Seven Things That Really Annoyed Me About The Catalan Elections

It's been a while since I've had anything in this blog that I would consider to be a rant. I suppose some may not share that opinion. As a final post for the moment on the Catalan elections I thought I'd share a list of some of the things I found most irritating during the campaign. Plenty of material there, but this time I've decided to leave all the ridiculous stuff from right wing sources in Madrid to one side. I've dedicated plenty of space to them before on this blog and I hope to continue doing so, it forms an important part of what I see as my public service remit. 

Instead this time I'm focusing on things from the pro-sovereignty side. Feel free to put the other side or conflicting opinions in the comments, for a day or two we can still pretend we live in a free society. The disclaimer first, I think I've already pointed out on previous occasions that I support the right to decide for Cataluña and other places too. I am not now nor have I ever been a prisoner of the opinions of the lunatic right in Madrid. I don't share the argument for Catalan independence, although I understand and respect the case for it when it is reasonably argued. However, that is not the case with the shit I'm going to describe now. Here we go:

The "nobody loves us" argument. You see it in comments like "we have to separate because we see the Spanish have no love for us". Oh please, grow up! Be like Millwall fans for God's sake. No one loves us, we don't care. Well, maybe you don't need to go that far, although at any given time half of them are probably slumped in a bar somewhere just off the Ramblas anyway. But a bit of mental toughness. Not everybody has to like everybody else to be able to share the same territory. Perhaps also consider the possibility that describing the rest of the country as fascists (see below) or lazy scroungers living off your hard earned money doesn't really help when it comes to creating a harmonious and mutually respectful atmosphere? Just a suggestion, take it away and think about it. But do stop bleating.

It's the history stupid! I don't have a disdain for history, on the contrary I think it's very important that we study and above all learn lessons from the past. But that's not the same as living in it. Trying to use past glories as a basis for the future is precisely that. Only the good bits of history, of course, not the bits where most people are just peasants standing around in their own shit and keeling over with the plague. Let's just pretend we're all in the Catalan nobility and we're riding off to conquer another chunk of Italy or an island somewhere. I don't generally accept Balkan/Catalan comparisons, but I can't stomach that kind of Serbian "we fought a battle in this muddy field 1000 years ago so therefore its ours" mentality. It's over, and it's a far better contribution to join in constructing a different future than to try and return to an often imagined past. If, after having considered the issue you decide that what you like is dressing up in stupidly heavy armour and slaughtering peasants than you are probably standing in the right muddy field. Just try not to bother anybody.

The fake solidarity argument. Of course I have nothing at all against redistribution between wealthier and poorer regions but first we have to have all of our money. ALL OF IT! I guess it helps that I can write this from a region that also contributes to the redistribution of wealth in Spain, and I can declare that I'm in favour of that policy. There should be more transparency over funding and where all the money goes. Those who want independence or the full monty in terms of fiscal receipts are clearly not in favour of redistribution, at least not outside of Catalan borders. So why pretend otherwise if you are demanding something that makes it impossible? Will it be 10 pujols a week into the collection plate at church for solidarity after independence? 

There's no investment. You know those Spanish 'pijo' cretins who like to comment in foreign media like the FT or The Economist trying to take advantage of what they assume is complete overseas ignorance about Spanish affairs? You know who I mean, they would write things like "Perhaps you are not aware of this, but Zapatero is really an ETA terrorist and second cousin of Saddam Hussein who eats the babies of decent Spanish families for a hobby". Well there's a Catalan equivalent. They write things like "Spain spends millions on high speed trains in other regions, yet we have no transport link to France". You lying little fuck is my usual measured reaction to this kind of comment. It's being built and its about to fucking open, and its not like at the moment you have to change in Barcelona into a donkey cart to get to the French border. When I come to power anybody who tries to get away with this will be taken outside and given a severe talking to by someone dressed as a traditional British bobby. Maybe a slap too, but in a non gratuitous way, obviously. Then they'll have to write a letter of apology to the media organisation concerned saying how sorry they are for being a lying little fuck. I mean, if you have to tell porkies like that to bolster your case? About 6 months after the high speed link to the border opens there'll be someone writing in the comments page of The Guardian saying "Oh it's so unfair that it takes us Catalans 27 seconds to get to Paris in our train that only goes at 3000 km a minute when in Madrid they have one that gets there in 26 seconds and lands on fucking Mars on the way".  Jeez it's annoying.

Franco. It's the opposite of the history thing combined with a touch of the pijo cretin. This notion that Cataluña is some sort of 21st century liberal Scandinavian paradise trapped in the evil grasp of a medieval theocratic Spanish beast. Or a Francoist beast, take your choice. I mean it's not like CiU are the fucking People's Democratic Front For The Liberation Of Catalunya is it? Whilst we're on the subject, and despite the attempts to talk them up, it's not like Esquerra Republicana are either. Take Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida for example. This politician, leader of the CiU group in the Spanish parliament, is bizarrely popular with all sorts of Spaniards. This is because, on issues that don't affect Cataluña, he exemplifies this sort of "Why don't you all stop bickering and sort yourselves out?" common sense approach. He also lives a very fine life in the Palace Hotel in Madrid. He is also a catholic reactionary with opinions so extreme on issues such as homosexuality that you can almost imagine people at a Hazteoir meeting nudging each other and whispering "He's a bit over the top isn't he?" Then there's Franco and this idea that Spain has not changed even a little bit since 1975. Madrid, according to the absurd caricature, is supposed to be some sort of drab city straight out of a 1940's black and white movie where blue shirted Falangists keep the cowed inhabitants of the city in check. Now even if you line up the entire readership of La Gaceta in the same place, all you end up with is something that looks a bit like a large group of smokers outside an office building. Except that by the time you've finished half of them have died of old age anyway. This Franco memorial meeting next weekend, commenters were saying, is proof of how little Spain has changed. But journalists will outnumber other attendees 4 to 1 at least. Anyway, the Falangists have been replaced by the riot cops these days, so who says we've got nothing in common with Barcelona? Of course there are all sorts of things that could and should be modernised to make a better society, and the remaining leftovers of Francoism should be dealt with. Says a person who comes from a country where the opening of parliament is like a Monty Python parody with people wearing multi-coloured smocks and waving staffs and pikes.

All these lists for everything. You know what I mean, all those space fillers in what used to be called the quality press like "57 things you didn't know about some alleged celebrity who you've never fucking heard of anyway" I don't even make lists for going shopping. Life isn't some sort of giant Powerpoint slide for Christ's sake. Down with lists!

Catalan Elections....The Loser Is The Winner

It didn't work. That's the simple and clear verdict of yesterday's elections for Artur Mas and Convergència i Unió (CiU). The gamble that they could capture absolute power in the Catalan parliament has backfired in a spectacular way that few expected. Whilst the last opinion polls suggested Mas might not reach the objective of an overall majority, I don't think any polls predicted that CiU would lose ground in the way that they have. It seems evident that there has been a significant shift of votes from CiU to Esquerra Republican (ERC). So one of the main consequences of this gamble by Mas has been to restore the fortunes of his main rival for the nationalist vote. That should have a few people inside his own party sharpening their knives. 

Despite the setback, CiU are still very much the dominant force in Catalan politics. If anyone believes that the shift in support from CiU to Esquerra represents some sort of major turning point in nationalist voting patterns then I suggest they click on the results for 2006 in the results widget in my previous post. Esquerra have been here before, they've even done better than this before. The general assumption this morning seems to be that CiU and ERC will unite in a grand coalition, as between them they command a majority in parliament. This is not, it needs to be pointed out, the same as a majority of the votes cast. Between them the two parties can claim just over 44% support. Ironically, the alliance last time around between CiU and their good friends from the Partido Popular could claim greater electoral legitimacy, at least they made it to 50%. 

The solution of a nationalist coalition might appear to be obvious but it's not so simple. Esquerra have never wanted to be a junior coalition partner to CiU, and that option is full of danger for them. There is, of course, the compensation that they get back their offices and official cars and all the trappings of power which they showed such a liking for with the 'tripartit' government a few years back. Unfortunately for them it didn't go down so well with their voters. Also, an agreement with Mas means they have to publicly line up behind setting the Mossos d'Esquadra and their rubber bullets onto anyone who doesn't like their health service being dismantled. There isn't that much remaining of the 'Esquerra' part in ERC but they also have to keep an eye out for emerging rivals, look at the rise of the CUP in yesterday's election.

In return for keeping Mas in power, ERC will need something to show for it and the obvious trophy is paving the way for an independence vote. The problem is, following yesterday's results, that the popular enthusiasm for such a move seems to have been wildly exaggerated. Nor is it really valid to spin the result by confusing an apparently pro-referendum majority with a pro-independence one. Despite what some appear to think, being in favour of the 'right to decide' yet against independence is both a coherent and an impeccably democratic viewpoint. It's the position I hold, for example, concerning Scottish independence. Even though I'm entitled to the passport if Salmond gets his way. 

It's also important to remember, when considering the balance of forces,  that regional elections tend to overstate the nationalist vote in Cataluña, with a reverse effect being seen in national Spanish elections. Nationalists are more motivated by the issues of Catalan government than Spanish. That seems to have changed a bit this time, there has been a greater mobilisation of anti-independence voters. The unionist party Ciutadans have been regarded as something of a joke, but they have tripled their representation in the new parliament. The PP also did well, by their own standards, although they are still a minor party in Catalan politics. After a build up that had almost everyone expecting a major shift towards pro-independence sentiment, a closer examination of the results reveals a small reverse in nationalist support. 

The Catalan socialists of the PSC must be relieved, not because they did well but because it could have been worse and because of all the attention focused on Mas. The PSC should be the big hitter of the national Spanish parties in Catalan elections, and in the end they've finished in third place just ahead of the PP. That's an awful result, but I still believe it has as much to do with national issues as with local ones. It fits the pattern of dismal results in other regions for the PSOE. It's hard to say whether they have lost votes to Ciutadans and the harder line anti-separatist positions. Iniciativa per Catalunya, which would expect to pick up votes on the left from disillusionment with the PSC, have gained three seats which isn't bad but it doesn't suggest great things to come either.

There are all sorts of lessons to be drawn from these elections, but perhaps its the Catalan left that really needs to be thinking hard about where it is going. Seeing every issue through the prism of the national question isn't offering any solutions to those who need them as the crisis continues to bite hard. The idea that the unemployed of Badalona have more in common with Artur Mas and company than they do with the unemployed of Alcobendas looks patently absurd. As does pretending that the rest of Spain lives a leisurely life of ease and comfort at Catalan expense. Hard times are still ahead, and holding hands with Artur won't do anything to help those who are bearing the brunt of the crisis.

Catalan Regional Election Results 2012

So is this it, crunch day for Cataluña as it decides its future relationship with Spain? Well no, not really. We are treated to yet another early election called, as in the recent case of Galicia, for opportunistic reasons. Which is not to say that today's elections won't be something of a turning point, it's just that it would not be fair to judge the results purely as a verdict on the future status of Cataluña. But such is the game being played by regional president Artur Mas that nobody can be sure that anything will happen in terms of a future sovereignty vote, even if he gets his desired overall majority. That majority is what this election is really about, Mas decided to try and ride the wave of nationalist sentiment surrounding the huge march in Barcelona on September 11th to try and get the majority government that he couldn't get last time around in 2010. 

Mas and his party, Convergència i Unió (CiU), have never been in favour of Catalan independence, and the language he has used in the campaign to refer to the national question has been deliberately ambiguous. It's not hard to foresee that he could disappoint an awful lot of people if he gets his desired result. Not the for the first time, and it's not that easy to feel much sympathy for those who allow a bit of demagogic, flag waving, populist tub thumping rhetoric to triumph over the reality of their own experience.  Mas runs a right wing government that cuts welfare services at the same time as reducing taxes for the better off. To then plead that there is no money to pay for essential services because of Spain seems blatantly ridiculous but you can hardly blame him for doing so given that it seems to work?  

The campaign against the austerity measures so enthusiastically embraced by Mas and company has been effectively destroyed by his suceess in turning it into an issue of Cataluña versus Spain. Some polls have shown Mas getting the majority he wants and others have shown him falling short, there is no consistent picture. What does seem evident is that there will be a significant collapse in support for the PSC, Catalan wing of the PSOE. Although this will also undoubtedly be attributed to nationalist issues as well it really forms part of a broader national pattern. This is all terribly flattering to the governing Partido Popular, some polls have even suggested the extraordinary outcome of the PP becoming the second biggest party in a region where its supporters have occasionally been able to fit in the largest model in the SEAT range. 

As in Galicia, where the PP lost a significant number of votes but won a larger majority on a smaller share, the collapse in the socialist vote makes the PP look stronger because of their ability to mobilise more of their core vote. For the other parties it looks like there will be some revival for Esquerra Republicana (ERC), who have resolved their attempts to combine left wing and nationalist politics in a faintly ridiculous way; they now consider themselves to be left wing in the national parliament and nationalist when playing at home. Another beneficiary of disenchanted left wing votes could be Iniciativa per Catalunya, although much of the traditional socialist vote looks destined for abstention The results, as usual, will not be known before 20:00 Madrid time. The results widget, courtesy of El País.

Despite All The Noise They're Closer Than You Think

The latter stages of the campaign for tomorrow's Catalan regional elections haven't just been about the cynical attempts by Artur Mas to convert nationalist sentiment into an overall majority for his party, Convergència i Unió (CiU). Corruption has become one of the main issues following a report by El Mundo claiming that senior figures in CiU have millions of euros carefully stashed away in Swiss bank accounts. Mas and CiU have continued to play the nationalist card by claiming that any such reports are just the evil work of Madrid based Spanish centralists. 

Now my views on El Mundo's journalistic standards have, I think, been fairly clearly expressed in my blogging over the last few years. The paper has a long history of manipulating information and sources, so it should always be a standard procedure to try and get hold of the original documentation. Yesterday, in the case of the corruption allegations we got that opportunity as a police union released the document which El Mundo used for its story. In reality, the issue of the Swiss accounts is not the core of the document, which is more about the scandal surrounding Barcelona's Palau de la Música Catalana. 

Lovely building the Palau, I went to a concert there a few months ago. Not so lovely is the the way in which the rehabilitation of the historic building was used as the cover for a massive corruption scandal which goes to the heart of the Catalan political establishment. The case concerns the paying of huge commissions by major companies in return for public contracts, with the governing bodies of the Palau being used to distribute the proceeds between individuals and organisations closely linked to CiU. El Mundo's document casts little new light on the case, but as a description of the scale of the corruption involved it's really quite useful. 

Interestingly, it turns out that it's not just CiU that is affected by the scandal. The document mentions an allegation that El Mundo, unsurprisingly given its political orientation, didn't seem to find very interesting. The claim cited by the document is that José Maria Aznar's political foundation, the FAES, also received a handsome commission via those accused of ripping off the huge sums of money involved. Surely there would be no collusion between the dominant party of Catalan nationalism and Madrid's right wingers, supposedly so bitterly opposed to each other? Well it seems that one of those accused in the Palau case, Felix Millet, was also a prominent member of the Catalan branch of the FAES. By one of those uncanny coincidences that life throws up, Aznar's administration made a generous contribution to the (by now) incredibly expensive job of restoring the Palau. 

The Palau case is not unique by any means, it's remarkably close to that pattern of corruption that is still emerging in Partido Popular ruled areas like the Balearics, Valencia and Madrid. Public money is ransacked via commissions and phony billing with part of the money being diverted to the illegal financing of political parties. The only 'fiscal deficit' we're talking about here is the millions these people have managed to extract from public funds. Nevertheless, it's clear that Cataluña is more than capable of supporting its own local kleptocracy without any help from the rest of Spain. It's going to take an awful lot of flag waving to get rid of the stench.

With all the noise of the election campaign, it's easy to forget that CiU and the PP have had a pact for the last year, with the Catalan nationalists showing enthusiasm for some of Rajoy's failed economic recipes in return for the PP propping up the minority administration run by Mas. The collaboration isn't finished either. Yesterday the Spanish governnment pardoned, for the second time, members of the Mossos d'Esquadra who had been convicted of torture. Yes. Torture. This pardon, along with that of a corrupt CiU politician a few months ago, is part of the pact between the two parties. Now the same officers will be free to torture other citizens. I would nominate them for the job of waving the Catalan flag from the police helicopter on the next Diada march in September 2013. I'm reliably informed such gestures go down very well. That is, if they're not too busy dealing with the pesky opposition. 

I was reading last week an extract from Aznar's forthcoming memoirs. It's a tedious and difficult task, but somebody has to do it - I mean, you're not going to buy this stuff? In the midst of all the vainglorious grandstanding about how Aznar made Spain the greatest nation the world has ever seen, there was some interesting detail about how he worked hard to get CiU to join his government, even when the PP had an overall majority. You see, they had quite a lot in common. They still do, it's a shame that so many will need to have Catalan independence before being prepared to deal with that.

Police Violence The Response To Peaceful Protests In Barcelona

I was planning to post what would have been an almost routine update on the protest camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, but events have intervened. In Barcelona the authorities have launched an operation this morning to clear the camp in the city's Plaça de Catalunya. The pretext for the operation has been cleanliness and hygiene, but what we have seen over the last couple of hours live on Spanish TV have been been scenes of extraordinary and unprovoked police violence against peaceful demonstrators. This is a taste of what has happened this morning.

Antena 3 has interrupted it's normally bland and awful morning programming to cover more than any other channel the police charges. We've seen people being repeatedly struck with batons, being kicked by police whilst lying on the ground and many other incidents of violence from the police. The only hygiene that is missing here is democratic, in any truly free society many of the police in action this morning would be facing prison for their actions. Their bosses too. Following an interview with the police chief of Barcelona where he attempted to deny shocking scenes that viewers were seeing with their own eyes, the police tried to move journalists away from the scene. There have even been reports of volleys of shots being fired in the air. All this just so that lorries could carry away the contents of the camp, including the personal belongings of those who were there.

We now wait to see the response to this operation, it should backfire against the authorities. A camp in Lleida was also cleared this morning, although it seems to have happened without the appalling violence of Barcelona. Today at 19:00 protests have already been called in all the squares to protest this morning's events and the Plaça de Catalunya is now surrounded by demonstrators. There was a reasonable chance that the camps in many Spanish cities would have voluntarily brought their protest to a peaceful conclusion in the next few days, with the campaign adopting new tactics. The brutal crackdown this morning could now change that, just as the police eviction last week in Madrid brought more people out onto the streets.

In Madrid over the last couple of days I've noticed an increasing police presence in the Puerta del Sol. Until a few days ago there was just a row of police vans in front of Casa Espe, the headquarters of the regional government. The truth was that these police had nothing to do, no role to play. The camp in Madrid has been extremely peaceful and self-policing. Two days ago I noticed that there were now police stationed on every corner of the streets leading into the Puerta del Sol. Last night there were police vans in these positions too. It's as if they are slowly taking a tighter grip on the square. The shameful brutality of Barcelona's police this morning has now changed the outcome. The police don't create problems, they solve them was what interior minister Rubalcaba told us the other day. Doesn't look that way to me.

The El Mundo Journalism Masterclass

Imagine that you go to a football match. There are lots of people there and, who knows, perhaps 60-70 metres away from where you are sitting someone unfurls a banner or holds a placard supporting a political cause. Then a photographer takes a picture of the said placard which captures you along with many other people far away in the background. You might be under the impression that this does not associate you directly with the cause in question. You are wrong to think that, because you have not counted with the journalistic ethics of El Mundo and their ability to draw a circle around your head. Today's front page from El Mundo - how to construct an eye catching headline out of nothing.

I don't have any special affection for Cataluña's new president, Artur Mas, but El Mundo's crude manipulation is just pathetic. Since we're talking about media coverage and El Mundo have already introduced the Basque theme let's give Público a slap on the wrist as well. Their piece on the Wall Street Journal publishing comments by Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi is just stupid. Based around the common idea in Spain that the role of journalists in press coverage of terrorism is to instruct people on what they should think, the Público piece looks for  a way to take Murdoch's empire to task for, in their words in the paper edition, being a "loudspeaker" for ETA. 

Things get really silly because they try to hang the accusation on the association between the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, and José Maria Aznar. As if this really has anything to do with foreign media giving coverage to what may, after all, be interesting developments concerning ETA's future. There's a bit too much obsession with Murdoch sometimes in Spain with people fearing that the Aznar link was the prelude to him entering Spain's media market. Where Murdoch would possibility find a market opportunity in a country which already has so much flaky right-wing media is an open question.

Catalan Election Results 2010

I'm using the widget designed by El País to display the results of tomorrow's elections in Cataluña. It is almost universally expected that the winner of the election will be Convergència i Unió (CiU), if they win they will return to power for the first time in 8 years. This follows two terms of the Tripartit coalition involving the PSC (Catalan section of the PSOE), Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and Iniciativa per Catalunya (ICV).

None of the Tripartit parties are expected to do very well compared to previous results, the PSC is suffering from the decline in support for the PSOE at national level as well as some disillusionment with what has been seen as the uninspiring leadership of Jose Montilla. ERC are also predicted to do very badly, they tried an unhappy balancing act between their nationalist aspirations and an alliance with non-nationalist parties. In the process their hopes of challenging CiU's supremacy in the nationalist vote have been dashed.

There will be some interest to see how well the new pro-independence platform headed by former Barcelona FC president Joan Laporta does. I don't like Laporta, not because he's pro-independence, but just because I suspect he is an unprincipled opportunist. I'm also glad if the attempt to use Barça's success on the field as a launching pad for a political career doesn't work - we get too much bread and circus style politics as it is.

The campaign has not been terribly gripping, the tension in the result will be over whether CiU can get a majority, and if not who they will negotiate with to be able to govern. Potential allies include the Partido Popular, who have run a nasty openly racist campaign in what may be an ugly sign of things to come when we get more elections in Spain next year. If such an agreement takes place nobody should be too surprised, nationalist issues apart CiU and the PP could find room for agreement on many issues.

Tom over at the thebadrash.com has done a more detailed analysis of the different parties standing. The results start coming in after 20:00 p.m. tomorrow, in the meantime the widget displays what happened last time around in 2006.

Serious Bullshit Alert

Much of central and southern Spain will be on brown alert tomorrow as torrential bullshit is predicted following today's vote in the Catalan parliament to ban bullfighting. The highest levels of bullshit are predicted for Madrid, particularly in the areas around the offices of ABC, La Razón and El Mundo. Such high levels will be provoked by repeated attempts to associate the bullfighting ban with Catalan nationalism. Smaller, but still dangerous, waves of bullshit will also emanate from TeleMadrid and the Cope radio station. It is not expected that the recent decision by Madrid's regional parliament to accept for debate a similar Iniciativa Popular against the blood sport will have any significant effect on the levels of bullshit generated. The worst should be over by Friday but the brown alert will not be officially lifted until August begins and everyone goes on holiday.

Everybody Wants A Piece Of The Estatut

José Montilla, the Catalan president, was in Madrid yesterday for talks with José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero about the Catalan autonomy Estatut. This follows the recent, and long awaited, sentence from the Constitutional Court which declared a number of clauses in the Estatut to be unconstitutional. We have to assume that the two men talked yesterday about this subject, because the vagueness of the outcome suggests that it's equally possible that they discussed the weather, holiday plans or the World Cup.

The sentence delivered by the Constitutional Court after an inexcusable delay and numerous political manoeuvres, was more lenient with the Estatut than we had been led to believe it would be. This was essentially because the judges who opposed some or all of the statute couldn't reach agreement amongst themselves on where to draw the line. In the end it came down to clause by clause votes. The original appeal to the court by the Partido Popular challenged the constitutional validity of over a hundred clauses, including many that have been supported by the same party in other regions. The verdict only accepted around 10% of these challenges, and leaves most of the, already implemented, Estatut largely untouched.

You wouldn't think that this was the case judging by the political reaction from Cataluña, but the region is already in an unofficial electoral campaign with elections to be held later this year. This has meant that all of those in the political spectrum from parties that support the Estatut to those that want outright independence have been competing to make the most noise over the court's verdict. Only the PP has expressed quiet satisfaction, despite only getting a fraction of what they had contested. As things stand at the moment the PP doesn't want to provoke a nationalist reaction in Cataluña because they see a potential agreement with the conservative nationalists of CiU as the key to eventually bringing down Zapatero's government. Down in Valencia, Francisco Camps moved quickly to activate a clause in his own Estatut that enables Valencia to claim any powers granted to other regions. Naturally the Molt Honorable would want a finely cut, made to measure, Estatut of his own. The national PP moved equally quickly for once to put an end to that aspiration, which would have undercut their arguments at a stroke.

Neither the Catalan socialists (PSC) or CiU are likely to be that upset either by the verdict, at least privately. The absence of a Consejo de Justicia for Cataluña is not the worst disaster in the world, except for the 'amics' of those in power who would have got some cozy, well paid positions out of it. Only the pressure of the elections has forced them to compete to outdo each other in condemning the interference of the Constitutional Court. That explains Montilla's visit to Madrid yesterday, he wants some gesture from the national government to demonstrate to the electorate that he can obtain things that CiU are not able to get. It also explains the presence of both parties in the demonstration held in Barcelona to protest at the verdict.

The electoral jostling also affects those who were never that keen on the Estatut anyway. Esquerra Republicana is seeking to preserve what it can of its electoral base, under pressure from CiU and also from the threat of a new pro-independence platform which may or may not involve Joan Laporta, now ex-president of Barcelona football club and badly in need of a new power base. In some ways it's quite funny to see those who dismissed the Estatut as irrelevant, protesting against a relatively minor cutback in the document. Obviously there is the question of rejecting any interference at all by the institutions of the Spanish state, but to act as if the Estatut has been butchered is not coherent with the opinions they previously expressed about it.

This all leads to the argument that it's impossible to get any reasonable degree of autonomy within the confines of the Spanish state, an argument largely advanced by those who have never believed otherwise. Despite all the politics, there is a serious issue in the background concerning the Constitutional Court's decision. The question is whether the verdict has really drawn the limits of autonomy in Spain. I would argue that it hasn't, the purely political nature of the deliberations and the absence of any consistent constitutional doctrine after so many years means that the solution that dare not speak its name - federalism - is not as dead as some would have us believe. Things could of course swing in either direction as the Constitutional Court depends fundamentally on the balance of power between the two major national parties. Nevertheless, the Estatut is in place and even those who toured the country for months collecting signatures against are now likely to accept it.

Mediterranean Walks....The Cami De Ronda

I've done some great walking this year in different areas of the Spanish Mediterranean, so I'm going to group them together into a mini series of posts. We start with a weekend spent in Girona in March. The walking was really just an add-on to our annual calçotada excursion at this time of year, although this time the destination was not Tarragona. On the first day we did part of the Cami de Ronda, a coastal path that was created originally for control of the coast by the Guardia Civil.

The section we did, between the beach at Castell and Calella de Palafrugell, is beautiful. At times you walk along the beaches, at other times along the cliffs. Although the Costa Brava has something of a reputation for having been badly hit by ugly tourist developments, there are sections that are really quite well preserved in comparison with other parts of Spain's coastline. Even the part of the route that passes through built up areas is still an enjoyable walk. We stopped in Calella for lunch on the beach, it wasn't hot but it was warm enough. You have to bear in mind that this was just 36 hours before the great snowstorm that hit Girona and later Barcelona.

On the way back to our starting point we stopped off at the Barraca d'en Dalí, a hut used by the painter. Of course, this being Dalí, you wouldn't expect everything about the building to be completely normal.

After the walk we also stopped off briefly in the beautiful village of Pals, with views all the way to the Pyrenees, and to the coast.

Having overdone it with the calçots on the first night we needed to do a walk on day 2 that would create an appetite for the paella that would then in turn be justified by the exertion of the walk; if you see what I mean. The circular route starts in the centre of Tossa de Mar and ascends up to the peak of Puig de Cadiretes. Although it's quite a climb the route is very easy, because it follows dirt forest tracks and only the last part to the peak is a narrower path. This makes it quite possible to do in a morning, arriving back in Tossa conveniently enough for lunch.

No photos of the route itself, it wasn't a very clear day although there were still no signs of what was to come that night; it was far from cold. The views from the top of the peak are impressive. Tossa itself has a well preserved old quarter just above the beach as well as plenty of places to eat.

Two maps, one for each route, as Google Maps seems to have changed its behaviour by slicing routes up into segments and paging the results. Maybe I will find a way around this but for the moment each route gets displayed separately.

View Mediterranean Walks in Spain in a larger map

View Mediterranean Walks in Spain in a larger map

Intereconomía And Sexual Education....Part 2

Having previously delivered such a thoughtful and insightful argument against condom use in Africa, the ultra rightwing digital TV channel Intereconomía has now turned its attention closer to home. Marvel at the cultured, mature and educated way in which they discuss the issue of sexual education in Cataluña, and the always respectful manner shown towards Marina Geli, responsible for health service provision in that region.

Racism Takes Centre Stage In The Catalan Campaign

There are already some clear signs that racism will be part of the campaign in the Catalan elections to be held later this year. The most notorious example came in Badalona, where the Partido Popular distributed a nasty anti-Romanian leaflet. That the PP councillor behind this racist crap turned out to have a Romanian babysitter for his children should come as no surprise. It fits neatly into the "I don't think there should be so many of them here and what's more my Polish/Bulgarian/Romanian woman doesn't clean my house properly" kind of discourse.

It's not just about the PP either, because sadly we still haven't seen the end of the saga over the attempts in the town of Vic to exclude immigrants without papers from the municipal census. Although it appeared that Vic had fallen into line after the government told them that they couldn't do this, a statement from a European Union commissioner criticising Spain's policy led to Vic adopting a new measure. They threatened to report any illegal immigrant trying to register to the authorities. The intention is less one of upholding the law, it's much more about deterring immigrants from registering.

Vic has now been joined in this policy by another municipality, Sant Andreu de Llavaneres. This latter case gives the game away, it's a wealthy place with a low percentage of immigrants and where many of those from outside come from the European Union anyway. Despite this the PP and the conservative nationalists of Convergència i Unió have united to remind any illegal immigrants in the area that they are just there to tend the gardens of the richer inhabitants.

This kind of behaviour is nothing to do particularly with Cataluña, as I'm sure we'll find out next year when more regional elections are due to be held in Spain. It's just that the PP does so badly there that there is little they will stop at in return for a handful of votes. It's an ugly warning signal given that there has still been relatively little backlash against immigrants during the crisis. Anyone who has seen the dismal portrayal of immigration as only being a problem in the UK election debates will be aware of what some will try to do here.

Barcelona In The Snow

"It's only a bit of rain", I thought, as I left my hotel in Barcelona yesterday morning. Anyway I had things to do in places where there was a bit of shelter, and I headed for the newly reopened Fundació Antoni Tàpies. That was my first mistake, I'd left until Monday what I should have done on Friday before going to Girona; Monday is everything is closed day for museums in Spain.

The rain turned to sleet as I arrived in the old part of town. "It's the brilliance of the light that makes the difference on the Mediterranean", I said to myself in an attempt to keep my spirits up. Those who were marching to mark International Women's Day also needed something to lift their spirits. I suspect the weather did little for the turnout.

After a while I was really just killing time before I could get inside for my menú del día. Unfortunately, the waiters in the restaurant were very efficient and I was back on the street an hour later. Things were not improving in downtown Barcelona.

Forced by the weight of circumstances to take refuge in a nearby pub, I could see the snow getting heavier outside. The passing umbrellas already carried a layer of the white stuff. Now I had a problem, the worst of the weather hit just as I needed to go to Sants station for my train back to Madrid. I had no choice, and as I went back to the hotel to collect my bag the ground was covered in slushy snow. I stopped briefly to record the scene in the Plaça de Catalunya.

Many visitors to Barcelona can't resist the temptation to stop for a refreshing drink in one of the numerous terrazas scattered around the city.

I decided to walk from my hotel to Sants. What the hell, I was already wet and I wasn't sure where the nearest metro station was. A taxi was just an impossible dream in these circumstances and there was very little traffic of any kind on the streets, even though this would normally be rush hour in the always busy city.

The walk to Sants was not easy, I seemed to be heading always with my face towards the wind and snow. The pavements in Barcelona don't seem to drain very well, and the half-melted slush just sat there surrounded by puddles of water. It was bitterly cold, wet and unpleasant. Then came the first crack of thunder. I've never been in a snow thunderstorm before. I stopped in front of Sants for one last photo of the snow. Moscow or Barcelona?

Inside the station there were crowds of people, and I was relieved to see that the entrance to the AVE area for the trains to Madrid was still open. Most of the local services seemed to be suspended, with grim warnings on the information screens that no alternative forms of transport were available. As we waited to board the train there seemed to be a lot of coming and going on the other side of the barrier. It got nearer to departure time and they started to check our tickets, but still we couldn't go through. A man I took to be the boss paced up and down talking into his mobile phone. Either he was worried about the train or trying to organise a weekend skiing in the Pyrenees. I couldn't tell, but he didn't look happy.

Suddenly we were allowed through the barrier and I was relieved when the train started moving, taking me swiftly back to the relative security of the drier meseta. For the first 15 minutes or so the carriage filled with the sound of 20 simultaneous phone conversations as everyone wanted to tell of their adventures in the great snowstorm. "They say it hasn't snowed like this in Barcelona since the last ice age" more or less sums up the theme of many of these conversations. I think about what a nice weekend we spent in Girona, and how bad it could have been.

Aguirre, The Matador's Friend

As the Catalan parliament was busy debating bullfighting this week, Esperanza Aguirre couldn't resist making a special contribution to the debate. She announced on Thursday that the bloodsport is to receive special protection in Madrid as a Bien de Interés Cultural, a status normally only awarded to physical buildings or landscapes. Of course this was Aguirre making her bid for the headlines as the right wing media in Spain raged about the evil Catalan threat to the "fiesta nacional". Espe spent most of the day being photographed in a series of bullfighting poses and she got her reward; pictures on the front pages of the three major right wing Spanish papers. For a person who finds the restricting role of governing Madrid so terribly dreary it's very hard for her to avoid the temptation to upstage the rest of her party in this way and the move came just a day after she told her regional party to get into electioneering mood. Not to worry, there's only another 15 months of this kind of campaigning ahead of us, who says sport and politics don't mix?

Meanwhile the appearances of pro and anti bullfighting witnesses in the Catalan parliament have been quite interesting and in many ways a model of how to deal with such issues. The bullfighting lobby has been working hard but in the end their arguments come down to liberty (obviously not for the bull), tradition (anyone for a stoning?) and unconvincing attempts to minimise the suffering of the animals. What makes the debate special is that there is very little outside intervention involved, a sign of how attitudes towards bullfighting have changed here over the years. The sport is gradually declining, despite very significant public subsidy, and those against it are not just to be found in Cataluña. Its future in that region now seems to depend on the nationalists of Convergencia i Unió, as the rest of the parties have lined up their votes on either side. CiU has so far allowed its members a free vote on the issue.

Vic Changes Course, Torrejón Still Discriminates

The administration of the town of Vic has announced that they are withdrawing the plan to deny illegal immigrants the right to register as residents on the local padrón. This turnaround has been a result of the massive media attention, the government making it clear that such a policy is not legal, and the pressure put on some of the local councillors by their party leaderships. It has been a depressing episode which has focused huge attention on a supposed "problem" of illegal immigrants precisely at the time when there are fewer arriving in Spain than at any time in years. The whole affair shows that race and immigration don't necessarily become hot political issues because of public concern, illegal immigrants instead make a handy scapegoat for opportunist politicians. The PP's candidate for the elections later this year in Cataluña has quickly made it clear that she intends to use race in an attempt to improve the PP's miserable electoral performance in the region whilst the nationalists of CiU compete with their own proposal to award points for integration. Meanwhile the PP at national level has revived their idea of an integration "contract" that they tried to use to electoral benefit in the last general election.

The change of policy in Vic is not the end of the matter, the town of Torrejón de Ardoz near Madrid maintains their own policy that directly discriminates against immigrants. The insistence by Torrejón's administration that their measure is only aimed at those with tourist visas borders on mendacity. Some people may imagine that the majority of illegal immigrants in Spain have arrived on boats crossing from Africa, but the reality is that far more will have turned up at Barajas airport in Madrid, entering as tourists because no "illegal immigrant" visa exists. Someone who is here as a genuine tourist is unlikely to waste their holiday standing in a queue at the local ayuntamiento. Torrejón has also been using the amount of square metres occupied by each person as a criteria for refusing registration, a policy which it seems was not applied before to Spanish residents but which if it were to be applied generally would count as a direct attack on the poor of all nationalities. It doesn't help the PP's lies in the case of Torrejón that the local party has issued propaganda boasting about how their measures have reduced the number of immigrants living in the town. By displacing them to neighbouring municipalities of course.

José Maria Aznar was sounding off in typical fashion in an interview this morning blaming Zapatero's government for an imagined policy of "papeles para todos" for the problem. In fact the current regulations concerning access to the padrón were drawn up by a certain M. Rajoy who was serving at the time as the minister of public administration in a government led by one J.M. Aznar. It has nothing to do with the regularisation of illegal immigrants carried out by Zapatero's administration. The latter measure was one of the best things that Zapatero's government has done, it gave contracts and rights to hundreds of thousands of illegals whilst ensuring in the process a very healthy boost to the social security fund. Obviously many of the PP's supporters preferred to have a huge source of cheap, insecure labour in the form of the illegal immigrants; a situation that Aznar's administration happily tolerated. Places like Vic, and Almeria where there have also been complaints about immigrants having rights, have done extremely well from the labour of illegal immigrants. If there is any problem with payment for provision of local services then maybe those who pocketed the profits should be asked to make a contribution?

Vic Sets An Ugly Precedent

The decision by the town of Vic not to permit immigrants without residence papers to enrol on the municipal padrón (list of residents) has provoked a strong protest. The national government insists that the policy is illegal, as all residents have the obligation to be on the padrón regardless of their legal status. It's not just about being on a list, the ability to register also affects access to basic public services. Vic is the political base of an openly xenophobic political movement called Plataforma per Catalunya, but sadly it is not this party which is responsible for the new policy. The town is run by a coalition between Convergencia i Unio, Esquerra Republicana and the Catalan wing of the PSOE (PSC).

The leader of Plataforma per Catalunya, Josep Anglada, is unsurprisingly delighted with the decision which plays directly into the hands of the anti-immigrant party and simply feeds the myth that immigrants do better out of public services than the local population. Now the racists can present themselves as having been vindicated. Meanwhile both Esquerra and the PSC are putting pressure on their local councillors to backtrack on the decision. Vic is probably not alone, as reports start to surface of other municipalities that have more quietly tightened their own requirements.

Three Routes In Aigüestortes

Way back in September, as a test to see whether I might survive our trip to Nepal, we spent a weekend walking in the national park of Aigüestortes. It's a long trip by road from Madrid to this park in the Catalan Pyrenees, and I think if we decide to do it again we will take the train to Lleida and make our way up from that city. The weather forecast for the weekend we went was gloomy, almost bad enough for us to think twice about making the journey. In the end things weren't that terrible and we missed the worst of the weather.

Our base for the weekend was the small village of Esterri D'Aneu, which lies a few kilometres away from the main entrance to the national park. On the first day we did a route from the park entrance near Espot to the Portarró D'Espot. This is where many of the routes in the park begin from. You cannot take private vehicles beyond the entry barrier, but the gentle walk up to the popular Estany Sant Maurici is worth doing anyway. Because it had been raining recently the woods on either side of the path were full of wild mushrooms, more than I have seen anywhere else.

From Sant Maurici the path to Portarró takes you past the small refuge of Ernest Mallafre and then starts to climb more sharply taking you above the lake. The paths in Aigüestortes, at least the ones that we took, are in excellent condition and there are signposts to guide walkers in the right direction.

As we got higher up we found out just how bad the weather had been the day before, we were walking on fresh snow. Officially we were still (just) in summer when we did this walk but the conditions suggested otherwise.

At the top we attempted to find a way up the peak beside the path but gave up as the snow hid the path and the views down the other side from the ridge were already spectacular enough.

In theory it's possible to do a circular route that continues over the other side of the Portarró but somehow we missed the path that takes you back to Sant Maurici and gave up after half an hour, returning the same way we had come. This is a medium level route, around 16 kilometres and with an ascent of about 800 metres.

On day two we did another route from the same start point at the park entrance up to the Puerto de Ratera. This means repeating the stretch to Sant Maurici but from there you can follow a path that goes up to a nearby waterfall and then continue beyond this up to the Estany de Ratera. From this point onwards the path rises through some typical rocky Pyrenean scenery to the ridge. The views of the route behind us were beautiful, ahead of us was a wall of cloud and it was cold at the top.

To take the route back you need to retrace your steps from the ridge of La Ratera and take a signposted path which leads down to the refuge of Amitges. This is a proper mountain refuge providing food and accommodation for those who need it. For us it was a handy place to stop to avoid the rain that had started to fall. From this point we improvised a route back to Sant Maurici by taking a path that runs from the dam just opposite the refuge. It's just about possible to follow a path of sorts, but occasionally this way involves going over some rough terrain and the easier alternative is to follow the main path down from the refuge. This route is a bit longer and more difficult than the ascent to Portarró but not significantly so.

On our last day we went to the northern tip of Aigüestortes along the road that leads to Vielha. We did a short route here as we had the long journey back to Madrid ahead of us, but the walk up to the Estany de Gerber is definitely worth it. Nobody else was walking this route on a quiet Monday morning and the surroundings were fantastic.

I passed the fitness test, so I could go to Nepal. This is the map of the routes we did.

View Walking Routes in Aigüestortes in a larger map

Who Will Put An End To This Treason?

It's not enough that the Catalans organise votes on independence without asking permission, now they are even considering the prohibition of bullfighting! It's possible that the acceptance yesterday by the Catalan parliament of a popular initiative to put an end to the bloodsport has caused even more heart problems in the higher barrios of Madrid than last week's independence 'consultations'. "La fiesta nacional" is under threat, and the right-wing consensus seems to be that they are only doing it to provoke Spain, El Mundo claimed on its front page this morning that the purpose of the vote was to distance Cataluña from the rest of the country.

Yesterday's vote was actually quite close, and was just a preliminary to the main vote which will take place in a few months time. The bull fighting industry is preparing itself for battle, despite all the rhetoric about the Catalans the reality is that the sport faces growing opposition in many parts of the country, and home grown opposition to it has grown significantly in the last few years. It moves a lot of money, and attracts a lot of spending from municipalities for their annual fiestas, but for many younger Spaniards it is a relic from another age and what probably worries the industry most is the risk of contagion if Cataluña sets the example. Nobody should imagine bullfighting is about to disappear, but we could be witnessing the first clear signals of decline.

The Never Ending Story Of The Catalan Estatut

There's no escape from the Estatut, Cataluña's now not very new at all autonomy statute. The deliberations by Spain's Constitutional Court concerning the Estatut have dragged on for years, assuming of course that there is any deliberating taking place at all! It now seems amazing that I ever imagined the verdict might be delivered before the last general election. The case for the Estatut being unconstitutional was originally presented by the Partido Popular, one of many attempts by that party to obtain results from the tribunal that they could not get via elections or parliamentary votes. The statute was approved by both the Catalan and national parliaments, as well as by a referendum in Cataluña.

The reason for the delay in the verdict, if we are to believe the reports in the press, is because the court is completely divided over what to do about the Estatut. It is claimed that there is a majority against allowing the Estatut through with only minor modifications, but that does not seem to mean that this majority can reach agreement on what should be done. Frustration over this delay is increasing and last week 12 Catalan newspapers published a joint editorial protesting about the situation. This in turn provoked protests from the right about illegitimate pressure being placed on the Constitutional Court, even though the newspaper editorial is nothing more than a legitimate expression of opinion. The PP know all about applying pressure on the judges, they have made multiple attempts to exclude those judges whose opinions might not coincide with their own on the issue. Their proposed replacements for those whose term has expired are loyal conservative hardliners.

The main issues on which the court has been unable to reach a verdict seem to be those which suggest that Cataluña has an identity as a nation, a concept which is of course anathema to Spanish nationalists, but it is arguable whether it is anti-constitutional. There were attempts to avoid this kind of challenge, for example the preamble to the Estatut simply records the fact that the Catalan parliament voted on the issue of the national status of the region. In many ways the parts of the statute that attract the most attention are not the most important in terms of powers for the regional government, but they are the ones that have the most symbolic value on both sides of the argument.

Anyone who wants to pretend that the process of deciding the Estatut's constitutional status is not deeply political is welcome to believe anything they like, but the court is essentially a creature of the two main national political parties; the PP and the PSOE. The current division within its ranks is a faithful reflection of the fault line over regional autonomy in national politics, that line runs through the PSOE rather than in between the two parties. It is the reported defection of a PSOE nominee to the conservative side on key issues that is said to have blocked the court's verdict. The longer they take to make their minds up the less credible the result is going to be and it is not just Catalan nationalists who are questioning whether this is really a good way of doing things. Sometimes you have to wonder whether it's a good idea to have a written constitution at all, never mind a court supposedly there to enforce it. Perhaps the solution might be to impose a sanction of "administrative silence", meaning that if they fail to pronounce on a law within a certain period it automatically becomes constitutional. Then maybe we can all leave Groundhog Day.

Back in Cataluña the newspaper editorial has raised the political temperature. It is unlikely that the entire population is as concerned about the issue of the Estatut as that editorial would have us believe. Perhaps readers who live there can tell me if I'm wrong about this, but I suspect it is an issue of far greater importance to the political and media elite than to the population in general, most of whom probably don't include choosing their favourite article from the Estatut amongst their party games. This is not to say that a decision to declare large parts of the statute unconstitutional won't be seen as an affront by many people in Cataluña, a bit of perceived interference from Madrid is never going to go down well even if Barça do keep beating Real Madrid. If an unfavourable verdict emerges before the planned votes on independence that will take place in many municipalities later this month then things could get very interesting. Although the way things are going that seems like a wildly optimistic time frame.

Meanwhile, the PP is keeping a low profile on the issue. Mariano Rajoy knows that his party is unlikely to win more votes in the region but what he really wants to do is to demobilise the anti-PP vote which means that the gap between PSOE and PP in Cataluña more or less accounts for the difference between the two parties at national level. The PSC, local wing of the PSOE, has reason to be worried about the whole affair and there are already noises being made stressing their autonomy from the national party. It may not help that they seem unable to make their mind up about the independence "consultations", and elections are due to be held in Cataluña next year. Anyway, let's finish with some Estatut humour. It's a mixture of Catalan and Castellano, but anyone familiar with A Night At The Opera should understand it regardless of their language abilities.

The Caganers I Want For Christmas

I have to admit, living far away from Cataluña as I do, that I hadn't come across the concept of the caganer until I saw this article in El País. Now I'm sold on the idea and the fact that these particular models are going to be on sale this year in Madrid means that I already have a Christmas present sorted out...for myself.