Northern Catalan elections: two lists over, one follows

As it was explained recently the French regional elections took place last March 14th. The most important thing is that the turnout was extremely low. The abstention was almost 53 %. Two of the lists with Catalanist candidates are now over because it is necessary to obtain a 10 % to be in the second round.

The results were not good for the Catalanists lists and only Unitat Catalana allied with the Sarkozy prime minister party (UMP) is able to be in the second round. ERC and Europe Ecology obtained more than 10 % in the northern Catalan main city, Perpinyà, but their results in the Occitan region were lightly bad. CDC and the Socialist Party scored a 7 % so are also eliminated.

Only three lists will be in the second round. A list formed by socialists local dissidents, the UMP list supported by Unitat Catalana and the National Front list. Full results for the Catalan region (which includes an Occitan county too called Fenolleda) were.

Socialist dissidents:               30 %
UMP(with Unitat Catalana): 22,9 %
French National Front :        13,6 %

Communists:                        8,8 %
Greens (with ERC):             8,6 %
Socialists (with CDC):         7 %
Right ecologists:                  4,7 %
Right dissidents:                  1,2 %
Trostkists:                           1 %
Far right dissidents:             0,8 %
Ligue du Midi:                    0,5 %

“NY Times” explains why Catalan should be in cinema too

A recent article in “The New York Times” explains the reasons why Catalan language should be in the Catalan cinemas too. Nowadays only 3 % of the movies are doubled in Catalan; the rest are only in Spanish. The article says that Catalan language “is heard just about everywhere except in the movies” and defines the language as the “Catalonian soul”. Spain’s obsession to wound the language is explained too when a Catalan minister explains that, when serving the army, “he spent three days in solitary confinement after officers overheard him speaking Catalan”. It shows, as well, as Catalan and Spanish relations are worst anytime: Catalonia’s Federation of Audiovisual Producers, for instance, last year broke away from Spain’s state organization.

In spite of all of this, Emma Collective has expressed their concern about some aspects of the article in a very interesting note where they say that:” a deep aversion to everything Catalan is still common in Spanish official circles, especially among the military and the police. The case of the young conscript who was arrested in 1977 for speaking in Catalan with his comrades is not a thing of the past. Most recently, Mr Alexander Alland, a former anthropology professor at Columbia who has a good knowledge of the situation in Catalonia, brought to the attention of the New York Times, among others, the case of a young mother who was held by the police at Girona Airport and then charged with disrespect for the authorities because she had addressed the agents in Catalan. This was in 2009” .

Northern Catalonia elections

On March 14th will be held the French regional elections. A portion of Catalonia is under French administration since 1.659 when it was conquered by French armies. Nowadays this region, called Northern Catalonia, is part of a French region called Langedoc-Roussillon. This is mainly Occitan speaking and only one fifth of the region is Catalan.

Under this scenario Catalan parties are unable to stand up a electoral proposal by themselves. This elections the Catalan parties have decided to present themselves separated but in coalition with other parties. These are the options:

- Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Catalonia’s Republican Left) is member of a nationalist and autonomist parties alliance at state level. It is called Régions et Peuples Solidarires (RPS). RPS has decided to form a coalition with the Green list, Europe Ecology. This list obtained a strong results in the last European elections. The catalanist candidate is a well-known journalist, Pere Manzanares, who promoted the first radio in Catalan language three decades ago.
- Unitat Catalana (Catalan Unity) is the only party with no counterpart in the Spanish territory. They formed a symbolical coalition with Occitan nationalists (Partit de la Nacion Occitana) but finally they broke it. Some weeks ago they were included in the UMP list. UMP is the party of the French Republic president Nicolas Sarkozy. Virginia Barre is well situated to obtain representation.

- Convergence Démocratique de Catalogne (CDC) was the last to form an alliance. CDC is a RPS member but was no satisfied with the candidates process. So they broke the alliance with EE and they formed a new one with the Socialist Party. This is the biggest French opposition party. Four CDC members are included in the PS list among them the party’s leader Jordi Vera.
Other minor movements, Reagrupament and Maulets have decided not to be present in the regional elections. The first one will send a letter to the candidates asking by their compromises to defend the Catalan identitiy. Reagrupament and Maulets are hard-core independentists as well as ERC. Unitat Catalana and CDC demand a Catalan French region with autonomous powers.

First ever Catalan independentist meeting in unity

On March 3rd the Catalan separatism won a landmark. In Sabadell was performed a meeting clearly derived from the unitary experience of the popular consultation on independence. Vilaweb collected it fully in a video and made a summary too. It was also screened a short film of what could be an independent Catalonia.


Curtmetratge Acte d'Estat (Sabadell, 03/03/2010) from directe!cat on Vimeo.


The meeting was organized by the campaign "I am Catalan, I love freedom" and brought together a 1,100 people crowd paying all these post. It was worth it. Was not important but the number of attendees who spoke of the origin.

Joel Joan represented the platform Progress and Sovereignty and the new civic separatism appeared a few years ago. He said “We can be an state!”. Josep Guia independentism PSAN and historical vision of València. He remembered so many Catalans from València who gave brilliant moments to our culture. Writers as Isabel Clara Simó or Ausiàs March, thinkers as Joan Fuster… We should not forget, Guia said, that the Catalan nation is not only Catalonia.

Alfons López Tena represented the CDC’s independentist sector. CDC is the major Catalan party founded by 23 years Catalan president Jordi Pujol. Tena had a biggest paper in the independence consultations. He’s from València too. He said: "We will be a state, exercising it (…) It is better to have a state, a state that was not conducive, as part of Spain, because if autonomy was so good why not ask the Spaniards in France was their autonomous region?. We can be a state, thanks to the strength of the people, Long live to democracy!".

Joan Laporta, F.C. Barcelona team president, represented the hope of a true leader : “We have achieved the status Catalan because we want the best for our children and all those who come to live and work in our house. Catalonia has to be free. Applauses were bigger than ever. Joan Carretero, Reagrupament’¡s president gave an extremely rational message. Not in vain he’s a doctor. Reagrupament is a movement with less than one year has proven to be one of the busiest and renovators. “Organize consultations is fine, but it is better to win, and more, our Parliament has to represent. I ask you to vote a few months to bring about independence to the legitimate representative of the sovereignty of the Catalan people, the Parliament". Oriol Junqueras, ERC’s Member of European Parliament talked too. ERC is nowadays the main separatist party. Junqueras said that "never the dream of such a state itself is viable" and proclaimed: "Independence is not negotiated, nor agreed. .... It is proclaimed and defended".

Singer Titot the left independence revolutionary character, gave an emotional speech: "I remember one day in Sabadell when I said: "If we had the wonderful lamp and the genie asked what I wanted, doing sit fingers, Catalonia was an independent, I would say not. I wanted to live that, I wanted to enjoy all the sensations of the process, I do not want to lose the final victory, I wanted to live the first night of freedom, that I embrace with hundreds of colleagues fighters. How I would have regretted losing me. That joy was nailed me to the heart and there is no day that I rise not play the same emotions. As I like to remember, first the Principality quickly Menorca, Formentera, Mallorca and Eivissa, València and after the great Higher Cerdanya and Roussillon, and the Andorra’s Valley and the counties west ... It went over what we had filmed. The illusion is a fuel capable of operating heavy machines. And excited we won, could not be otherwise: they had an empire that sank and we build a country. When it was nearly independent, almost everyone was with us. "

Independentists of all backgrounds: liberals, Marxists, socialists and social-democrats. All together. Only through unity we will succeed. The act of Sabadell is a good start. It is not the only one.

Western Catalonia indepententism take roots too

The rupturist separatism, that it does not recognize any legitimacy in Spain, has always been difficult to be strong in regions of the West of the Catalonia’s Principality. If we except some local villages and a continued presence in the city of Lleida its continuity has been fragile. In the past there were, especially in the capital, interesting experiences as Ateneu Independentista de Ponent or the local section of Free Catalonia but both ended dissolved.

For nearly a decade, however, several initiatives have emerged that have continuity. Again Lleida has been leading the Ocell Negre (Black Bird), some taverns, the assembly of young independentists member of the national coordination CAJEI or the Candidature of Popular Unity. This new generation, however, is a novelty in slow but very strong, regional presence outside of Segrià (the Lleida’s county).
We have several examples like the appearance of Students Union of the Catalan Countries in in Balaguer but also in Lleida, and local movements in Balaguer (Peter III), Mollerussa (L’Arreu), Tàrrega (Perquè Vull). We have too young people assemblies in Bellmunt of Urgell, Alt Urgell, as well as the national movement Maulets also consolidated in locations as Balaguer, Cervera or Lleida. Just a few months Mollerussa housed one of the most crowded of independence demonstrations with over 300 people breaking the low mobilization of these regions.
Most of these groups found themselves in 2008 in Balaguer and now it has driven the First “Western Catalonia” separatist meeting. It will be held in Bellpuig at the 6th March. Includes an extensive program with discussions on the peasantry, the Franja (Catalan speaking region in Aragon), independence consultation or a sample queries of popular culture. This new test network demonstrates the growing consolidation of the organizational separatism even where it was traditionally weaker.

28F: new massive support for independence: 92 %

Seventy seven villages celebrated on 28th February the third wave of referendums about Catalonia’s independence. The census was biggest than the Spanish one because it included people from 16 to 18 years who could not vote in official elections. It also included migrant people without Spanish nationality but who live and work in Catalonia.

The turnout was 21 % of the people who could vote. It means about 23,5 % of the “official” census. Nowadays the Spanish socialist party is ruling Catalonia with only 15 % of the census support.
The results were clear: 92’33 % voted yes and only 4,88 % voted against a new Catalan state. With these consultations a million Catalans have been convoked; more than a quarter of them have voted and a ninety per cent decided to support the Catalan independence.
Next wave on April 25th with more than a hundred villages.

28-F's referendum campaign closes in Cardona and Bas Valley

The campaign for the February 28  independence consultations ended with an emotional ceremony at the Castle of Cardona. A particularly symbolic act, moreover, because it was the last Catalan town to be reduced by the Spanish and French troops on September 18, 1714. The ceremony was attended  the promoters of referendums. A torches march from the castle to the Cardona's village, a famous village by its salt mountain, ended at midnight the campaign.

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta took part in another closing meeting in Sant Esteve d'en Bas. It was organized by Òmnium Cultural, a cultural movement founded during the Franco's fascist regime. Laporta said: 'It is a step to achieve that Catalonia to be recognized as a state of full international level and that the Catalans could exist in a normal world'. During his speech, he claimed an own state for Catalonia in order to be recognized in its own right before the international community and especially to prosper with their own policies for managing their own resources. 'It is undeniable that a Catalan state to defend their interests will best hospitals, schools, roads and improve the welfare of the Catalans'. Also referred to the struggle for defending the rights of Catalonia as 'the most romantic one that a peoplee can aspire', saying that the Catalan people have already done all the achievements in the fight for freedom. He finally said: "We've been narcotized too much time: it is time for us to awake".

Former Scottish minister feels "horrified by the hatred and resentment" toward Catalonia by Spain

The Foreign Minister of Scotland between 2007 and 2009, Linda Fabiani, defended the legitimate right of Scots and Catalans to decide freely on their independence. This Fabiani told the conference she gave in Torroella in the framework of a conference on the future of stateless nations and the case of Scotland. The former minister admitted that she was "horrified by the hatred and resentment" that some Spanish people express respect for the aspirations of sovereignty of Catalonia.


In her talk, Fabiani said she was convinced that Scotland will get independence from the United Kingdom and was assured that, contrary to warn that some sectors, independence "will further strengthen Scotland economically and as a country." The member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) believes the future lies in medium and small nations, in contrast to large countries, "for its ability and agility to adapt quickly to changes. This year, the SNP plans a referendum on independence in Scotland and Fabiani defends the right of Scottish people to decide the role that the country wants in the world. She felt that independence of Scotland would be "accepted by the European Union, because Europe does not want a weaker, but the opposite."

The architect of modern Catalan

Finally, a taste of the Pompeu Fabra’s great work has been published in English too. “The architect of Modern Catalan” is a book of Fabra’s selected writings by Joan Costa Carreras (Pompeu Fabra’s University). Pompeu Fabra (1868-1948), as has been said in “Free Catalonia” is renowned as the person who reformed and codified the Catalan language, giving it the condition of a normativised language for the years to come.

In spite of an strong value of the Fabra’s figure at Catalan level he was almost undiscovered at international level. The volume, translated by Alan Yates (Univerity of Shetfield), includes a general presentation of the language too with an outline survey of the social history of the Catalan language, chased during five centuries by both the Spanish and the French languages. It costs 95 €.

February 28th : independence consultations third round

Firstly was the village of Arenys de Munt on September 13th.
Secondly 167 other Catalan villages with county capitals as Berga and Vic on December 13th.
All of them have voted about Catalan seccession from Spain. The results? About 95 % of people voted for independence. The turnout was about 30 % but reached more than the 50 % in many places.

On February 28th a third wave of villages will held the referendum too. About a eighty villages, just 77, are being implied.
The villages were the referendums will take place are, for instance,: Agramunt, Alella, Alforja, Alp, Begues, Bellpuig, Bescanó, la Bisbal d'Empordà, Breda, les Cabanyes, Cabrils, Caldes de Montbui, Cardona, Castellterçol, l'Escala, l'Espluga de Francolí, Gelida, Llinars del Vallès, Llorenç del Penedès, Maçanet de la Selva, Moià, Molins de Rei, Montblanc, Palamós i Sant Joan, Palau-Sator, la Pobla de Lillet, Riells i Viabrea, Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Sant Feliu de Codines, Sant Quintí de Mediona, Sant Quirze del Vallès, Teià, Torrelles de Llobregat, Vidreres, Vilassar de Mar, Vilobí d'Onyar, Salitja i Sant Dalmai, el Vendrell i Xerta.

Euronews: Catalonia independence or autonomy?

Interest in Catalonia's independence is growing. As a major proofe Euwonews channel broadcasts the next report :
"Catalonia is a major economic engine within Spain. However, many Catalans are tired of the taxes they hand over to Madrid. It is a region with a proud histroy and language and calls for independence are growing louder. Is Catalonia serious about a split from Spain?"
An interesting question is that Euronews tags the report not in "Politics" but in "Economy".

Danish paper lies and Emma Collective answer

The Danish newspaper Politiken recently published an article about the Catalonia’s language policy. The paper exposed it as a radical nationalist action against Spanish language. Emma Collective, in another excellent answer now in Danish language, explains why to defend a minor language is not to attack a major one.
Nowadays cinema (the cinema law is the origin of the article) is 97 % in Spanish but only 3 % in Catalan, justice is completely in Spanish and products are labeled in Spanish in 90 %. Only 10 % have a Catalan version too. If Catalonia was an independent state Politiken would have the same opinion?. It is always easy to attack the small.


Kære damer og herrer,
Vi har med stor bekymring læst artiklen “Censurens mange ansigter”, udgivet i jeres avis den sidste 31. januar, hvor I taler om Cataloniens anstrengelser for at bevare dets sprog og kultur (og catalanernes demokratiske vilje til selv at bestemme over deres politiske forhold til Spanien) som et eksempel på censuren og stærk nationalisme. Personligt synes vi, at sådan en sammenligning er absurd og smagløs.
Alle taler og forstår spansk i Catalonien i dag, og selv om Cataloniens eget sprog er catalansk, er det stadigvæk et stærkt diskrimineret sprog. Der er mange eksempler på dette: i biografen er det kun 2 % af filmerne, der er oversat til catalansk, i butikkerne er det 90 % af de kommercielle varer, som er etiketteret på spansk, catalanerne må næsten aldrig bruge catalansk i juridiske forhold, og i de fleste restauranter og caféer, er det næsten et mirakel, hvis man bliver forstået af tjeneren, når man taler catalansk. Kan man med udgangspunkt i dette påstå, at det spanske sprog er undertrykt? Nej, det er netop omvendt. Selv om diktaturen blev afskaffet for 35 år siden, er catalansk stadigvæk diskrimineret og dermed også catalanerne, fordi de ikke har de samme rettigheder, som indbyggerne i resten af landet.
Vi vil endvidere gøre opmærksom på, at det er helt forkert at bruge ordet “nationalistisk” for at beskrive stemningen i Catalonien. Catalanerne tror ikke, at deres sprog og kultur er bedre end andres: de vil bare gerne have de samme rettigheder, som indbyggerne i resten af Spanien har, og demokratisk at kunne bestemme over deres politiske fremtid. At være imod dette ville være, at være imod demokratiet. Derfor opfordrer vi jer om, at gøre jeres research om Catalonien noget grundigere, for netop at undgå, at I bringer artikler som “Censurens mange ansigter” i fremtiden, der ikke blot er stødende, men også er i modstrid med virkeligheden.

Diana Coromines
Col•lectiu Emma
Col•lectiu Emma er et netværk af catalanere bosiddende i en række lande, der har gjort det til deres job at følge nyhederne i den internationale presse, som relaterer sig til catalansk økonomi og samfund.

Spain, Europe’s last fascist refugee

Toni Strubell i Trueta is a well known researcher as well as a leading member of the Dignity Commission which fights for the return of documents stolen from the Catalan people by the Spanish fascists at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Strubell, member of the association Reagrupament too, has wrote a letter to the international newspapers to explain the continuity between present Spain as the fascist Spain. In fact Franco’s dictator selected the present day Spanish king as his heir!:

Dear Sir,

I would very much like to call your attention to worrying events coming from today's Spain. Last February 4th, Spanish newspapers reported that a National Audience judge, Baltasar Garzón, is to be put on trial and possibly suspended. What was his crime? Having dared to try and open up an investigation into the mass graves and other crimes perpetrated by the Franco regime (in Valencia alone, mass graves holding over 26,300 post-war Franco victims have recently been discovered). That very day the newspapers also informed that the huge fascist monument honouring the cruiser Baleares in Palma bay (the pride of Franco's fleet sunk by the Republicans after having shelled thousands of fleeing refugees on the coastal roads of Andalusia) is not to be demolished. It is to be conserved. What must Spanish democrats and relatives of the victims make of this? Can anyone imagine the same occurring with a monument dedicated to a Fascist-manned warship in any other part of the democratic world? Furthermore, on February 5th newspapers informed that the Basque Parliament, where Spanish Constitutional parties at present hold a majority (due to the illegalization of the Basque left party) voted against instating a Truth Commission (such as the one established by Nelson Mandela in South Africa in the early nineties) to discover the truth about the crimes of Franco. What in heaven's name is happening in Spain? I think it is high time democrats all over the world be informed about the huge democratic deficit that exists today in Spain. Europe largely ridded itself of Fascism in 1945. The one place it lives on is in Spain, where 56 streets in Madrid still bear the names of Franco generals. The sooner the whole world knows the truth about Spain, the sooner we can start to put an end to so much iniquity and disgrace.
Toni Strubell i Trueta

The former head of State at a Fascist rally in Madrid in September 1975...and the current head of State at the same Fascist rally in 1975

Catalan language flame renovated

On 1968 it was commemorated the first century of the Pompeu Fabra’s born. Fabra was the man who codified the Catalan language. He is buried in Prada de Conflent, Northern Catalonia in the French state. As an homage as well as an allegiance a flame was started in his grave. Since then, every year, this flame is renovated in the Catalan sacred mountain, Montserrat. Montserrat is for the Catalans just as the Black Hills for the Sioux or the Uluru mountain for the Australian aboriginals.


A religious and vindication act was organized in Montserrat on February 7th by the Sant Feliu de Guíxols country trippers. Every year a local section of country trippers take the flame from Prada and renovate their allegiance to the language. This is the 41st edition of the Catalan language flame’s renovation.

Guest language in Expolangues: Catalan

Expolangues is the World most important saloon about languages. Every year it receives a language as an honour guest. This year the language chosen is Catalan. This is the first time that a non-state language is the guest one. The small state of Andorra is the only one where Catalan is the first language. In the Spanish state it is partially official while in the French and Italian it is not.

Expolangues 2010 is held in Paris, as usual, from 3-6 February. Several actions will recognize the Catalan language as “the language of ten million European people”. The mission is lead by the Ramon Llull Institute. Ramon Llull was an important writer in the Middle Age from Mallorca. The Institute is formed by the autonomous government of Balearic islands, Catalonia, the general council from Northern Catalonia (Oriental Pyrinees), Andorra’s state, the Valencian cities net as well as the city of Alguer from Sardinia, Italian state.
The same institute has began a public campaign to promote the recognition of the language in France. It is composed by advertisements in the subway as well as television spots with the actor Sergi Lopez well known by the French public.