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Spain’s Crisis is Europe’s Opportunity
Betrayal!
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Betrayal!
The pervasive & defining crime of our age
Let me apologize in advance for what may be an upsetting piece of writing for some of you. If you’re in a state of shock or exhaustion from recent events, perhaps you should skip this one.
I don’t offer this analysis in order to further distress anyone — but until you understand what is happening and how that influences your psychological state, you’ll remain the emotional equivalent of a rag doll shaken to-and-fro by events.
Such understanding may not bring you to a place of calm acceptance. But it will set you free.
Betrayal
The recent acts of violence in the US, especially the horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas, are not arising out of a vacuum. Nor are the Brexit vote, the election of Trump, or the recent Catalonian vote for secession, random unconnected acts.
These — and future similarly disruptive events sure to come — are all arising out of the fact that we all have been betrayed.
For the purposes of this article, let’s define betrayal as:
the sense of being harmed by the intentional actions of a trusted person or institution. The emotional impacts of betrayal may include shock, a sense of loss, grief, damaged self-esteem, humiliation, self-doubt, shame, and anger.
We’re betrayed every time our trust is violated, in small ways or large. An example of a small betrayal might be hiding a frivolous purchase from your partner when you’ve both agreed to stick to a shared budget. A larger betrayal would be infidelity.
But betrayals aren’t limited to relationships between individuals. They can be perpetrated across groups, even nations. Like the enormous betrayal of trust committed when the US sent its military into Iraq on the basis of falsified ‘intelligence’.
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Madrid Waged Cyber-War & Catalonia Votes Overwhelmingly to Leave Spain
Catalonia voted overwhelmingly to secede from Spain. Of course, the hard line invasion of riot police who beat and threatened the people discouraged many from showing up with the turnout being only 43%. The fascist government in Spain has demonstrated to the entire world that there is a major country risk in dealing with Spain. Any government that uses force against democracy will do whatever it takes to sustain power as the economy gets wose going into 2021.
Hundreds of people were injured by riot police attempting to prevent voting, and this has only caused outrage and further protests solidifying the resolve to separate from such a fascist government. Both Canada and Britain allowed separatist votes. Why Spain deemed the vote illegal was clear that they knew they would vote to leave.
Madrid even waged a cyber-war against Catalonia. They sought to shut down the internet and even ordered Google to shut down traffic coming from Catalonia. Madrid has shown the future civil war tactic will be to shut down the internet to prevent communication.
Catalonia’s parliament may well now declare independence; Madrid could decide to impose direct rule on the region and the police have been transformed into terrorists resembling the imported Russian police in Ukraine. Barcelona is perhaps the most beautiful city in Europe. Obviously, Madrid will be off the tourist agenda in the years ahead.
The Catalan Chain Reaction
The Catalan Chain Reaction
Catalonia’s drive for “independence” has unleashed a chain reaction of viral social media support that’s frighteningly resurrected civil war-era rhetoric, but the most dangerous consequences of this domino effect are yet to come if the separatists are ultimately successful in their quest.
The Nostalgia Narrative
The Catalan “independence” cause has taken the world by storm, thrown into the global spotlight by the heavily publicized referendum earlier this week and Madrid’s forceful response to this unconstitutional measure. Supporters all across the world have been energized by the recent events and have taken to describing them in civil war-era terms as a battle between “democracy” and “fascism”. Furthermore, they also accuse the Rajoy government of being “Francoists”, as they do the country’s post-Franco 1978 Constitution which returned Catalonia’s autonomy in an even more robust way than before and even bestowed this privilege to the rest of the country as well.
Although it can be safely presumed that Spain naturally retained some of the “Francoist” members of its permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) after the death of their movement’s eponymous leader, it’s an exaggeration to refer to the constitution and the present government as “Francoists” in the sense of what the term stereotypically implies. Rather, the improper use of such polarizing civil war-era terms demonstrates that the separatists are trying to capitalize on the revolutionary nostalgia that their domestic and foreign supporters have for reliving the 1936-1939 anarcho-communist experiment via a simulacrum, one which plays out differently depending on their audience.
Two Simulacra
As it relates to the Catalans themselves, this is meant to force them into the false binary choice between “standing with their ancestors against fascism” or “betraying their motherland for the Francoists”.
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Catalonia’s Referendum Unmasks Authoritarianism in Spain
Catalonia’s Referendum Unmasks Authoritarianism in Spain
I have long worried about the rise of authoritarianism in the European Union.
The Spanish government’s violent crackdown during the Catalonia referendum on Oct. 1 is the latest crisis to challenge EU institutions. Several member states are facing serious questions about territorial sovereignty. Just look to the Scottish referendum to leave the U.K. and questions opened up by the Brexit vote over the Irish border.
Catalonia experienced a level of police brutality not often seen in developed democracies. More than 800 people were injured, more than 100 of whom were hospitalized. Yet, in a rare televised appearance, King Felipe VI expressed full support for the Spanish government’s actions.
As a scholar of Spanish politics, I fear this creates the possibility for more repression and even the abolition of Catalonia’s autonomy.
Why has the Spanish government reacted with such a severe crackdown? To answer that question, it might useful to go back more than 40 years.
Franco’s legacy
When Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, pro-democracy forces feared a new military coup. So they carefully crafted Spain’s 1978 Constitution to ensure stability, rather than create a radical change from authoritarianism.
The transition to democracy involved increasing political freedom for groups that had opposed Franco and had been persecuted by his dictatorship. But it also incorporated existing authoritarian groups and officials into the state. They included the Francoist military, the church and state structures that existed during the dictatorship – such as the judiciary, the police and the civil service.
Is Spain in danger of returning to the authoritarian days of the Franco dictatorship?
Zoeken Fotocollectie, Dutch National Archives, CC BY
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Catalonia Chaos Begins to Squeeze Spain’s Financial Markets
Catalonia Chaos Begins to Squeeze Spain’s Financial Markets
Bank shares plunge. Money is already on the move.
Spain’s biggest political crisis of a generation, which has led to the complete breakdown of communication and understanding between its government in Madrid and the separatist region of Catalonia, is finally beginning to take its toll on the country’s financial markets.
Spain’s benchmark index, the Ibex 35, slumped nearly 3% following its worst day of trading since the Brexit vote last June. Spain’s 10-year risk premium — the differential between the yield on its 10-year bonds and the yield on Germany’s 10-year bonds — soared to 129 basis points. And that’s despite the fact that the ECB continues to buy Spanish debt hand over fist.
But it is the banks that have borne the brunt of the pain this week. On Monday, the first trading day after the independence referendum, they lost €4.84 billion in market value. Over the past five trading days, shares of the two biggest Catalan-based banks, Caixabank and Banco de Sabadell, have plunged respectively, 9% and 13%.
So tense is the situation that the CEOs of each bank felt compelled to release a statement today reassuring customers that they have all the means and tools necessary to protect their interests. Their contingency plans include the option of abandoning their base of operations in Catalonia and moving elsewhere — to Madrid in the case of Sabadell and Mallorca in the case of Caixabank.
But it wasn’t just Catalan banks that were caught up in today’s rout. Important Spanish banks with somewhat less exposure to Catalonia also saw their shares plunge. Santander, Spain’s only global systemically important bank, was down 3.8% on the day’s trading; BBVA, Spain’s second bank which has important operations in Catalonia after acquiring the failed saving bank Catalunya Caixa in 2015, fell 3.6%; and Bankia was also down 3.6%.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Will Brazil Be the Next Hotspot for Independence Movements?
Will Brazil Be the Next Hotspot for Independence Movements?
If you’ve read my work over the past several weeks, you’ve probably noticed an increased fascination with secession/independence movements around the world. I think we’re at the very early stages of this developing trend, which will see nation-states across the world fracture for a variety of reasons. The historical significance of the political changes we’re about to live through cannot be overstated. As I wrote in last month’s piece, The Future Will Be Decentralized:
To conclude, I recognize that I’m making a huge call here. I think the way human beings organize their affairs will experience the most significant paradigm level shift we’ve seen in the Western world since the end of the European feudal system hundreds of years ago. That’s how significant I think this shift will be. There are two key things that need to happen for this to occur. The first is technological innovation, and that’s already happening. The second is increased human consciousness. As Thoreau noted, in order for us to have greater self-determination we need to be ready for it. Are we ready? I think we’re getting there.
While extremely significant, the Catalan independence movement is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a global drive toward political decentralization. For example, just today I came across another potential secessionist hotspot in an unexpected place, Brazil.
Bloomberg reports:
Inspired by the separatist vote in Catalonia, secessionists in three wealthy southern Brazilian states are redoubling their efforts to break away from the crisis-battered nation.
Residents of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana states are being called to vote in an informal plebiscite on Oct. 7 on whether they want independence. Organizers are also urging residents of the three states to sign a legislative proposal for each of their regional assemblies that would call for a formal, binding referendum.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Catalan Independence: Why The Collective Hates It When People Walk Away
Catalan Independence: Why The Collective Hates It When People Walk Away
I have written many times in the past about the singular conflict at the core of most human crises and disasters, a conflict that sabotages human endeavor and retards critical thought. This conflict not only stems from social interaction, it also exists within the psyche of the average individual. It is an inherent contradiction of the human experience that at times can fuel great accomplishment, but usually leads to great tragedy. I am of course talking about the conflict between our inborn need for self determination versus our inborn desire to hand over responsibility to a community through group effort — sovereignty versus collectivism.
In my view, the source of the problem is that most people wrongly assume that “collectivism” is somehow the same as community. This is entirely false, and those who make this claim are poorly educated on what collectivism actually means. It is important to make a distinction here; the grouping of people is not necessarily or automatically collectivism unless that group seeks to subjugate the individuality of its participants. Collectivism cannot exist where individual freedom is valued. People can still group together voluntarily for mutual benefit and retain respect for the independence of members (i.e. community, rather than collectivism).
This distinction matters because there is a contingent of political and financial elites that would like us to believe that there is no middle ground between the pursuits of society and the liberties of individuals. That is to say, we are supposed to assume that all our productive energies and our safety and security belong to society. Either that, or we are extremely selfish and self serving “individualists” that are incapable of “seeing the bigger picture.” The mainstream discussion almost always revolves around these two extremes.
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Spanish Showdown: Catalonia To Declare Independence “In Days” Puidgemont Says Despite King’s Condemnation
Spanish Showdown: Catalonia To Declare Independence “In Days” Puidgemont Says Despite King’s Condemnation
As reported previously, in a sternly worded address to the nation, Spain’s King Felipe VI condemned organizers of Catalonia’s independence referendum for having put themselves “outside the law” and said the situation in Spain was “extremely serious”, calling for unity. In his address, King Felipe VI said Catalan leaders who organized the referendum showed their “disrespect to the powers of the state” adding that “they have broken the democratic principles of the rule of law.
“Today, the Catalan society is fractured,” the king said, warning that the poll could put at risk the economy of the wealthy autonomous north-eastern region and the whole of Spain. He said that Catalonia’s authorities, “have placed themselves outside the law and democracy, they have tried to break the unity of Spain and national sovereignty”. Offering firm backing to the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy, Felipe said it was the “responsibility of the legitimate powers of the state to ensure the constitutional order.”
Felipe also said the Catalan government had “systematically violated the law, demonstrating a disloyalty that is inadmissible” and “undermined the harmony and coexistence in Catalan society”
But he stressed that Spain “will overcome difficult times”.
The address came on the same day as Barcelona’s roadways were blockaded amid a general strike as hundreds of thousands in Catalonia have been protesting over Spanish police violence during Sunday’s vote, in which nearly 900 people were hurt.
However, despite the King’s warning and hinting that a showdown, potentially violent, is coming, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont told the BBC the region will declare independence in a matter of days. In his first interview since the referendum, Carles Puigdemont said his government would “act at the end of this week or the beginning of next”.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The future of the EU at stake in Catalonia
People react as they gather at Plaza Catalunya after voting ended for the banned independence referendum, in Barcelona, Spain October 1, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Susana Vera
The future of the EU at stake in Catalonia
A new paradigm has been coined right inside the lofty European Union: ‘In the name of democracy, refrain from voting, or else’
Fascist Franco may have been dead for more than four decades, but Spain is still encumbered with his dictatorial corpse. A new paradigm has been coined right inside the lofty European Union, self-described home/patronizing dispenser of human rights to lesser regions across the planet: “In the name of democracy, refrain from voting, or else.” Call it democracy nano-Franco style.
Nano-Franco is Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose heroic shock troops were redeployed from a serious nationwide terrorist alert to hammer with batons and fire rubber bullets not against jihadis but … voters. At least six schools became the terrain of what was correctly called The Battle of Barcelona.
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“Total Stoppage”: Barcelona Paralyzed By General Strike, Barricades As Protesters Take To The Streets
“Total Stoppage”: Barcelona Paralyzed By General Strike, Barricades As Protesters Take To The Streets
The Catalan rebellion escalated on Tuesday, resulting in a day of “total stoppage” for the Catalan capital, in which Barcelona metro stations were closed, pickets blocked main roads and civil servants walked out on Tuesday in response to a strike called by pro-independence groups as separatist activists took to the streets of Barcelona to press home their demands for independence after winning an referendum on Sunday which despite a violent crackdown by the Spanish government, saw nearly 90% of the vote cast for splitting away from Madrid.
According to Bloomberg, public transport and shops were closed as demonstrators gathered in the center of the Catalan capital to protest the police violence that marked Sunday’s vote and reinforce their demands for a split with Spain. Photographs showed traffic backed up behind protesters on one of the main highways connecting Catalonia with the rest of Spain. Roads are blocked in 48 places in the region, the Spanish traffic agency said.
Demonstrators in Barcelona, Oct. 3.
Regional traffic authorities in Catalonia told The Spain Report on Tuesday morning that more than 50 barricades or protests had blocked roads across the region, including major toll roads and motorways used for commercial traffic to and from France.
Normally busy metro stations in Barcelona were deserted as services were cut back sharply, pickets blocked traffic on Gran Via street and traffic on six major highways in the region was disrupted by protests, Reuters reported. Elsewhere, the response to the strike call was patchy with some shops, supermarkets and cafes open and some closed. The Boqueria market in Barcelona was almost empty. Pro-independence groups and trade unions in Catalonia called a general strike for Tuesday after Spanish police forcibly tried to close polling stations on Sunday after a referendum on Catalan independence from Spain was banned by the constitutional court.
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Spain Reveals EU Does Not Stand For Human Rights & Making Revolution Inevitable
The Spanish state police violence have turned against the people showing that they are clearly still a fascist reign supported by troops. Riot officers have been firing rubber bullets at crowds protesting in a Barcelona street, sending people running for cover. Countless are injured. This demonstrates that Spain is not a place for investment and one should be very cautious about even buying a house in Spain after this display of ruthless authoritarianism. The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy has demonstrated he is a fascist and this is EXACTLY the type of person that caused the American Revolution.
We should all take pause and read just the first two paragraphs of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. The King sent a whole army to his house to kill him for writing these words. He was warned the army was coming and told to flee into the hills which he did. I fully disagree with Donald Trump for supporting Rajoy. That has been a total disgrace and Trump needs to study history.
The suppression of the vote will now only turn even those who were on the side stand against the government. In war, you kill someone’s father. Their family will remember for generations. Spain has just confirmed that revolution and civil war will be inevitable. Canada allowed two referendum votes to separate for Quebec and Britain allowed Scotland to vote. It is a fundamental human right to overthrow any government when it becomes oppressive. Rajoy is a disgrace to the EU and Brussels is a disgrace for shutting down the vote of the people.
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Mariano Rajoy, You are a Disgrace to Spain and the World, Please Resign: Catalonia Has Spoken Loud and Clear
Mariano Rajoy, You are a Disgrace to Spain and the World, Please Resign: Catalonia Has Spoken Loud and Clear
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, the man who said there would not be a vote, now has to face the facts: 90% Voted for Independence.
Resultats del Referèndum de #1OCT
- 90% of the 2.26 million Catalans who voted on Sunday voted in favour of independence, according to preliminary results released by the region’s government. The region has 5.3 million voters. Officials said 770,000 votes were lost due to disruption which resulted in polling stations being raided by Spanish police.
- Carles Puigdemont, Catalan’s leader, announced in a televised statement that the region had earned the right to become an independent state and that results would be passed the region’s parliament in the coming days.
This video of Madrid thugs stomping on people attempting to vote is worth a replay
Catalonia says ‘Yes’ to independence from Spain with %90.09 of the vote. Around 80% of polling stations managed to stay open.
Dear PM Rajoy, Here are the Results
- Despite the hundreds of thousands of police goons you sent in to stop the vote, a vote did indeed take place.
- With 90% of the vote in, over 2,020,144 voted for independence.
- Only 176,565, were against.
- Your thugs seized another 770,000 ballots, the vast majority of which were undoubtedly in favor of independence.
- 5.3 million were eligible to vote, and over 50% tried, despite your thug actions.
Dear PM Rajoy, Please Resign
Dear Rajoy, your career is over. Please resign before you are booted out.
But before you go, please take a look at For All the World to See: Police Brutality Videos and Images in Catalonia, then apologize.
Bill Blain: “Catalan Separatists Made The Risk Of Spain’s Wealthiest Region Decoupling Into A High Probability Event”
Bill Blain: “Catalan Separatists Made The Risk Of Spain’s Wealthiest Region Decoupling Into A High Probability Event”
“Reputations changeable, Situations Tolerable. Baby you’re adoreable.”
It’s the start of Q4 and October, always the most volatile month of the year – and it’s started with shock and surprise. Just a few years ago it would have been inconceivable Spain’s vibrant democracy might stumble towards the verge of dismemberment. But this morning…Spain bonds under pressure.. Anyone who thinks populism is dead is profoundly wrong. If it can happen in Spain… it can happen elsewhere.
Big and small political surprises define market..
What did happen yesterday?
It’s about how the story is told.
Maybe the Catalans got lucky, or maybe they planned it this way, but whatever, they just pulled off a stunning success in terms of managing the narrative and setting the agenda. The world heard and saw exactly what they wanted us to see: the Spanish Government defining democracy by denying people the right to express their desires with violence, guns and tear gas.
In a single day the rebels made previous legitimate constitutional and political arguments irrelevant. It looks like they drove Madrid into and through this crisis – giving them no options or opportunities for dialog, forcing them to react and successfully painting Madrid to the world as the dictatorial baddies. Now, no one is even remotely interested that the economics conclusively demonstrate what a spectacularly bad idea an independent Catalunya will be. The rebels have reset the whole debate in their favour – polarising domestic and international opinion while seeding their revolution with a couple of million votes.
The referendum was always irrelevant – although we’ll hear plenty about its legitimacy in coming days. The only thing the rebels haven’t done yet is leave even a very small window open for the Spanish to start negotiations on.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Catalan Leader: “We Have Earned The Right To Form An Independent State”
Catalan Leader: “We Have Earned The Right To Form An Independent State”
Though the results of today’s referendum have yet to be announced, separatists in Catalonia are urging the government to declare independence from Spain, citing today’s violent crackdown as the reason. In a rousing speech following the close of voting, Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the Catalan government, said his citizens have earned the right to form an independent state and that the results of the referendum, to be announced shortly, will be sent to the local parliament for ratification.
Though the central government in Spain declared the refendum illegal, and sent federal Civil Guard and National Police forces to try and suppress the vote in a dramatic crackdown that sent shockwaves around the globe, police only managed to shut down a small sliver of polling stations, allowing many in the region of more than 7 million people which has a larger economy than Portugal, to cast ballots.
(1) A vosaltres, que heu ensenyat al món el civisme d’un poble pacífic, que heu resistit vexacions i repressió, us dono les gràcies #1Oct
In his public remarks, delivered shortly after a speech from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Puigdemont also said that “with this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic.” He also said that the EU could no longer “continue to look the other way” from human rights violations around the referendum, according to a translation in the Guardian.
“The Spanish government has today written a shameful page in its relationship with Catalonia,” adding that there had been abuses of human rights committed by Spanish police.
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ATHENS – To revive the ailing European project, the ugly conflict between Catalonia’s regional government and the Spanish state may be just what the doctor ordered. A constitutional crisis in a major European Union member state creates a golden opportunity to reconfigure the democratic governance of regional, national, and European institutions, thereby delivering a defensible, and thus sustainable, EU.
The EU’s official reaction to the police violence witnessed during Catalonia’s independence referendum amounts to dereliction of duty. To declare, as the President of the European Commission did, that this is an internal Spanish problem in which the EU has no say is hypocrisy on stilts.
Of course, hypocrisy has long been at the center of the EU’s behavior. Its officials had no compunction about meddling in a member state’s internal affairs – say, to demand the removal of elected politicians for refusing to implement cuts in the pensions of their poorest citizens or to sell off public assets at ridiculous prices (something I have personally experienced). But when the Hungarian and Polish governments explicitly renounce fundamental EU principles, non-interference suddenly became sacrosanct.
The Catalan question has deep historical roots, as does nationalism more broadly. But would it have erupted the way it recently did had Europe not mishandled the eurozone crisis since 2010, imposing quasi-permanent stagnation on Spain and the rest of the European periphery while setting the stage for xenophobia and moral panic when refugees began crossing Europe’s external borders? An example illustrates the connection.
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