707 on the casting votes of the aristocracy but against the will of the mass of the population.
Despite being absorbed into larger entities, and in Catalonia’s case having its indigenous language suppressed, both nations became industrial power houses. Today, Catalonia accounts for 20 per cent of Spain’s economy. Independent, it would have a gross national product of about $314 billion, making it the 34th largest economy in the world – bigger than Portugal. In 2014, Scotland ranked 14th wealthiest among the OECD club of industrial nations, and its universities are global research powerhouses.
There are also differences. In Scotland the SNP dominates, though there is a vigorous, pro-Yes Green Party. The 2014 referendum also brought into being spontaneously a civic independence movement, which needs to be reanimated. In Catalonia, Junts pel Si (Together for Yes), is a broader coalition of pro-independence parties, including the centre-right Democratic Convergence. Junts Pel Si won a majority 72 of the 135 seats in the Catalan Parliament in 2015, on a mandate for a referendum. This is underpinned by civic mobilisation that has repeatedly put more than a million people on the streets of Barcelona to demand independence.
SNP Friends of Catalonia intends to organise a delegation of members to travel to Barcelona to help in the referendum.
The fringe meeting with Sergi Marcen and George Kerevan MP takes place tomorrow at 12.30pm in the Finnie and Wallace suites, Holiday Inn Express, Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.
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