FINANCIAL TIMES (Editor) (January 10 2006)

Hostage to Catalonia

Published:
January 10 2006 02:00 Last updated: January 10 2006 02:00

Most future historians will note with satisfaction that when Spain, three decades after the death of Franco and the supplanting of his dictatorship by democracy, was told by the commander of the Spanish army that the military might intervene if Catalonia was to get more self-governing powers, Spain was mildly shaken but far from stirred. General Jose Mena Aguado will go down in history as an anachronism.
The days of the military pronunciamiento are over. Spain is a confident and prosperous democracy inside the European Union, a cultural and economic powerhouse and an international citizen of standing. Its federal political system - despite tensions with the Basques and Catalans - must be accounted a success.
Yet in a speech last Friday Gen Mena referred to the Catalan regional government's plans to expand its powers as a repetition of pre-civil war history (he referred to the May 1932 debates on the Catalan autonomy statute). This is reactionary blackmail. Unhappily, the general is not entirely wrong when he claims Article 8 of the constitution empowers the army with defending the "territorial integrity" of Spain. Spain's democratic charter, passed in December 1978, contains flaws, recognised by many at the time. Article 8 was used by Francoist officers to justify their failed putsch of February 1981.
That era is over. But perhaps Spain's government(s) and people could usefully remind themselves of this. The government in Madrid, currently under Socialist management, is right to arrest Gen Mena. It intends to fire him, with the full support of the army chief of staff, and should make clear the same fate awaits any of his emulators.
The Catalan government - also currently led by Socialists - should tread with caution. It is within its rights to demand, for instance, tax-raising powers the Basques already have. Its demand that Catalonia be considered a "nation" reflects a cultural desire supported democratically by its people. This is not, per se, separatism; Article 2 of the constitution already recognises "nationalities" within Spain. Nor should its demand for greater judicial autonomy cause alarm so long as the supremacy of Spain's higher courts remains paramount.
But the Catalans, who pride themselves on being more European than the rest of Spain, should remember the principles of European Union solidarity. These include fiscal transfers from richer to less well-off regions. Why should that be right within Europe but wrong within Spain?
Spain's constitution should also be amended to spell out the supremacy of civil over military power. Unfortunately, the opposition Popular Party, still unreconciled to its ejection from power after the Madrid bombings of March 2004, seems to think Gen Mena has a point. That could represent a greater threat to Spanish unity than Catalonia's autonomy ambitions.


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Benvolguts companys i amics .


Sobre aquest editorial del FT que us adjunto en un arxiu word caldria fer cartes
a la premsa catalana i espanyola.


Caldria, d'entrada, agrair al diari anglès de la city de Londres que tingui una
ctitud oberta a la diversitat lingúística i cultural de l'Estat espanyol .

Caldria agrair al FT que entengui d'una forma tan planera el fet diferencial
català . Què Catalunya és una nació


Caldria agrair al FT que en moment d'involució a l'Estat espanyol es posicioni a
favor de la peeminencia del poder civil i per l'abolició immediata de l'article
8.1 de la Constirució espanyola.


Caldria argumentar, en aquestes cartes obertes a la premsa catalana i espanyola,
que el FT és molt més democràtic i catalanòfil que no pas tota la munió de
premsa , ràdio i televisió de l'altiplà .

Caldria argumentar que sembla que a l'Estat espanyol ens tornem a trobar en el
tardofranquisme com en els anys setenta del segle passat i que el PP sembla FN .


Fixeu-vos que en aquests moments, en relació amb la premsa internacional ( més
enllà del FT ), que sembla que em fet un viatge regressiu cap al passat, on hi
ha molts trets amb comú amb el programa de la TVE1 "CUENTAME ". A més sembla que
en crosta social més dura del PP torna la síndrome del . - Fuera Europa ¡
Hijos de puta. Expressió que va dir un personatge sinistre vestit en caçadora
gris en el reportatge de fa 30 anys de la darrera concentració franquista a
la Plaça de Oriente de Madrid .

També us voldria fer un prec, una recomanació . Tots els que sabeu escriure
francès, anglès o alemany caldria que fessiu escrits, cartes en aquests idiomes
i els trametessiu a la premsa internacional .


SALUTACIONS .