The misguided story of the Catalan Statute

The misguided story of the Catalan Statute
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By h.b. - Jun 18, 2006 - 11:24 PM

Archive Photo of Mariano Rajoy - Photo EFE

The pollsters got it right, and now all sides are claiming the numbers support their viewpoint

EDITORIAL COMMENT - The pollsters got it right – 74% supporting the new Catalan Statute but from a turnout of only just under 50%.

As after any election, all those implicated have their particular public spin on the results, taking comfort and making claims where they can. But this poll is a lot harder to read.

The reason for this is the unlikely bedfellows found in the Partido Popular, the national right wing party, and the ERC, the Catalan left wing republicans. They were the only two parties calling for a no vote. The former as the Statute gives too much power to Cataluña, and the latter as it does not give enough.

If one thing is clear from the numbers is most people do not care sufficiently enough either way to go out and vote. Turnout was ten points higher and saw 88% support for the previous statute back in 1979, but then emotions were higher as the Catalans were at last free to flex their political muscles after years of repression under Franco. A lower turnout now could have been expected.

The Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has had a lucky escape on this one. When campaigning in Cataluña he rashly promised the Catalan Socialist Party, and it’s leader Pascual Maragall, that his government in Madrid would ratify any Statute passed by the parliament in Barcelona. It was a stupid thing to say, and film of his blunder has been repeated since on frequent occasions. Maragall took Zapatero at his word, but the Prime Minister never imagined that he would be presented with a draft Statute quite so radical. ‘Cataluña is a Nation’ it said, and the words were such that it was immediately considered to be unconstitutional.

At this point the Partido Popular were quite correct in voicing strong and robust opposition to the document, although the cost of them collecting signatures against the document across the country proved to be little more than an expensive publicity exercise. Zapatero then had to repair the damage. Many long meetings and talks were held in Madrid with all the parties concerned to get the Statute back into what could be considered to be constitutional, and moving that controversial ‘nation’ word out into the pre-amble.
The talks were hard fought and Zapatero paid a political price. The ERC left wingers had been supporting his minority administration in Madrid, but felt they could no longer do so as the document had been weakened far too much for their liking.
Here Zapatero was lucky. Artur Más from the right wing CiU, more commonly supporters of the Partido Popular, stepped up and supported the Prime Minister.

The Partido Popular have played this one wrong as well. When the second draft was finally agreed, they should have changed their policy and could have taken some political credit from the excesses of the first draft. Instead they and their leader Mariano Rajoy continued, and continue to voice total opposition to the new draft, which in reality is a far different deal from its predecessor. That opposition led them into bed with the ERC. The PP saw 620,000 Catalan voters at the last election, and the numbers show that they have not been able to get them out to vote No this time.

The whole process has increased the political temperature in Cataluña, and the result will do little to change that. Pascual Maragall may yet pay for taking such a strong first draft to Madrid. Reports are that the Socialists want to see the current Industry Minister, José Montilla, as their new candidate at the next regional elections.

Elections need to be called in the region soon as the previous three-way government in Barcelona between the Socialists PSC, ERC and ICV is now in the past, and any political observer will tell you that the best thing for economic growth and success is stability.

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