A Tale as Old as Time
Catalonia’s push for independence is far from new. The region enjoyed great autonomy until General Franco’s regime, during which its sovereignty was ruthlessly and repeatedly violated. The fall of Franco revitalized Catalan autonomy under the 1978 Spanish constitution– autonomy which was furthered by a 2006 statute which even described Catalonia as a “nation.” Nonetheless, calls for independence began to grow as Spain suffered from economic crisis, and the Spanish constitutional court reduced the region’s autonomy in 2010 by reinterpreting parts of the 2006 Catalan statute of autonomy, ostensibly undermining the Catalan identity.
Though regional tensions in Spain trace back decades, their effects have seeped into the lives of Catalan youth. When asked if the Spanish government actively tries to include Catalan people, Ivan Expósito, a Catalan student attending the University of Barcelona, told the Harvard Political Review, “No. Absolutely not. For centuries, Spanish governments of all colors and all parties that have been in power in the Spanish government have done nothing in favor of Catalonia and rather have acted against Catalonia in a lot of situations.” Expósito is one of many young Catalan adults who were undecided on whether Catalonia should secede, but now favors independence following the jailing of Catalan leaders.
Gala Porté, a 25 year old from Terrassa, also shared her experiences of discrimination by the Spanish government. “The Spanish government has tried to attack our language and our public school system,” Porté said in a recent interview with the HPR. She says she has been made to feel as though Catalan is a “second-class language”. However, Porté’s frustrations with the Spanish government extend past Catalonia’s distinct dialect.
“In my family, my great grandmother’s brother was murdered by the Franco regime”, Porté told the HPR. “Like my family, there are a lot of families that don’t know where their relatives are, and the government is doing nothing to find them. Many of those people were Catalan. While the Catalan government has annulled the trials that sentenced those people to death, the Spanish government hasn’t done so, and to me that is something that makes me feel like I am less of a citizen.” Porté’s story is not the only one of its kind and demonstrates how the historical roots of Catalonia’s independence movement continue to influence the lives of the next generation.
A great number of Catalan youth also feel frustrated by the outflow of money from the wealthy region. In addition to having its own language, distinctive traditions, and a population rivaling that of entire European nations, Catalonia accounts for almost 19% of Spain’s GDP, contributing to the growing sentiment among Catalans in the past decade that the wealthy region has long given Spain more in taxes than it has received in return economically. Despite Catalonia’s abundant revenue and a recent attempt to control rental prices in Barcelona, a huge disparity in rent prices exists between Catalonia and other regions of Spain. As such, Catalan young adults have struggled to keep up with rising rent prices. Disparities not only exist in rental prices, but university costs as well. Fees for degree courses in regions such as Andalucia have increased only 9.7% since 2008, compared to 144% in Catalonia. In fact medical students at the University of Barcelona pay €1,620 more per year on average than those studying at the University of Granada. With such striking discrepancies, the fact that Catalan youth are protesting for change should come as no surprise.
Crime Versus Punishment
The recent jailing of the Catalan leaders has triggered uprisings across Spain, raising questions of whether the alleged crime was worthy of the severe punishment given by the Spanish Court. Specifically, many Catalan people have found fault with the jailing of civil movement leader Jordi Cuixart as he is not a politician and was known for leading peaceful protests. Gala Porté told the HPR that she attended Cuixart’s demonstrations years ago and can affirm that “there was no violence whatsoever.” Cuixart told Reuters that in condemning him and other separatists to long prison terms, Spain was effectively criminalizing all dissent against the state. While the nine defendants were acquitted of the charge of violent rebellion, they were convicted of sedition, misuse of public funds, and disobedience. Yet Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has defended the court’s decision, maintaining that “nobody is above the law,” and that the arrested leaders had illegally tried to subvert the Spanish constitution and attempted to fracture Catalan society “by refusing to recognize the majority who oppose independence”.
A World Turned Upside Down
Though, for most, the world of politics and protests may seem distinct from that of a classroom, Catalan students have had their world turned upside down by the recent political turmoil. With Spanish politics breeding pockets of anti-Catalan sentiment, Ester Palau, a high school student in Terrassa, Spain, has felt the effects of regional tensions in her daily life. “My life is basically school,” Palau told the HPR. “Everyone in my class feels very Spanish, but I don’t, so I receive insults from my classmates. I feel left out because I am the only one who is different.” While Palau has not been involved in any protests herself, she affirms that students comprise a large portion of those who have lined the streets protesting the sentence of Catalan leaders.
In Barcelona, most streets have been occupied by demonstrators and public transportation has been shutdown. During the past two weeks, university student Ivan Expósito reports going to university a total of two days due to the city’s chaos. While the protests have interfered with his education, Expósito still stands by the importance of the protests and has himself attended several demonstrations.
An Inside Look at Demonstrations
Peaceful protests drew crowds of almost 350,000 people in Barcelona after the sentence was announced. As a result, large number of officers were deployed to the Barcelona airport, Sants railway station and Girona’s main railway station to quell the demonstrations. Riot police arrived on the scene to disperse the crowds with shields, batons, and riot vans, turning the streets of Barcelona into a chaotic battlefield. Several protestors were injured as police baton-charged protestors, fired foam bullets and other projectiles in some of the worst violence since the independence movement’s origins. One student protester told the HPR that peaceful protesters “try to calm down the demonstrators, but also, in many cases, the police act violently, so we try to get the police to stop hitting people. We make barricades to stop the police from advancing. Even though other peaceful protesters and I did nothing, the police threw tear gas at us so we have the right to self-defense, in my opinion.” “If you are getting beaten, you go and you grab something to throw at the people who are beating you,” said another student.
According to Catalan emergency services, in the week following the sentence, more than 500 citizens received treatment for injuries as a result of the protests. In addition, property damages burgeoned as countless fires were lit in the streets of Barcelona and other towns. The sight of the Guardia Civil beating demonstrators and the jailing of politicians have left some reminded of the Franco dictatorship. In fact, Gala Porté told the HPR that she believes that fascism is on the rise, stating that “there have been fascists –literal fascists – who are wearing the flags from Franco’s days on the streets saying that they are hunting people who are pro-independence, but no one is doing anything about this. I find that very outrageous and very worrisome.” Another student similarly expressed her fears over the recent rise in violent protests. “It gives the Spanish state the image that they want,” said the student. “If they can sentence people to 13 years of prison when there was no actual violence, what will they do now that there is some violence?”
Standing Catalan president Quim Torra condemned the violent protests, but blamed the unrest on “infiltrators” seeking to undermine the peaceful image of the pro-independence movement. The nine convicted leaders have reasserted their “support to mobilizations and massive and peaceful marches,” but have emphasized that they do not support any acts of violence. The Catalan president has received criticism for calling for civil disobedience and yet simultaneously sending in Catalan riot police to restore order.
Where do Loyalties Lie?
Standing Catalan president Quim Torra has encouraged Catalans to react to the recent sentence with “a huge show of non-violent civil disobedience”. However, both Spanish police and regional police officers of Catalonia have been sent to put down protests. Expósito claims that he “[doesn’t] know if the Catalan government is in fact in favor of independence. They say one thing and do another.” All students interviewed by the HPR shared the view that while they are not represented by the Spanish government, they are also not represented by the Catalan government. “I think that both the Catalan and Spanish governments want to raise tensions and I don’t know why,” said one student.
However, Catalan youth interviewed by the HPR maintained that despite the wavering Catalan government, they still favor independence. Gala Porté told the HPR that “when in 2016, the right-wing party – Partido Popular –won again, it was a breaking point for me. When you see people voting in Spain for the same people, you see that there is no intention of making any sort of reforms and it is very frustrating. That was when I decided I am done with Spain. I am done trying to fix Spain. I am going to focus on my country, which is Catalonia.”
Looking Forward
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has adopted a more conciliatory approach to the independence question than his predecessor Mariano Rajoy, but has ruled out a referendum and emphasized that any negotiations must be along the lines of the Spanish constitution. While many Catalan students wish to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights with recent incidents of police brutality and censorship of the press, the European commission has announced that it respects the decisions of the Spanish judiciary, labeling the independence crisis as “an internal Spanish matter”. Carles Puigdemont, former leader of Catalonia living in self-imposed exile in Belgium, wrote in TIME magazine that “the idea of reaching compromise…is completely alien to Spanish political culture,” suggesting that reconciliation between Catalonia and Spain remains a dubious aspiration.
However, despite the growing divides in Spain, separatists have yet to gain a majority in Catalonia. According to polls, the region is evenly split on the independence issue. Popular support for seceding from Spain peaked at a record high of 48.7% in October 2017, but has fallen to 43.6% more recently. On November 10, Spain once again returned to the polls for the fourth legislative election in four years and Catalonia has returned to the top of the political agenda. As unrest continues to inflict damage on Catalan society, elections like these will decide the future of the movement and Catalonia’s youth.