Solidarity, but with whom?

More than three years ago the Par­lia­ment of Cat­alo­nia pro­claimed in­de­pen­dence. The Cata­lan Re­pub­lic em­bod­ies val­ues valid for uni­ver­sal progress. And it was an­other at­tempt to re­solve the na­tional con­flict of Cat­alo­nia with Spain by de­mo­c­ra­tic and peace­ful means, in ac­cor­dance with 21st cen­tury in­ter­na­tional law. And it is not un­usual for processes of na­tional lib­er­a­tion to last some years.

The main rea­son that Cat­alo­nia, de­spite being a na­tion, con­tin­ues to have no state of its own, is the re­pres­sion of the Span­ish state. In­deed, Spain did not recog­nise the re­sult of the ref­er­en­dum of Oc­to­ber 1, 2017 in favour of the in­de­pen­dence of Cat­alo­nia, and trig­gered a re­pres­sion that has led to po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers and ex­iles. The dif­fer­ence in be­hav­iour of the Span­ish ju­di­ciary and that of many Eu­ro­pean coun­tries for the same facts is shock­ing. So, while the Cata­lan po­lit­i­cal ex­iles who won seats in the Eu­ro­pean Par­lia­ment have taken their seats, the same has been de­nied to an­other in a Span­ish prison.

On the other hand, Spain did not ac­cept that the win­ner of the elec­tions of De­cem­ber 21, 2017, or other can­di­dates who were not to its lik­ing, could be ap­pointed pres­i­dent of Cat­alo­nia, due to var­i­ous legal pro­ceed­ings. Fi­nally, the pres­i­dent who was ap­pointed in May 2018 was dis­missed in Sep­tem­ber 2020 by the Span­ish ju­di­ciary for hav­ing hung a ban­ner call­ing for the re­lease of po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers, which has led to new elec­tions. All this shows the colo­nial treat­ment by Span­ish im­pe­ri­al­ism.

The neo-fas­cist drift in which Spain is en­gaged and of which the emer­gence of the far-right Vox party is noth­ing more than the tip of the ice­berg, means that the re­pres­sion against the in­de­pen­dence move­ment is ex­pand­ing. At the end of Oc­to­ber, a new po­lit­i­cal po­lice-ju­di­cial op­er­a­tion took place with un­founded ac­cu­sa­tions. Thus, it was said that the pres­ence of 10,000 Russ­ian sol­diers in Cat­alo­nia had been of­fered when in­de­pen­dence was pro­claimed. The pur­pose of this ridicu­lous ac­cu­sa­tion is to pit Eu­ro­pean pub­lic opin­ion against the in­de­pen­dence of Cat­alo­nia, as it has no basis. In fact, Rus­sia’s al­leged sup­port for Cat­alo­nia’s in­de­pen­dence is noth­ing new. But as early as April 2018, a com­mit­tee of the British Par­lia­ment found out that it was fake news.

To deal with the Eu­ro­pean eco­nomic cri­sis, the EU has ap­proved a sig­nif­i­cant vol­ume of funds to dis­trib­ute among the mem­ber states. Sol­i­dar­ity is im­por­tant. It can­not be said that Cat­alo­nia is un­sup­port­ive, among other rea­sons be­cause of its net pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tion to the EU. But Cat­alo­nia can no longer bear the fis­cal deficit of 8% of its GDP with Spain, a plun­der. And do not Cata­lans have the same rights as other sim­i­lar peo­ples who have achieved in­de­pen­dence since the 1990s in Eu­rope?

The Cata­lan case is not unique and other state­less na­tions are also en­ti­tled to it. And pos­si­bly the Eu­ro­pean Union is not in­ter­ested in a pro­lif­er­a­tion of new states. How­ever, in no case would they be 95, as a politi­cian said. What is at stake is whether or not the Eu­ro­pean Union is faith­ful to its de­mo­c­ra­tic found­ing prin­ci­ples. Some con­di­tions of re­spect for the rule of law have been es­tab­lished for the dis­tri­b­u­tion of Eu­ro­pean anti-cri­sis funds. More­over, if once again, the Eu­ro­pean Union closed its eyes to the mas­sive human rights vi­o­la­tions in Cat­alo­nia, it would be giv­ing its sol­i­dar­ity to an op­pres­sive state. And this is not sus­tain­able and would only lead to the dis­in­te­gra­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union it­self.