Editorial del diari anglès
“The Times”
LEADING
ARTICLE february 26 2018, 12:01am, the
times
Royalpolitik
Spain
should stop hounding Catalan separatists and negotiate in the national interest
King
Felipe of Spain will today visit an unhappy corner of his realm, the region of
Catalonia. Having voted for unilateral independence in a referendum last
October and again for a slight parliamentary majority in favour of separation
in December, Catalonia still inhabits a political limbo. It is ruled without
concession from Madrid and its ousted president, Carles Puigdemont, lives in
exile in Belgium while other members of his former administration are behind
bars.
Spain’s
calculation is that Mr Puigdemont’s nerve will crack and that he will formally
step down, allowing a regional Catalan government to take shape. It is gambling
that the oxygen will be squeezed out of the separatist cause. Opinion polls
suggest that might yet happen. Catalans are tired of the politicisation of
everyday life and are nervous that investors will steer clear of their
still-prosperous region. Reports indicate that some Catalan separatists may be
ready to dump their leader.
The
king considers that he has no choice but to defend the rule of law. He swore
loyalty to the 1978 Spanish constitution which defines the “indissoluble unity
of the Spanish nation”. It was a constitution drawn up to address the wounds of
the Spanish civil war and the decades of authoritarian misrule. King Felipe
thus talks — and will talk again today — of the need to uphold the rule of law.
This
is an uncontroversial statement of the royal mission. It is easy to see, too,
that the Catalan arguments for a breakaway state are not necessarily in the
interests of the region, let alone the broader prosperity of the Spanish
nation. Yet the government of Mariano Rajoy has struck the wrong tone. Mr
Puigdemont is being faced with a choice between exile and returning to face
arrest. His career has thus been deemed to be over by Madrid.
To
underline the point Spanish police have twice searched the private jet of Pep
Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, in Barcelona airport, fearing that Mr
Puigdemont may have been smuggled back to Catalonia. Spain does not gain in
dignity or security by this absurd pantomime. And its narrow interpretation of
the law does not address what is essentially a political problem — the limits
and possibilities of autonomy within the contours of a centralised state.
The
government’s imprisonment of pro-independence activists was plainly excessive,
sending a grim message to civil society. The use of pre-trial detention has
raised questions among civil rights organisations across Europe. The equation
of the separatist debate with sedition is a challenge to freedom of expression.
All these issues are also components of the “rule of law” which King Felipe
considers so central to modern democratic Spain.
The
king is popular in Spain and should use his visit to listen to the Catalans.
The country has become so fixated on a potential break-up, from the Basqueland
to Catalonia, that it has become the prime European Union blocker to other
states seeking independence, such as Kosovo. Behaviour designed to demonstrate
principle in fact betrays a lack of self-confidence.
Spain
should allow Mr Puigdemont and other leaders to return and enter a dialogue
with the Madrid government and the other autonomous regions of Spain. The
narrow majority for independence in the regional parliament suggests that there
will be no immediate surge of support for a breakaway state. Madrid should take
the risk and learn to talk more about pluralism than sedition.